Kamala Harris's Supporters Are Calling Themselves Coconut Pilled, but Why?

Following a written statement on July 21, 2024, Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 presidential election. Shortly after making that announcement, he endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, who now seems like the most likely person to be on the ballot facing Trump in the 2024 election.

Because politics is both insane and a frequent topic on the internet, some people who support Harris have said that they are "coconut pilled." Now, everyone who is not terminally online wants to understand what that expression means, and where it came from. Here's what we know.

Coconut pilled basically just means that you support Kamala Harris. The phrase became common as speculation that Biden might drop out of the race, and if you identified yourself as coconut pilled it meant that you believed Biden should step aside and that Harris should be his replacement.

That may explain what the phrase means, but it doesn't even begin to explain why coconut was the word people went to.

The reason that phrase was chosen has to do with a speech that Harris gave in May of 2023. In the speech, she said that her mother would always say: “I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.” The use of "coconut tree" was, evidently, something people latched onto.

As a result, Harris has become closely associated with coconuts, and she has also inspired a number of edits and fancams that take some of her more awkward or strange moments and turned them into something viral. Most of the people discussing coconuts are genuinely supportive of Harris, and the use of this meme has helped turn her into a candidate that many people are excited about.

This is not the first time the internet has turned something Harris said into a meme. After she and Joe Biden won the 2020 election, her calling him to say "We did it, Joe," became a viral meme in and of itself.

It's unclear whether these memes will be enough to get her into the White House, but they are certainly an indicator of some enthusiasm among at least some voters for her candidacy.

It wasn't the only sign of enthusiasm for her candidacy, though. In the hours after the announcement, she raised nearly $50 million for her campaign, a sign of immense grassroots support and willingness to go all out on her behalf.

If Harris is in fact the nominee, which seems the likeliest outcome, she will have a much shorter campaigning schedule than presidential candidates typically have, and will have to make the most of every moment she has. She's far from a shoo-in in this race, but many Democrats feel that she might have given them a fighting chance to win in November.