Since her first failed campaign for the presidency, Vice President Kamala Harris has been trying to identify with young people as a hip politician and realize what today’s youth are concerned with.
Harris, 59, is officially part of the “Baby Boomer” generation, although she tries to hide her age and fit in with younger generations, including Gen Z, who were born after 1997.
“Sorry, she’s a boomer. Rules are rules, slackers,” wrote Washingtonian journalist Andrew Beaujon in 2020. ‘Kamala Harris was born on October 20, 1964. She is the very last member of the baby boomer generation.’
Harris was recently ridiculed after she was repeatedly filmed holding a smartphone on speakerphone to her ear despite the loud sound coming from the device during conversations with former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, as well as the widow of Alexei Navalny.
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks by phone with former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama
The vice president speaks with Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexey Navalny, while the phone is on speakerphone
It’s the kind of activity that screams “boomer,” even as the vice president tries to emphasize her youthful personality while waging her own presidential campaign.
Last fall, Harris launched a tour of American college campuses in an effort to align her image with Gen Z and focus less on the aging President Joe Biden.
“I love Gen Z,” she said repeatedly as she traveled across the country.
Kamala Harris arrives at the TV show ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’.
“Let me tell you, I love Gen Z. I don’t know, there’s something about — I love Gen Z,” she said with a laugh at an event in July.
“So, okay, for the older ones, here’s something I’m going to tell you to humble you. If someone is 18 years old today, they were born in 2005. Oh yeah, look at that. Think about that for a second.”
At another event, she urged adults to be patient with their Gen Z children.
“I love Gen Z. I really do. I — you know, I know it’s complicated when you have a Gen Z member in your family. But they’re so spectacular,” she said at another event.
Though she normally wears a professional pantsuit, like a vice president, Harris often talks about her love of Chuck Taylor tennis shoes and casual attire when she’s not on the job, such as when she was running her first campaign.
“I have a whole collection of Chuck Taylors: a black leather pair, a white pair, I have the non-lace kind, the lace-up kind, the kind I wear when it’s warm, the kind I wear when it’s cold, and the platform kind for when I wear a pantsuit,” she once said. explained to the Cut.
Converse high-top sneakers of Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., are shown as she speaks at a drive-thru early voting event,
As a presidential candidate, Harris often danced with young people, with marching bands and even on the campaign stage, expressing her love of music and dance.
In September, she was caught on camera singing Q-Tip’s “Vivrant Thing” while hosting a party celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop at the vice president’s residence.
But even Harris admitted that despite her love of binge-watching TV with her husband Doug, she sometimes struggles to stay awake.
“We’ll sit on the couch in front of the TV with the switch on for 45 minutes and discuss which Netflix series we’re going to stream. We weigh the pros and cons of each show and by the time we’re done, we’re ready to go to bed,” she said.
She also likes to boast that her language is “uncensored,” despite her position.
“I’m sure I’m the first vice president to publicly use the word ‘uterus,’ and I didn’t stop there, I used the f-word, I said fibroids,” she said, laughing. “I’m sure, I mean, we can do a fact check, but I’m sure no other vice president has publicly used that.”
Harris repeatedly used the f-word on stage, in an attempt to connect with young people struggling to get ahead.
“Sometimes people will hold the door for you and leave it open, and sometimes they won’t. You’ve got to kick the f***ing door in,” Harris said during a roundtable discussion with comedian Jimmy O. Yang in May.
Harris made headlines after she joked about to smoke weed in college and also about her love for ‘Snoop Dogg’, ‘Tupac’ and ‘Cardi B’, in college with the crew at the radio show Breakfast Club.
“I have inhaled. It’s been a long time,” she said, while supporting the legalization of marijuana.
“I think it brings joy to a lot of people. We need more joy in the world,” she argued.
Harris was ridiculed after she performed alongside host Taraji P. Henson and referenced popular rap songs for the BET Awards ceremony in July 2024.
“Yeah girl, I’m out here in the streets. And let me tell you, you’re right, Taraji. There’s so much at stake right now. Most of us believe in freedom and equality. But these extremists, as they say, they don’t like us,” Harris said, referencing Kendrick Lamar’s song “Not Like Us.”
During her campaign, Harris frequently referenced her love of Marvel films, even comparing her opponent Donald Trump to Marvel villain Thanos.
When asked which Marvel superhero she would like to be, she hesitated, but ultimately chose the character Shuri from Black Panther.
Harris also once gave the Wakanda salute on television, jokingly announcing her candidacy for the fictional African country’s “Senate” on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Now that she’s running for president again, Harris has toned down her efforts to go viral with her millennial campaign.
But her campaign still appears to be trying to recruit the baby boomer generation in its efforts to mobilize the Democratic Party.
“It’s happening!!,” Kerstin Emhoff, the ex-wife of Harris’ husband, wrote on social media as she shared details of a campaign event with “Seniors for Harris.”
“Barb and Mike are excited to meet the Boomers!” she concluded.