Shortly after President Joe Biden announced he was no longer seeking re-election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination, a wave of high-profile endorsements arrived en masse. One of them came from a relatively unlikely source: the pop singer Charli xcx. On Sunday night, Charli took to X (formerly Twitter) to declare: “kamala IS brat.”
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To those unacquainted with Charli xcx and her recent album Brat, the statement may have sounded cryptic or bizarre. Case in point: on Monday, Rachel Maddow and Senator Amy Klobuchar earnestly discussed the possible meanings of the post on MSNBC, while on CNN, Jake Tapper quipped that he “will aspire to be brat.” People shared screen shots to social media of text messages in which they attempted to explain “brat” to their parents. But for many, especially the young and online, the post was significant; though the responses were mixed, it was clear that it had captured the zeitgeist. And it pointed to a noticeable shift in how many voters are approaching Harris, a politician whose approval rating has slumped over the course of her vice presidency.
Though Harris has been no stranger to a viral moment (see also: coconut trees), the Charli xcx post had an outsized resonance, the crest of a fevered wave of Harris memes that have cropped up in recent weeks amid calls for Biden to drop out of the race. Brat, Charli’s sixth studio album, whose club sound and lime green art have had a vice grip on pop culture since it was released in June, has become more than just the sum of its songs. The album has become a defining pop-culture statement of the summer of 2024, expanding into a meme format, a fashion trend, and for many, a life philosophy.
Brat as both album and concept have dominated the summer, with the album clocking in this week at over 500 million streams on Spotify and its signature chartreuse shade seemingly omnipresent. In the process, the artist has reclaimed a pejorative that’s historically been used to demean young people and, often, young women. Charli, an iconoclastic artist whose current mainstream success comes after nearly a decade as experimental indie pop’s audacious darling, describes her vision of a brat as a “girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes,” someone who has “a pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra.” Brat culture is empowerment with a side of hedonism, the party girl with an existential crisis, the urge to throw all caution to the wind in favor of having fun. One need look no further for brat inspiration than Charli’s music video for her song, “360,” for which she summoned an Avengers-level cadre of “It girls,” including Chloe Sevigny, Julia Fox, and model-musician Gabbriette.
While all of this may not seem like an obvious description of Harris—a prosecutor turned politician whose career and identity have neither demanded nor afforded her the privilege of “brat” behavior—there’s an element of truth to Charli’s claim that “kamala IS brat.”
Part of the allure of being a brat in the mold of Charli lies within its embrace of authenticity and defiance of expectations. For the contemporary brat, youth is nothing to be ashamed of and imperfections are proof positive of humanity. Though Harris is an establishment Democrat with relatively moderate politics, there’s no denying that in certain contexts, she embodies this 2024 definition of brat. As the first woman, Black person, and person of South Asian descent to be vice president, Harris’ career has been characterized by being decidedly different; at 59, she’s relatively youthful, especially in relation to 81-year-old Joe Biden and 78-year-old Donald Trump. In her role as vice president, Harris was often the target of harsh criticism, but in true brat fashion, she seemed less concerned with being palatable than with doing her job, despite facing criticism for her stances on border policy, abortion access, and health care, among other issues. And on a more superficial level, perhaps no other Democratic candidate hopeful could be more of a fit for brat summer than Harris, whose distinct, often verbose way of speaking, hearty and frequent laughter, and confident dance moves lend themselves well to the zany chaos of being a brat.
While the support of a pop star has long been a valuable tool in a politician’s arsenal, few presidential candidates have embraced an artist as edgy as Charli, whose musical persona was built on underground club and rave culture. She’s a stark contrast to the glitzy, decidedly not bratty mainstream appeal of Hillary Clinton’s pop star campaigners, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, figures who, at moments in their careers, have embodied a kind of girlboss feminism. Harris’ campaign’s alignment with Charli xcx is an unexpected but shrewd choice for a candidate who will need to win the youth vote. While Harris is of course not the same candidate as Biden, she does inherit much from his campaign, which had been struggling to reach young voters.
Ryan Long, a 22-year-old college student who made one of the most viral fan cam videos of Harris on X by editing clips of her dancing and speaking set to the sound of Charli xcx’s song “Von Dutch,” agrees with Charli xcx’s assertion that “kamala IS brat,” noting that Harris’ often humorous quotes have long endeared her to him.
“I think Kamala does a really good job embodying ‘brat summer,’” Long tells TIME, noting that he plans to vote for her if she secures the Democratic presidential nomination. “She just has so much energy and she’s always so excited to see people and to be there. She’s always laughing, making jokes, and she’s always dancing, always having a good time. She’s, as Charli likes to say, the ‘it girl.’”
For Jules Terpak, a video creator and digital and tech consultant, the popularity of the Harris brat edits come as no surprise.
“Kamala edits are popular because they incorporate humor, joy, dance, and a multimedia editing format that hits a lot of attention hacks,” says Terpak. “Kamala deviating from the joyless politician stereotype in a handful of viral clips she’s had over the years naturally stood out to people and now serves as a great canvas for editors to run with.”
Harris’ camp, for their part, have seemingly embraced this surge of fandom for Harris as brat. (Though given that Harris has previously named artists like Prince, Beyoncé, and A Tribe Called Quest as among her personal favorites and was recently filmed buying jazz records, it’s likely savvy campaign staffers who have led this charge, posting TikTok videos using Charli XCX and Chappell Roan songs.) The official X account for Harris’ campaign, @KamalaHQ, quickly updated their header art in the acidic style of Brat’s album art, cheekily nodding to the ubiquitous “coconut tree” meme in its bio. While a political campaign capitalizing on a viral moment may seem like a surefire way to kill the organic humor of a meme, induce cringe, or as some Charli xcx fans have worried online, bring an end to brat summer, Terpak says that this very online moment is no ordinary instance of going viral.
“It’s such a unique moment that incorporates various layers of cultural timing by chance, so it’s hard to write off despite the urge to deem it cringe,” Terpak says. “The more you see people dissecting it and the more it gets co-opted by mainstream outlets and companies, your instinct is to shy away from it, but there’s something wholesome about it that remains.” But she has some advice for how the Harris campaign can avoid fumbling this opportunity. “I think the Kamala HQ team has to play it cool, stay focused, and not lean into it too hard so the blame isn’t on them for it dying out.” There’s a lot more than music riding on what they do next.
Understanding the pop star’s embrace of the candidate, and her campaign’s adoption of the ‘brat’ aesthetic.