TikTok in the 2024 US Presidential Race: Trending Campaign Strategy or Passing Trend?

The US presidential race has officially entered its “TikTok era”. Gone are the days of relying squarely on traditional campaign ads broadcast between news segments. Instead, with a third of American adults under 30 getting their news on the platform, top contenders have taken directly to their voters’ TikTok feeds to boost campaign visibility and take reputational jabs against opponents. Candidates and their teams churn out content that is often heavily coded in memes, pop culture references, and “netspeak”. Given TikTok’s reported 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, the app’s advent as an arena for political content in democracies was inevitable. Yet this spike in campaign activity stands in stark contrast to the growing recognition in Washington—including among presidential candidates themselves—that TikTok poses a national security threat due to its People’s Republic of China (PRC)-based ownership.

TikTok has already been banned on US government devices for data security reasons, and the American intelligence community has pointed to PRC attempts to influence elections through the platform. In April 2024, US President Joe Biden signed legislation that requires TikTok to divest from its parent company, ByteDance, by January 19, 2025, or face removal from the Google Play and Apple app stores—a de facto ban. TikTok and ByteDance filed suit in May to block the law, and the Department of Justice has since defended it by noting that “the serious national-security threat posed by TikTok is real.” An appeals court heard oral arguments on September 16, with the potential for an expedited ruling in December before the law takes effect. 

Neither the uncertainty over TikTok’s future in the United States nor concerns that the PRC could put a thumb on the scale of US political debates through its algorithm have stopped presidential candidates from heading to the platform. In fact, the backdrop of precariousness has coincided with an uptick in energized campaign activity on the app. Candidates have deployed unconventional toolkits comprising memes, influencers, trending sounds, and pop culture branding to amass millions of followers and gain credibility among GenZ voters. While reposting content and maintaining a long-term online presence, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done, may be an avenue for slow and steady growth, posts from Kamala Harris and Donald Trump that have driven a rapidly expanding following play directly into internet culture by capitalizing on the slang and humor of the youngest American voters. In 2024, the first—and maybe the only—chapter of presidential politics on TikTok, even the app’s critics may be the same faces that pop up the most on your feed.

Here is how the US presidential and vice presidential candidates are using TikTok:

Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris now has two TikTok accounts: her campaign inherited one from the Biden campaign (@kamalahq), and she launched another, personal account (@kamalaharris) on July 25.

Joe Biden/Kamala Harris Campaign

Joined TikTok: February 2024 (“bidenhq”) and July 2024 (account rebranded to “kamalahq”) 

Follower count: 427,000 (for Biden when he dropped out of the race, compared to about 38 million on X and 17 million on Instagram at that same time); 4.4 million as of September, almost two months after the account transferred to Harris (compared to 21 million on X and 18.4 million on Instagram)

Likes: 134.2 million

Style: brat-coded and meme-driven

Types of posts: The Harris campaign account has received significant attention online, in part by capitalizing on a shoutout on X from popstar Charli XCX, who declared that “kamala IS brat” (playing off themes of Charli’s newly released album, “brat”, which contains songs that promote being carefree, bold, and unapologetic). In general, Harris’ content relies on trending sounds and pop culture references. The Biden campaign’s posts similarly focused on viral sounds and memes, in large part to take reputational jabs at Trump.

Notable Examples:

• Harris’ second post featured a slideshow of side-by-side images of Trump and her set to the track of “Femininomenon” by breakout pop singer Chappell Roan. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8dur8Le/
• Harris’ posts are riddled with comments celebrating “Project Coconut”, a term that combines allusions to a viral sound bite of Harris referencing coconut trees in a speech with the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” plan.
• One of Biden’s most popular posts, which garnered 1.2 million views, featured a still image of Trump containing the text “Dance or don’t commit 34 felonies” overlayed with a video, likely generated by artificial intelligence (AI), of Trump performing a viral TikTok dance to the song “Bop” by Big Boogie and DJ Drama. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8duDCka/

Key themes: The campaign account frequently features clips of younger campaign staff taking jabs at Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, by stitching together videos and audio from their media appearances and interviews. The account also increasingly promotes Harris campaign videos and “fan edits” (stitched videos of Harris set to empowering music).

Kamala Harris (personal):

Joined TikTok: July 25, 2024

Follower count: 5.5 million (1.6 million within its first 16 hours)

Likes: 46.6 million

Style: empowered and music-driven

Types of posts: Harris’ personal account features professionally filmed content depicting the vice president making public appearances at political rallies, occasionally with celebrities, and debuting her running mate, Tim Walz. 

Notable Examples:

• Harris posted footage from a rally in Detroit, set to Beyoncé’s hit song, “Freedom”. The camera pans from Harris walking off the plane to a vast crowd of supporters. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8dufpmW/
• One of Harris’ most popular post to date, which has garnered 34.3 million views, features a clip from a political rally and is set to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”, in which Harris challenges Trump to a debate and declares “If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.” https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8dudKXo/

Key themes: Harris’ personal posts often feature content that uses scenic shots and empowering music to create impressions of power and momentum. While the account plays with TikTok-centric themes, including by using trending sounds and selfie-style celebrity endorsements (including from America Ferrera and Megan Thee Stallion), Harris’ personal account does not rely on memes that “kamalahq” does.

Position on TikTok’s future: In keeping with the position of the Biden administration, the Harris campaign has said to Axios that “We don’t want to ban TikTok. … We would just like to see a change in ownership.” Harris herself has cited “very important” benefits to the platform and national security concerns linked to its ownership.

Donald Trump

Like Harris, Trump has created two TikTok accounts: his personal account (@realdonaldtrump), and a campaign account (@teamtrump).

Donald Trump (personal)

Joined TikTok: early June 2024

Follower count: 11.2 million as of September (compared to 90.8 million on X and 26.6 million on Instagram)

Likes: 49.6 million

Style: dramatic, influencer-focused, and sloganized

Types of posts: Trump’s posts often feature shorter sound bites and slogans from speeches and public engagements overlayed with videos of his appearances and interaction with voters at events and campaign rallies. Trump’s posts have also heavily featured influencers Logan and Jake Paul, whose TikTok followings stand at 18.7 and 18 million, respectively.

Notable Examples: 

• One of Trump’s posts features a sound bite from a campaign rally in which he declares “Kamala, you’re fired”, a nod to a catchphrase he popularized during his time on the reality TV show “The Apprentice”. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8dudwhQ/
• In another post, Trump uses a slightly shorter, meme-driven format. The video features Trump facing off against influencer Jake Paul in a boxing stance, with the overlayed text “POV: 100 days left before President Trump delivers another knockout”.