SF candidates go selfie-crazy in hopes of basking in Kamala Harris’ glow

Candidates for office across San Francisco are hoping voters notice that, yes, they too think they just fell out of a coconut tree. They too exist in the context.

Selfies with Vice President Kamala Harris — and Harris campaign paraphernalia — are popping up on candidates’ social media accounts across San Francisco. Coconuts and palm tree emojis have sprouted in Instagram profiles. Everyone’s in on the action: candidates for state Assembly, district attorney, the Board of Supervisors, even the BART Board of Directors.

No office is too small, or too obscure, to be saved from the rush for candidates basking in brat summer.

“I’ve seen all kinds of crazy pictures, man,” said David Ho, a San Francisco–based political consultant. “It’s a novelty, right? There’s a certain sense of ‘wow, this is groundbreaking, transformative.’ I think this honeymoon is going to last a few weeks.”

Ho points to the unique opportunity offered to local politicians.

Not only is the nation’s leading Democrat enjoying a surge in polls across demographics, but she also launched her career in San Francisco. Harris raised her first campaign dollars from the wealthiest families in San Francisco. And many city politicians have known her since she was a young prosecutor rising through the ranks in San Francisco.

Fittingly, then, posed portraits with those same politicians and Harris are as abundant as coconut tree TikToks. They all share a singular vibe: asking voters to associate Harris and that local candidate in the hope of earning a vote.

The photos vary: one with Supervisor Catherine Stefani, a state Assembly hopeful, features Stefani and Harris standing in front of a stately, snowflake-adorned Christmas tree:

Supervisor Connie Chan, who is running for reelection, and who worked for Harris when she was San Francisco district attorney, snagged a photo in which Harris is giving her signature laugh.

Trevor Chandler, a supervisor hopeful, snagged the classic Harris selfie, with part of his face cut off from the oddly angled phone. Luis Zamora is a California Democratic delegate who is also a candidate for the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees. Late last month, he posted a screenshot of a Zoom call with Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi in which delegates voted to back Harris as the Democratic nominee.

And, as The Standard has covered before, even Mayor London Breed has gotten in on the action, repeatedly posting photos alongside the vice president.

Some are more creative than others. Edward Wright, a candidate for the BART Board of Directors, crafted his own BART buttons, but spelled in lowercase and emblazoned on a green background to resemble the “brat” memes Gen Z are sharing to celebrate Harris.

“I think everyone has felt what could perhaps most accurately be called a vibe shift in international politics,” Wright told The Standard. “And I think everything has become so nationalized now, we feel that on a local level too.”

Wright said he actually crafted the brat-style BART buttons before Harris rebranded her campaign with the signature green-and-black stylings of musical artist Charli XCX’s “brat” iconography.

But when Harris leaned into it, so did Wright. He’s given out hundreds of buttons. People who may not have learned about a candidate for a transit board have now learned Wright’s name.

“There was another surge of interest and enthusiasm. We had to make a lot more buttons,” Wright said.

An Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Wednesday shows two-thirds of Democrats are excited for Harris to be elected. And with so many San Francisco politicians enjoying personal relationships with Harris, it makes sense some would want to join in her zeitgeist.

For down-ballot races like Wright’s, where voters often know little about a candidate, it’s a shortcut to understand more about them by association, said veteran campaign consultant Jim Ross, who worked on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s successful 2003 mayoral election.

“It’s a signal to voters of where you come from, who you are and what your values are,” Ross said. “On that level, it’s pretty valuable, but it’s not something that’s going to make or break your campaign.”

And, he added, candidates who have personal experience with the vice president — like Chan, the supervisor, who worked with Harris — may be able to articulate to voters why their experience with the VP will help them in office.

“It’s a direct link,” Ross said.

The strategy comes with risks, however. When mayoral hopeful Mark Farrell posted a photo of himself in a backwards cap promoting the “White Dudes for Harris” group on social media, he was met with a deluge of negativity from his followers.

Some local candidates want to harness San Francisco’s brat fever to help Harris.

City Attorney David Chiu is a California Democratic delegate who will journey to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week. In the late 1990s, he worked with Harris in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. When she was elected to lead that office in 2003, she tapped him to reform its paper-based systems to rely on computer filing to better track cases.

Unsurprisingly, Chiu has also flooded his social media with pro-Harris posts. Chiu is hopeful local Democrats will harness California volunteers to make calls and donate money in swing states, where they can make the most impact.

“I think it’s not a secret that many delegates were very worried about what was going on and what the convention could entail. Now there’s an incredible sense of optimism and, yes, joy,” Chiu said. “But that being said, I’m sure for all of us, we’re thinking about the next 80-plus days and all the work that will need to be done to ensure that she actually gets to occupy the White House.”

Ho, the consultant, thinks the only local candidates likely to significantly benefit from a “Kamala bump” in the polls are Mayor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin: Breed because of Harris’ friendship with the mayor and the power of seeing two Black women endorsed by the San Francisco Democratic Party, and Peskin because Harris will turn out progressive voters.

Peskin also joined the photo fray: one shows Harris hugging him tightly at a Sunday night fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel. The other shows Harris and Peskin in their elementary school yearbook — they were classmates.

Peskin said he didn’t care about any potential political benefits from his association with Harris. He was just personally ecstatic seeing his elementary school friend poised to lead the White House.

“I’ve known her 55 years,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing the person you know for all your life may be the person who saves your country.”