CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris, stepping out from President Joe Biden’s shadow, is now rallying a reenergized Democratic Party after she took the top spot on the Democratic presidential ticket a few weeks ago.

Her ascension to the top of the ticket came with a boost in polling for Democrats, showing Harris and former President Donald Trump neck-and-neck nationally where Biden had previously trailed Trump. Harris’ candidacy has renewed Democrats’ enthusiasm about the presidential race as the party looks to fend off the former president’s return to the White House.

A shift in energy has fueled an influx of fundraising dollars, with Harris raking in $500 million in the month since she took over the ticket, according to Reuters. Democrats say they have also seen a wave of self-reported interest in volunteering, where it was previously hard to recruit volunteers.

Riding the wave of enthusiasm, Democrats met last week at the Democratic National Convention for Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to accept the presidential and vice-presidential nominations.

The sudden switch at the top of the ticket came soon after Biden announced on June 27 that he would exit the race following a poor debate performance during which he stumbled over his words and seemed visibly confused.

The debate left Democrats dispirited, worried about Biden’s ability to fend off attacks on his age and his overall ability to defeat Trump. With Harris’ rise, Democrats are more optimistic about the upcoming election.

“I think that the entire Democratic Party was almost in a more depressed state over the election,” Charles Silver, a first-year University of Iowa student and Democratic voter, said of how he felt following Biden’s debate performance. “Democrats have come together so quickly after Biden dropped out, which I was never expecting to see because, in the past 12 years of politics, we haven’t seen any fully united parties.”

Shifting Energy

After Biden’s exit from the race, early polling showed a major bump in enthusiasm among Democrats regarding the election. A New York Times/Siena College poll released days after Biden dropped out found Harris was only one point behind Trump nationwide. Biden lagged behind Trump by six points in the same poll conducted just after the June 27 debate.

Harris has since continued to climb in polling as she tours swing states with her running mate Walz. As of Aug. 21, she holds a 1.5-point lead over Trump in an average of national polls by Real Clear Polling.

She also has bolstered enthusiasm within the Democratic Party. More than 85 percent of Democrats polled said they are excited about the Harris-Trump matchup compared to just 46 percent in June looking at a Biden-Trump rematch, according to recent Monmouth University polling.

UI political science professor Sara Mitchell said Harris’ rising tide of enthusiasm is because her candidacy reaches more of the party’s base. Harris has seen an increase in support over Biden across the board, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll of voters nationwide.

Harris saw an 11-point increase among young voters, a 4-point bump with Black voters, and a 15-point boost with Democratic-leaning independents.

“If you think about the Democratic Party as a large umbrella organization, her candidacy just reaches a larger group of people and appeals to a larger group of people within the party,” Mitchell said.

UI political science professor Timothy Hagle said the poll bump can be attributed to Harris’ energy compared to Biden, whose age critics used as a weakness. He said many Democrats saw Harris as a more effective messenger for the party than Biden following his debate performance.

“There’s enthusiasm — she’s younger, she’s more energetic,” Hagle said. “She’s not Biden anymore, so that problem seems to have gone away. ”

This enthusiasm was on display at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week. Views from the arena frequently featured Democrats dancing and cheering. Many of the delegates inside the room described it as “electric.”

State Rep. Adam Zabner, a Democrat from Iowa City and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, said you could “feel the excitement in the air.”

“I think folks understand the stakes of this election, but also the opportunity we have to make history with Kamala Harris,” Zabner said. “She would be the first Black female president and first president of South Asian descent if elected.”

Anna Banowsky, the Democratic nominee for Iowa House District 92, said the energy was infectious.

“When you watch that on television, it’s hard to understand how loud it gets in that kind of space,” Banowsky said. “So just being in a room and the whole room erupts in cheers and starts chanting — it really does have more of an effect.”

Young people are also excited about Harris’ candidacy, with 59 percent of younger voters polled in an August ABC News/Washington Post poll supporting Harris compared to just 48 percent who had supported Biden.

