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I’ve always said we need a good-looking, young and witty presidential candidate to bring back the spark in American politics. While I thought this person would be Jack Schlossberg, it turns out it’s actually Kamala Harris, which is slightly disappointing but nevertheless exciting.

Harris’ presidential campaign is the shortest in modern history and was chaotically thrown together by campaign staff. In just a few days, they gathered delegate votes and support from Democrats in Congress. Despite this, Harris is currently leading or tied with Trump in national polls and performing much better than President Joe Biden was in key swing states.

Harris is not too different from Biden on key policy issues, especially the divisive Israel-Hamas war. So why is she polling so much better?

Kamala HQ

When it comes to spreading information in a way Generation Z understands, the Harris campaign is far outpacing Donald Trump’s.

Thanks to @KamalaHQ, the vice president is incredibly popular on TikTok because the campaign participates in viral trends, uses popular audio clips and even posts Roblox videos. Quick moments of Harris’ charisma are quickly spread on social media, while attacks against Trump are concise and use language Gen Z understands.

Even presidential debates — in which many people only watch the highlights — are easily distributable through short-form clips.

My personal favorite has to be the viral audio of Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance saying he’s a never-Trump guy.

Celebrity ‘Bratification’

Creator of the “Brat” album and trend, Charli XCX, publicly endorsed Harris, saying, “kamala IS brat” on X, formerly known as Twitter, amassing over 55 million views.

The implications of this Tweet were and continue to be monumental, as it not only signaled the singer’s support for the Harris campaign but also gave the presidential candidate an entirely new branding platform, building on the most recognizable likeness in popular culture currently.

Following the first debate against Trump, Taylor Swift also endorsed Harris in an Instagram post to her 284 million followers and signed it “Childless Cat Lady” in reference to controversial comments made by Vance.

Harris’ endorsement list goes on and on, including icons like the Obamas, Barbra Streisand, Billie Eilish and Shonda Rhimes. But because Swift and Charli XCX are largely shaping popular culture right now and making Harris a part of it, their endorsements are invaluable.

Giggler in chief

The biggest reason for Harris’ rise to fame is, of course, her personality.

At least in comparison to Trump, nobody can deny that Harris is hilarious and energetic. None of this virality or new momentum would be possible without her distinctive, fun personality.

This is an easy momentum to feed into because, again, these viral clips make her a part of popular culture. As a result of just one of these viral clips of Harris, her entire campaign can be identified by a single coconut tree emoji.

Now Trump is having the same problem Biden had before he dropped out, which is being the older candidate with less energy and enthusiasm.

Harris’ enthusiasm is something we haven’t seen at the presidential level since the Obama campaign, which Gen Z was too young to vote for, so Harris represents something fresh and exciting.

Not to mention, people quote her all the time in real life and interact with her platform in historically unseen ways due to the rise of TikTok.

These trends make her seem like an approachable, fun, slightly out-of-touch aunt we all love, and it’s very appealing to voters.

Ignorance is bliss

Because of all the reasons above, this last and possibly most important point is possible.

Since Biden dropped out of the election and Harris has become a rising figure, she really hasn’t been impeded by the problems plaguing the Biden administration.

The uncommitted movement, which calls on the sitting president to achieve a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, has become an increasingly large problem. The movement took off in states as primary ballots were cast and included over 100,000 uncommitted votes in Michigan, a key battleground state.

While the uncommitted movement declined to endorse Harris, she has pretty much gone through her campaign unscathed on the issue. It is unclear whether this is due to Harris’ recent popularity with Gen Z or the sudden swap in Democratic candidates.

And for being the Biden administration’s face of immigration, Harris sure has dodged a lot of heat in her handling of the border crisis since stepping into the race.

Social media is a new weapon campaigns need to take advantage of in order to compete, especially TikTok.

As long as Harris studies Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and learns from the past, she is in the perfect position to become the country’s first woman president, and she’s done it by achieving virality.

Reach Caden Proulx at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.