I grew up around campaigns, and remember how it used to be: a five-minute appearance on Meet the Press was the only media strategy you needed. Now, as the divide between real life and life online has begun to fade, a new era in politics has begun. Every political event has a dedicated window for content creation with influencers and selfies for attendees. Whether it’s with Governor Shaprio in Philly, or Governor Whitmer in the Midwest, I’ve seen how campaigns now operate in-house production companies, mostly staffed by digital natives just out of college.
Last week, I sat down with Rob Flaherty, the Harris campaign’s deputy campaign manager, and Lauren Kapp, the 25-year-old phenom running the @KamalaHQ TikTok account. Their insights matched and magnified lessons drawn from my own experience, and highlighted just how different this race is from all that have come before it. Below, some of their takeaways from running a groundbreaking campaign.
“Digital is a core part of our strategy” -Rob Flaherty
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“We’ve restructured pretty much everything,” says Flaherty. “The idea that you have a department that thinks about the internet, and then a bunch of departments who think about everything else, I think that’s kind of old, you know?… I mean, most of this election is being filtered through the prism of the internet in one way or another.”
“The vice president has a lot of trust in young people. Specifically, Gen-Z” -Lauren Kapp
Experience in political communications used to matter a lot, but the key words in that sentence are used to. “Usually, you work for years and years and years, and then people learn to trust your political intellect,” Flaherty says. “Now you don’t have to wait to become a gray-haired political consultant, to be able to have good judgment, have good ideas and be heard”
If you look around Harris HQ, you’ll see what he means. Nearly the entire digital team is under 30. None of them are gray. Some are just a year out of college. I’ve been in rooms where gray hair was a prerequisite for speaking about politics. Now, political veterans are asking us how to make “content for their social.”
“Project 2025—the thing people say they are most afraid of about Donald Trump—that started because of Tiktok.” -Rob Flaherty
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Policy is being driven by the digital conversation. Flaherty described how Project 2025 entered our lexicon: One of the most effective messaging tools for Democrats actually came out of a comment section on a TikTok video. The Harris campaign noticed the chatter and ran with it, turning what could have been an obscure policy proposal from a think tank most people have never heard of into one of the main talking points of the election cycle. So, when someone tells you posting online is a waste of time, ask them if they’ve heard of Project 2025.
“The goal is always to get to the trend early….One of my big takeaways is the importance of iterating on content that you know is going to perform well.” -Lauren Kapp
The Harris campaign is relentless because it has to be. Posting anywhere from six to 25 times a day, the team works full-time to stay on top of the internet’s break-neck pace. Trends drive engagement—but you have to embrace them early. “My goal is to always list and post the video under a TikTok audio before it hits around 150,000 videos,” says Kapp, “because at that point it’s kind of oversaturated.” Remember, Flaherty says, that the average voter watches eight hours of content per day.
