In Harris' debate performance, Democrats see an advertising, social media 'gold mine'

Vice President Kamala Harris' debate with former President Donald Trump Tuesday marked the high-water mark of their election-year matchup. Now, Democrats want to see it on voters' television and phone screens until November.

The split-screen clash featured an expressive Harris, who flashed glances of confusion and incredulity along with moments of laughter during some of Trump's answers, which at times discussed policy, but at other points focused on conspiracy theories around the 2020 election results and migrants eating neighbors' pets.

Those expressions, Democrats told ABC News, offered fresh fodder for an advertising strategy the campaign has already deployed that leans on Harris' quirks and gestures and lets a cadre of young social media users flood the internet with clips and memes. And policy proposals highlighted at the debate are already ending up on the airwaves, indicating a dual-prong strategy to extend the debate's footprint in voters' minds long after its end.

"I think this was definitely a gold mine. I think we're going to be seeing this, a lot of different videos, the reactions, the pictures, I think we're not only going to see them for weeks to come, but I think a lot of these videos are going to exist for five, 10, 20 years," said Ryan Long, a pro-Harris content creator, who referenced the longevity on social media of past clips like Hillary Clinton's 2016 push to "Pokémon Go to the polls."

On Tuesday, Harris executed a playbook of baiting Trump, relentlessly attacking him on things such as crowd size and purported malleability to dictators, while also claiming that he's "having a very difficult time processing" being "fired by 81 million people."

She successfully got him off talking points on inflation and the border, instead sparking stemwinders that didn't pack as much of a punch. When he dubbed her father a "Marxist" professor, she put her hand on her chin in confusion. And when he brought up debunked theories of migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, she laughed.

Harris also offered an optimistic vision, touting that "we have so much more in common than what separates us," while also touting plans to help small businesses launch, Americans buy homes and families to have children.

Already, those dual features are hitting different kinds of screens.

The campaign and allied content creators are putting out videos from the debate, including one featuring a "Dance Moms" star over a background of the debate stage saying "I thought I was ready to be back. I thought I was stronger than this" as a caricature of Trump's performance.

And Harris' team put out its first post-debate ad, featuring Harris waxing eloquent about America's promise.

"What I do offer is a new generation of leadership for our country, one who brings a sense of optimism about what we can do. We all have so much more in common than what separates us, and we can chart a new way forward," Harris says in the digital ad, resurfacing quotes from her debate performance.

That could just be the beginning, Democrats said. The party is already eager to extend a honeymoon for Harris, and a boost in momentum from the debate would come just as her surge has begun to level off.

"Moments where she was very substantive about her plans to help people, you know, start a business, start a family, buy a house. I could see those being used in independent expenditure ads or campaign ads, just to get to the to the substance of things. And I could see some of the more outrageous, people eating dogs and the like, comments being repeated over and over again in memes on social media," said Democratic ad maker Martha McKenna.

Past ads from the campaign have focused on the economy and Harris' biography, while young social-media users blitzed the internet with memes about coconut trees and brat summer, all leaning on past footage of Harris laughing or acting spontaneously -- a playbook the debate could replicate.

"She made so many different expressions that she has given just fodder for the fire for just so many different types of memes. She had ones of her laughing, ones of her smiling, ones of her just looking completely puzzled," Long said. "I think what people like so much about it was she was making the facial expressions of what people were feeling."

The content coming out of the debate could play the role of past debate rules that the campaigns negotiated to put aside.

Tuesday, there was no audience in the debate hall, and candidates' microphones were muted when their opponent was speaking, leaving little room for contrast. Ads and social media clips could fill that void.

"I think it's important to get the reactions to show the contrast and to make sure that when we don't have the crowd in the room reacting to just get a sense of reaction," said Deja Foxx, a Democratic strategist and content creator.

Trump's campaign has also released social media videos from the debate, highlighting moments where he did discuss policy on things such as support for law enforcement, fracking and the Afghanistan withdrawal. And Republicans overall have panned Harris' performance, casting her expressions as over the top and supposedly over rehearsed.

But Joe Navarro, a former FBI agent and the author of "The Dictionary of Body Language: A Field Guide to Human Behavior," added that Harris' range of expression offered a chance at an introduction for a candidate who has less cemented voter perceptions of her than her opponent does -- an opportunity on which ads could seize.

"I think in her quiver of behaviors, she just has a very wide variety, which interestingly enough is what people find attractive in others," he said. "I think to the open-minded, to the person who's looking for someone who acts and conveys as a neighbor would or if we were at a dinner gathering where you see a full range, I think that has greater appeal than, for instance, someone who just appears angry all the time."

And it's precisely those open-minded voters who will be key in this race.

Surveys have shown a neck-and-neck race between Harris and Trump, but while most voters have solid opinions of the former president, 28% of likely voters in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll said they feel they "need to learn more about" the vice president, offering her more of a chance at introductions.

That's particularly true on social media, where platforms throttle political content, leaving Harris with a somewhat apolitical audience that hasn't been paying attention to the race to win over.

"These reactions, I think, have the potential to reach a broader audience outside of people who just had feeds full of politics. A lot of people, they open their phones and it's dancing videos," Long said. "But a lot of these reaction videos, a lot of these short videos of her calling him out are perfect for getting into feeds of people who don't always have politics in their feeds."

"A lot of these memes have the ability to reach through as non-political content," he added. "People take in the memes, absorb the reactions and it does lead to votes."