A Kamala Harris Impersonator Is Ready for Her Moment
Moments after President Biden announced on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race, Allison Reese’s phone began flickering with text messages.
“Excited for you!” one read.
“I hope this is going to be good for the country, but also for you,” went another.
A third: “You’re about to be so famous.”
Ms. Reese, 32, who lives in Los Angeles, is not a presidential hopeful or a political operative. She is a comedian known for her impression, since the 2019 Democratic presidential primary, of Vice President Kamala Harris. With Mr. Biden’s endorsement on Sunday, Ms. Harris became the leading contender for the Democratic nomination.
Ms. Reese puts on pearls and a distinct vocal affect for the satirical sketches she posts on TikTok, where she has more than 200,000 followers, as @alienreese. Her account gained another 10,000 of them on Sunday after she began riffing on the news.
“It’s been a weirdly crazy day,” said Ms. Reese, who is also a television writer and host of the podcast “The N’Kay Hour,” in an interview on Sunday night. “I can’t imagine what Kamala’s actual day was like.”