KHive

Submission 5,828

Part of a series on Kamala Harris. [View Related Entries]

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About

KHive (sometimes stylized with the hashtag #KHive) is a group of online supporters for Vice President Kamala Harris. The group, primarily centralized on Twitter, developed an online presence during Harris' run in the 2020 United States Presidential Election and has continued to be active during her term as Vice President. The group has grown infamous on Twitter due to their overzealous support and defense of Harris, which some have compared to stan behavior.

History

The term "K-hive" was coined by MSNBC pundit Joy-Ann Reid^[1] on August 5th, 2017 (shown below), though some have claimed one Harris supporter, Bianca Delarosa, is the chief organizer of the group.^[6] The name is modeled after Beyoncé's online fandom name, "Beyhive." It is not officially affiliated with the Kamala Harris campaign.^[2]

KHive began seeing increased media coverage during Harris' run for president in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary. In 2019, Vox^[2] covered the rise of "KHive" and noted how members often posted threads pushing back against common criticisms of Harris, such as her record as a prosecutor or the perception that she backs policies after they become popular rather than introduce policies herself (example from @reeciecolbert^[3] shown below).

After Harris endorsed Joe Biden for president, the pair posted a video in which Biden asked Harris if the KHive will support him (shown below). At the time, it was theorized that KHive could be useful in helping Biden secure the presidency.^[4]

The group continued to be active on Twitter during Harris' time as vice president and maintained their support for Harris as a potential successor to Biden should he decide to not run for president in 2024 despite Harris' low approval rating.^[5]

Reputation

Though Vox described KHive's tweets as "mostly positive" in 2019, the group developed a reputation as zealously antagonistic online, particularly towards supporters of other candidates in the 2020 Democratic Primary like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, then to critics of Harris during her time as vice president.

In September 2020, the Huffington Post^[8] highlighted an instance where a 19-year-old gay former Harris supporter switched their support to another candidate, leading a KHive member to say to the man, "We don't need you fags anyway." Others piled on after the boy's mother attempted to defend him and allegedly urged her to kill herself. The article also highlighted other instances where Harris supporters said vile things to supporters of other political candidates. One paragraph read:

The harassment included slurs about people’s ethnicity, including calling Black people “house slaves” for backing other Democrats. One Elizabeth Warren supporter, who identifies as gay, said he was told that all “Warren gays should be chemically castrated,” after he was the target of a harassment campaign kicked off by a KHive member. A recent high school graduate who supported Bernie Sanders said a volunteer organizer for Harris’s presidential campaign tweeted that he “hoped I would be r*ped in a gas chamber by MAGA nazis” (the teen is Jewish). The Harris supporter deleted the tweet minutes after posting it, according to the teen.

In 2021, The Gray Zone^[6] published a piece slamming KHive as a network of bot and alt accounts, some of whom promoted violence against political opponents, smeared the Sanders campaign as racist and highlighted an instance where a prominent KHive member accused a POC Warren supporter of being a race traitor. The piece also noted how the media tended to spin KHive positively while painting Bernie Bros negatively.

In July 2022, Simpsons writer Broti Gupta joked after a Harris verbal gaffe, "Kamala Harris talks like she has a translator earpiece on and it has water damage," causing one alleged KHive member to attempt to tweet her employer to get her fired.^[7]

"You Did This"

In May 2022, shortly after the leaked opinion from the Supreme Court signaling the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Twitter user and KHive member @thesaladshooter posted a lengthy thread in which she claimed "you did this" to dozens of online leftists, politicians and celebrity personalities. The thread inspired memes on social media. After Know Your Meme covered the thread in a news article, @thesaladshooter included editor Adam Downer in the thread, incorrectly identifying him as a "freelancer" (shown below).

"KHive is the New N-word"

In July 2022, amidst the Broti Gupta controversy, multiple KHive members attempted to argue that "KHive" had become a slur akin to the "N-word," resulting in widespread mockery online^[9] (examples shown below).