‘That was a young gay’: Charli XCX thinks she knows who was behind Kamala Harris’ bratty presidential campaign rollout

Charli XCX has thoughts on who might have been behind the Kamala Harris campaign’s use of the pop star’s aesthetic for her latest album, Brat. 

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In case your algorithm hasn’t yet delivered these Brat-themed presidential campaign moments, let me offer a refresher. Back in July, when Harris became the Democratic Party nominee for president following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, Charli XCX shared an innocent enough post on X, that read, simply, “Kamala IS brat.”

This referenced the singer’s most recent album, which also dropped in June and became a cultural phenomenon. Capitalizing on Charli XCX’s endorsement, the Harris campaign promptly changed its X banner by adopting the style of the Brat album cover, complete with that now-iconic shade of green and blurry Arial font. 

The whirlwind of interaction between a British pop star and a hopeful president of the US was enough to get everyone from CNN to Fox News talking, but now, months later, she’s has reflected on the origins of Harris’ adoption of the Brat aesthetic in a new interview with Zane Lowe. “They picked it up and ran with it,” she said of the social media team behind the Harris campaign. “That was cool.”

The singer went on to reveal which member of the Harris social media team might’ve been behind the Brat-themed maneuver, saying “I think that was a young gay man on that campaign who said, ‘let’s go.’” Charli has a long association with the queer community and legions of gay fans, so it stands to reason that one of them might have found their way into the Kamala Harris camp. 

She concluded her thoughts on the whole Harris/Brat moment by declaring that she is “happy to be on the right side of history” in terms of supporting the Democratic nominee. She joins the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand in endorsing Harris, while her opponent, Donald Trump, has …. Kid Rock in his corner. 

Elsewhere in the interview, she said her decision to share the “Kamala Harris IS brat” post on X was impromptu and warranted little thought, but that she couldn’t have imagined it “taking on quite the life that it did.” It must be welcome news for Parker Butler, who was revealed to be one of the people involved in Harris’ social media campaign last week. 

Butler took to X to re-share the clip of Charli XCX mentioning how a “gay man” must’ve been behind the Brat-themed campaign efforts, confirming that she was right on the money while also sharing the spotlight with his Harris campaign colleague, Paulina Mangubat. 

The pair shared some juicy behind-the-scenes intel around how they conceived of the bratty campaign moments, saying the green-colored mockups came together in a matter of minutes and that they questioned whether adopting the brat aesthetic looked as if they were “trying too hard.” 

The move paid off, but Kamala HQ has since done away with the brat imagery on their X page, with the new banner now trolling Trump rather than encouraging a “brat summer.”

In any case, the whole moment would surely secure Charli XCX a footnote in the history books if Harris does become the Brat In Chief in January.