There was a time in Vice President Harris’ campaign when it seemed like she had blown the youth vote – a time when it seemed like everyone was talking about coconut trees.

And on Tuesday, during a speech to young community leaders, Harris made a not-so-subtle reference to young people’s initial enthusiasm for her presidential bid.

“I ask you to remember the context in which you exist,” Harris said with a smile. “Yeah, I did.”

This was a reference to a 2023 speech in which Harris talked about something, his mother they said.

“My mother… would sometimes give us a hard time and say, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you kids. Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?'” Harris said in that 2023 speech. “You exist in the context of everything you live in and everything that came before you.”

The line became a meme, and that meme became a digital rallying cry for Democrats hungry for a younger face after becoming sour about President Biden’s candidacy.

Harris has adopted the meme. But not enough young voters signed up to his campaign

The Harris campaign adopted internet hypevisibly change their style online and becoming more active on youth-dominated platforms like TikTok.

But the memes don’t voteand as the campaign progressed, Harris did not succeed of where she should be with young voters at the polls.

The election results highlighted a sobering disconnect for Democrats. Harris championed issues important to young voters like gun violence prevention, reproductive rights and climate – and won among voters under 30 nationwide – but President-elect Donald Trump has significantly reduced his margins.

While Biden won the youth vote by 24 points in 2020, Harris only won by 11 points and saw double-digit declines in several key states where she counted on support.

Trump has also courted young voters online and through interviews on podcasts popular with young men.

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin/

Here’s what Harris told her young supporters in her speech

Harris made no mention of her performance with young voters in her speech Tuesday. But she told her supporters they must keep working.

“Many people came to me to tell me that they felt tired, perhaps even resigned. People who told me that they didn’t know if they had the strength, let alone the desire to continue the fight, but let me be very clear: no one can escape.” Harris said. “We have to stay in the fight.”

For some of the young organizers who were part of that initial Internet frenzy around Harris’ candidacy, seeing her reference the meme in her speech Tuesday struck a chord.

“It is sadly poetic how imperative it will be to recognize the context in which we exist to determine where we need to go from here,” Democratic digital strategist Annie Wu Henry said in a statement.

“While the line was certainly memorable and funny, it also brought joy and excitement to so many people. And those feelings can and should still exist,” she said.

Emma Mont, vice president of the left-wing social media account Organizer memestold NPR that she was moved by Harris’ remarks.

“That’s the Kamala Harris I was excited for,” Mont said. “The version of her that is self-aware and funny and encouraging. I’m sorry we won’t get to see that person for four years.”

Copyright 2024 NPR