Kamala Harris has yet to be confirmed as the official Democratic Party candidate for this year’s U.S. presidential election. However, all signs suggest this will indeed happen and people have been speculating about her potential running mate.
Many names have been thrown into the mix so far, and most of them make a lot of sense. These include Josh Shapiro, Roy Cooper, Mark Kelly, Andy Beshear, and J.B. Pritzker. However, another renowned name that’s been popping up in discussions recently is Pete Buttigieg, and on July 23, one TikTok user, Kyle Scheele, elevated his candidacy to the top with a single video.
To say Scheele’s argument is flawless would be an understatement. Judging by how attracted to memes young people are (I mean, who isn’t?), the TikTok author believes it would be perfect for Harris to pick Buttigieg due to the meme potential the duo would have. It’s right there, in the names. Haven’t seen it yet? Allow Scheele to explain.
People think Buttigieg would be the perfect running mate for Harris for one hilarious reason
“Who’s taking that slot? Well, a lot of suggestions, a lot of names being floated out there right now. We got Kelly, we got Pritzker, we got Shapiro, we got Newsoe. Here’s what I’m not hearing people talk about. You put Pete Buttigieg in that slot, and it is an instant viral moment, day one massive publicity,” the TikTok user said.
Many of you may have thought about how Buttigieg would be the first openly gay candidate for the Vice President slot. Combined with the fact that Harris is the first black woman to run for President, they would make a phenomenal, inclusive duo that would be a pain in the Republicans’…necks. But it’s not the reason why.
Scheele created a “Harris Buttigieg” ticket in the video. Then, in a true Photoshop magician fashion, with one click of his magic wand MacBook, he deleted “S” and ‘Igieg” from the ballot. This combined for a ticket that said “HarriButt.”
How big is HarriButt’s meme potential? Apparently, quite huge
“You cannot buy that kind of publicity. Plus, we know this. A statistically significant portion of the population will vote every time for the person who has the funnier name. I’m saying you capture that demo, you’ve got the White House baby,” Scheele said, before captioning the video “tell me I’m wrong here.”
Now, I don’t know who provides data for TikTok and social media content creators. What I do know, though, is that judging by my sophisticated but subjective “meme value,” HarriButt does sound pretty hilarious and would spread across social media instantly. Hell, just look at the responses to the original video. “I will 100 percent vote for HarriButt,” the top comment with over 37,000 likes says.
Obviously, other people got serious and started discussing who would be the best possible mate for Kamala Harris if she gets the Democratic Party nomination. While it’s a key discussion, we’d like to appreciate the joke for a while and leave it for another occasion.