Vice President Kamala Harris is experiencing a meteoric uptick in online engagement following a frenzy of speculation on the fate of President Joe Biden’s candidacy after a widely criticized debate performance last week.
The “Veep”-reminiscent Harris, whose name floats near the top of hypothetical lists to replace her running mate, flew somewhat under the radar for the first three years of her term, popping up occasionally to break key ties in the Senate or rally for Biden administration legislation.
But Harris’s name is getting some more oomph behind it, with “Kamala” and “KHive” breaking into X’s trending topics, per NBC News. Also on X, “coconut tree,” and accompanying videos, emojis, or images of Harris are circulating.
“Coconut tree” refers to a meme stemming from a May 2023 speech in which Harris recalled words of wisdom from her mother: “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.”
Though the campaign — and Harris — have been vocal about Biden staying in the race, social media users and betting markets are leaning into the possibility of a Harris-led ticket.
Harris is the favorite, by a wide margin, to head the Democratic ticket amongst betters, per betting aggregation platform Oddschecker, which puts the Vice President at +137, ahead of President Biden’s +250 odds.
Several pundits, including Medhi Hasan, formerly of MSNBC, have thrown their weight behind Harris and proclaimed themselves “coconut-pilled.”
But the president has yet to drop out, with his inner circle citing the risks to the race if he were to exit.
While changing the ticket could be harmful to Democrats’ chances by itself, Harris has been plagued with notably low favorability ratings for much of her term, battling racist and misogynistic critics on the right and criticism of her track record as California Attorney General from the left.
A New York Times article, claiming that Biden told an unnamed “ally” that he was considering dropping out of the race, further pushed Harris’ name up on the trending charts before the White House denied the report.
“No one’s pushing me out,” Biden told advisors on a Wednesday call, per the Times. “I’m not leaving.”