However, Brat Summer’s condition took a turn for the worse at the beginning of the week. On July 21, President Joseph Biden announced he would be ending his re-election campaign and nominated Vice President Kamala Harris to run in his stead. Harris, certainly more than Biden, seemed primed for a Brat Summer—she did spend June in Las Vegas, after all, albeit apologizing for Biden’s verbal miscues at the first Presidential debate. Charli XCX, perhaps sensing the twin swells of support for two powerful women, wrote the post that would, in three words, signal the end of Brat Summer: “kamala IS brat.”
In the hours following, Harris’ social media team leaned into her support, updating their social headers to BRAT’s green hue. Soon, people who were absolutely not having a Brat Summer—CNN reporter Jake Tapper, Minnesota governor Tim Walz—began to pile atop an already fragile meme. There were mixes made that interpolated Harris’ own speeches where lyrics about doing key bumps used to be. By the end of the day, Brat Summer had been pronounced dead.
