Harry Sisson’s phone would not stop buzzing Sunday.
Sisson, one of the most-followed and most-prolific content creators promoting President Joe Biden for a second term, was getting inundated with text messages from friends asking how they could help get Vice President Kamala Harris elected.
It was a stark change from what many on the left who are in the digital trenches had seen in recent months.
“I think a lot of people felt kind of down, you know, surrounding the Democratic Party and our prospect, and I think what I’m just seeing is this injection of energy right now,” Sisson, 21, said. “Everybody is hyped up. They’re excited. They want to be involved.”
Biden’s announcement Sunday that he would be ending his presidential campaign and endorsing Harris sent an immediate shockwave throughout the race, felt perhaps most immediately by the people who have been contending with an enthusiasm gap that was most apparent online, where fans of former President Donald Trump have appeared to have an advantage.
Left-leaning content creators said they were feeling re-energized about their party and its chances in November. The shift in tone among those involved with mobilizing Democratic voters was markedly different Sunday evening, according to those who spoke to NBC News, than the gloom that appeared to linger over the party since Biden’s lackluster debate performance in June.
“[I feel] hopeful, excited,” said Vitus Spehar, a left-leaning TikToker who runs the UnderTheDeskNews account. “Like my resilience is clicking in or something like. That’s what I feel, like, I feel locked in.”
That energy shift was palpable Sunday night. On platforms like TikTok, the mood felt celebratory with upbeat fan edits of Harris flooding “For You” pages. Major TikTok accounts like political commentator Hasan Piker noted the race had gone from “the most boring election cycle” to “the most interesting election cycle.” Others posted lip-syncs from the musical “Hamilton,” reimagining the play set to Harris becoming president.
ActBlue, the Democratic online donation processor, said donors gave $46.7 million in small-dollar donations by 9 p.m. ET. Biden’s social media accounts appeared to immediately embrace some of the newfound energy, particularly as Democrats rallied around Harris. On X, the main Biden account switched to Harris and used a green banner, echoing how fans of the pop star Charli XCX had appeared to rally around Harris in recent weeks.
There was also something of a grassroots effort to get Harris to appear on “Hot Ones,” the wildly popular internet show in which guests are interviewed while eating progressively spicier chicken wings. The effort seemed to poke at the idea that young people see Harris as more capable of connecting with them in nontraditional media avenues.
Hank Green, among the most veteran of YouTube creators, posted an offer to help the Harris campaign book interviews: “If any Harris folks are reading this, I could book you a truly kick-ass YouTuber tour.”
Some of Harris’ more memorable lines have already become running jokes online, including one referencing her May 2023 speech in which she said, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” Harris’ “coconut” line has been reimagined to the Chappell Roan song “Hot to Go!” and remixed to songs like Charli XCX’s “Von Dutch.” In the hours after Harris was endorsed by Biden, some on TikTok joked that the “coconut prophecy” had been fulfilled.
The “coconut-pilling,” as it’s been referred to online, continued Sunday. Some even began posting Harris fan-cam videos, which feature spliced-together footage of the vice president in a fawning way.
J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, acknowledged the coconut tree meme whileresponding to a reportthat he, too, could be “running for something.”
“You think I just fell out of a coconut tree?”Pritzker wrote on X.
Mobilizing young people around Harris is going to be “much easier than mobilizing for Biden,” said Aidan Kohn-Murphy, 20, the founder of Gen-Z for Change, a youth political advocacy group. “This is going to be an incredible effort by organizers. It’s going to take a lot of work, but I think it’s going to be much easier.”
The organization, which has 1.8 million followers on TikTok, put out a statement backing Harris on Sunday on its social media pages. A handful of other political influencers also shared their support for the vice president, who in recent weeks has seen a boost of popularity online thanks to her fans known as the “KHive.”
The swift support for Harris is a stark contrast to the online conversation surrounding Biden in recent months. While Biden and Trump have made efforts to court the online celebrities, hoping to attract Gen Z voters, there was a noticeable lack of support for Biden online. Some young people who are more left-leaning have been particularly vocal against Biden online, criticizing him for backing Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip and for some of his controversial climate policies.
A May poll from the University of Chicago’s GenForward found that just one-third of American adults under 40 said they would vote for Biden.
While Sisson said he thinks it’s sad that Biden was unable to move forward with his candidacy, his peers have an eagerness to begin campaigning for Harris in a way that they hadn’t expressed for Biden.
“I’m fired up and ready to help Vice President Harris get elected and beat Donald Trump,” Sisson said. “There’s no like, ‘Oh, I don’t know about her. I’m not sure.’ There’s no uncertainty, and the people I’ve spoken to in the circle, I’m in — it’s all full speed ahead. Let’s get this done.”
