Since her first failed campaign for president, Vice President Kamala Harris has a history of trying to identify with young people as a hip politician aware of what the kids are into these days.
Harris, 59, is officially in the ‘Baby Boomer’ generation, even though she’s trying to mask her age and fit in with younger generations, including Gen Zers born after 1997.
‘Sorry, she’s a boomer. Rules are rules, slackers,’ wrote Washingtonian journalist Andrew Beaujon in 2020. ‘Kamala Harris was born October 20, 1964. It’s the very tail end of the Baby Boomer generation.’
Harris was recently was mocked after she was repeatedly filmed with a smartphone on speaker mode, holding it up to her ear, despite the audio blaring from the device during calls with former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, and with the widow of Alexei Navalny.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on the phone with former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama
The vice president speaks with Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Alexey Navalny, while the phone is on speaker
It’s the kind of activity that screams ‘boomer,’ even as the vice president tries to emphasize her youthful persona as she runs her own campaign for president.
Last fall, Harris launched a tour of American colleges, in an effort to shift her brand away from the aging President Joe Biden and toward Generation Z.
‘I love Gen Z,’ she said repeatedly as she made her way across the country.
Kamala Harris arrives to ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’, TV show.
‘Let me just tell you, I love Gen Z. I don’t know, something about — I love Gen Z,’ she said with a laugh at an event in July.
‘So, okay, for the older adults, this is going to be a humbling thing I’m about to share with you. If someone is 18 years old today, they were born in 2005. Oh, yeah, check that out. Think about that for a minute.’
At another event, she urged adults to have patience with their Gen-Z kids.
‘I love Gen Z. I really do. I — you know, I know it’s complicated if you have a Gen Z member in your family. But they’re so spectacular,’ she said during another event.
Although she typically wears professional pantsuits a Vice President, Harris frequently talks about her love of Chuck Taylor tennis shoes and casual clothing when she’s not on the job on when she ran her first campaign.
‘I have a whole collection of Chuck Taylors: a black leather pair, a white pair, I have the kind that don’t lace, the kind that do lace, the kind I wear in the hot weather, the kind I wear in the cold weather, and the platform kind for when I’m wearing a pantsuit,’ she once 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-in early voting event,
As a presidential candidate, Harris frequently danced with young people, with marching bands, and even on her campaign stage as she expressed her love of music and dancing.
She famously was caught on camera breaking it down to the song Q-Tip’s ‘Vivrant Thing’ in September when she hosted a party celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop at the vice president’s residence.
But even Harris admitted that despite her love of watching shows with her husband Doug she struggles to stay awake sometime.
‘We will sit on the couch in front of the TV with the switcher, for like 45 minutes debating which Netflix show we start streaming, and we weigh the pros and the cons of each and by the time we’re done we are ready to go for bed,’ she said.
She also likes to brag about her language being ‘uncensored’ despite her office.
‘I am sure I’m the first Vice President to in front of the press to use the word ‘uterus,’ and then I didn’t stop there either, I said the f-word, I said fibroids,’ she said laughing. ‘I’m pretty sure, I mean we could do a fact check but I’m pretty sure no other Vice President has done that in public.’
Harris repeatedly used the actual f-word on stage, in an attempt to click with young people struggling to get ahead.
‘Sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open, and sometimes they won’t— and then you need to kick that f***ing door down,’ Harris said during a roundtable discussion with comedian Jimmy O. Yang in May.
Harris made headlines after she joked about smoking pot in college and also her about love of ‘Snoop Dogg’, ‘Tupac’ and ‘Cardi B,’ in college with the crew at the Breakfast Club radio show.
‘I did inhale. It was a long time ago,’ she said, endorsing the legalization of marijuana.
‘I think it gives a lot of people joy. We need more joy in the world,’ she argued.
Harris was ridiculed after she recorded an appearance with host Taraji P. Henson, where she made reference to popular rap songs for the July 2024 BET award show.
‘Yeah girl, I’m out here in these streets. And let me tell you, you’re right, Taraji. There is so much at stake in this moment. The majority of us believe in freedom and equality. But these extremists, as they say, they not like us,’ Harris said, referring to Kendrick Lamar song ‘Not Like Us.’
During the campaign trail, Harris frequently referred to her love of Marvel movies, and even compared her opponent Donald Trump to the Marvel villain Thanos.
When asked about which Marvel superhero she would like to be she hesitated but ultimately chose the character Shuri from the Black Panther.
Harris also once performed the Wakanda salute on television, announcing her run for ‘Senate’ of the fictional African nation as a joke with the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
As she runs for president again, Harris has toned down some of the Millennial-themed attempts to go viral.
But her campaign still appears eager to recruit the boomer generation as she tries to rally the Democratic party.
‘It’s happening!!’ wrote Harris’ husband’s ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff on social media, sharing details of a campaign event with ‘Seniors for Harris.’
‘Barb and Mike are excited to meet the Boomers!’ she concluded.