Seth Dickinson, the president of the University Democrats at Iowa, said while Harris, 59, and Walz, 60, aren’t the youngest candidates, their shift has still made a difference for young voters.

“I mean, they’re both about 60 years old, but I think that energy shift and that almost ideology shift into certain issues matter to younger voters,” Dickinson said. “I think that is what makes me really happy, seeing some of these issues being talked about in a more
serious light.”

Emma Degroote, a third-year UI student, said she likes that Harris is much younger than 81-year-old Biden because she’s more capable and is a better speaker.

A chronically online campaign

Harris has embraced an onslaught of internet memes that started in the immediate aftermath of her rise to the top of the Democratic ticket.

Online memes made remixes of Harris’ viral speech at a May 2023 swearing-in ceremony of commissioners for the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics. Harris stressed the importance of caring not only for young people but for all generations.

In her remarks, Harris shared what her mother Shyamala Gopalan had told her.

“My mother used to — she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’” Harris said with her iconic laugh — that of which has been ridiculed by Republican officials and right-leaning political commentators. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

Harris has also been declared “brat” by British pop star Charli XCX, whose new album “BRAT” has become an international hit. Charli XCX had tweeted “kamala IS brat,” which started the rise of the meme.

Harris and her campaign have embraced the wave of online excitement with her campaign team’s account “Kamala HQ” frequently going viral on TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Democratic National Convention also invited hundreds of content creators to cover it. Collectively, the group reached about 30 million people, according to The New Republic, a left-leaning magazine.

The strategy comes as the party aims to meet voters where they are through social media.

Roughly one-third of 18- to 29-year-olds use social media to get their news, according to a late 2023 survey by Pew Research Center.

Kylah Hedding, a UI journalism professor who specializes in public relations, said the campaign has to carefully tread leaning into the online memes, but not too much as to seem “cringe,” which can turn off young people, the meme’s target.

“What we have seen is really a reflection of the current media landscape that we’re in,” Hedding said. “It really does seem like the social media presence was almost immediate after she announced, and everyone was coalescing around her, and I think that the campaign has actually been really smart in sort of utilizing that momentum while also not being too cringy about it.”

When marketing the campaign online, Hedding said candidates have to relinquish some control while still driving their message.

“I think the campaign has been really good at being able to sort of try to jump in and drive the message where they can, but just also let the people online be themselves,” Hedding said.

Dickinson, with University Democrats at Iowa, said Harris’ online strategy has helped reach younger voters who did not feel represented or seen by previous administrations.

“I think in terms of engaging with those young voters, a lot of young voters have felt tuned out — turned off,” Dickinson said. “I think that relatability is really driving at least interest in young voters and getting them registered to vote.”

Persisting divides

However, Harris still carries much of the same baggage on the current administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. During Haris’ nomination acceptance speech, she called for the end of suffering in Gaza and an ultimate ceasefire.

Harris has also committed to meeting with the leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement, who have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with Democrats’ inaction to end the conflict. The movement received approximately 30 delegates.

However, some pro-Palestinian activist leaders are unsatisfied with this, saying they are waiting for an arms embargo. Every day of the Democratic National Convention protests, thousands of people called on Democrats to end arms sales to Israel by enacting an arms embargo.

Harris has also received criticism for her handling of the U.S. southern border, as well as the state of the economy that she inherited from her involvement as Biden’s vice president. While Harris’ own economic agenda independent of Biden’s policies is starting to form, voters are still looking for specificity.

Hagle, with the UI, said because a majority of pro-Palestinian activists are concentrated within the Democratic base, it could make a difference in swing states where individuals may not vote or choose to vote.

Delaney Waterman, a fourth-year UI student, said she doesn’t like how Biden has handled the conflict in Gaza and hasn’t heard much from Harris on what she would do differently.

“I do think that it is a huge issue that should be spoken about,” Waterman said. “I don’t think that we should necessarily be sending people over there, but I do think that we should be stopping our aid to Israel.”