Here’s Why the ‘Coconut Tree’ Quickly Became a Symbol for Kamala Harris’ Presidential Campaign

What connection does Vice President Kamala Harris have with coconut trees? Since President Joe Biden made the historic decision to resign as the Democratic nominee, making space for Harris' presidential run, the tropical fruit-bearing plant has swiftly evolved into an unofficial symbol of support for her campaign, resulting in an increasing number of Google searches featuring coconut trees.

Rallying behind Harris, Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) uploaded three emojis to his social media account on platform X: “🥥 🌴 🇺🇸.” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) shared a picture of himself on social media that shows him climbing a coconut tree, along with the supportive message, "Madam Vice President, we are ready to help." The pro-choice political action committee (PAC) EMILY's List, along with a number of its backers, updated their profile images to include a coconut and palm tree.

The coconut connection comes from a speech Harris gave last year. During the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics' swearing-in event on May 10, 2023, the Vice President referenced her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, discussing a “coconut tree.” This comment quickly became a popular meme. 

She emphasized that “none of us just live in a silo” while talking about the significance of families, communities, and the environment in ensuring young people's success. “My mother used to — she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?'” the vice president recalled, chuckling. “‘You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.'”

Many X and TikTok users joked that the "coconut prophecy" had come true in the hours following Biden's withdrawal. Memes, according to some political strategists, are giving Harris a degree of natural social media influence among millennials that Biden has found difficult to establish. “She doesn’t take herself too seriously. She knows how to have fun, and she’s somebody that is willing to be a little bit less stuffy than a traditional presidential candidate would be, and I think that’s a good thing in this election cycle,” Marianna Pecora of the political advocacy group Voters of Tomorrow said to NBC News.

Because Harris likes displaying her seemingly real personality online, she frequently goes viral. “Some of these phrases we’ve seen, like the coconut one, when it first got into the ether, people were like, ‘What is this quote?’” said  Annie Wu Henry, a political expert who ran a viral TikTok campaign for Senator John Fetterman, D-Pa., in 2022. “But as people were reading it, they were like, ‘No, this actually is a really insightful thing to say.’ And people are having fun with that.”