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By Sophie Clark
Live News Reporter
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From Kamala Harris' teenage résumé to Donald Trump in an apron working a frier, McDonald's has become a noteworthy topic in the 2024 election campaign.
Founded 70 years ago in 1954 in California, McDonald's is now a global franchise of 36,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. Throughout its existence, McDonald's has had a hand everything from bringing the taste of America to the Soviet Union, to influencing the suburban housing nickname "McMansion."
The golden arches have become an iconic symbol of American enterprise and international soft power — one candidates on both sides of the political spectrum seem to be trying to align themselves with.
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Harris has been speaking about her connection to McDonalds since at least her presidential primary run in 2019, when she connected with striking Las Vegas McDonald's workers by saying: "I worked at McDonald's. I did the french fries and I did the ice cream...If we want to talk about these Golden Arches being a symbol for the best of America, well, the arches are falling short."
Since she became the presumptive Democratic nominee following Joe Biden dropping out of the race in July, Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff have shared anecdotes about working at the franchise when they were younger.
In her first official campaign ad as a presidential candidate, released in August, a voiceover said, "She grew up in a middle-class home. She was the daughter of a working mom. And she worked at McDonald's while she got her degree. Kamala Harris knows what it's like to be middle class."
As Harris' campaign gained momentum, Donald Trump and his allies quickly began casting doubt over Harris' claim, accusing her of lying.
McDonald's has not been able to confirm her employment, which Harris says was in the summer of 1983, although the New York Times quoted Wanda Kagan, a friend of Harris, who said she recalled Harris' mother mentioning that Kamala worked in McDonald's at the time.
Brian Hughes, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign, told Newsweek in an email: "Kamala Harris is the one who said she worked there. If Harris and her campaign can't prove that it tells you everything you need to know."
Newsweek has previously contacted the Harris campaign for comment.
Paul DiMaggio, a sociology professor at New York University, told Newsweek that Trump's continued accusations against Harris may have backfired, drawing more attention to her and her teenage work experience.
"Had he not chosen to do that, it would probably just be an uncontroversial line in Harris's stump speech and not get a whole lot of attention."
Instead, McDonald's briefly became the star of the Trump campaign, when on October 20 he made an appearance at a Pennsylvania McDonald's drive-thru wearing a uniform and manning a frier as a very high profile part of a campaign stop in the critical swing state.
Trump doubled down on his claims that Harris lied about her résumé, saying: "I'm going to McDonald's. I've really wanted to do this all my life, and now I'm going to do it. Because she didn't do it."
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Business analyst Nadja Atwal told Fox News that the two candidates have been providing "free advertising" for the franchise throughout the race due to the amount they have been talking about the company. But the likely goal for Harris to appear relatable to voters, according to DiMaggio.
"Politicians who grew up middle class and are running against opponents who grew up wealthy regularly refer to jobs they did when they were young as a way to signal that they are in touch with regular Americans, and to imply that their opponents are not," DiMaggio said.
Some research suggests that people care less about a potential president's social class than we might assume. A Pew Research poll from 2023 found that only 15 percent of respondents said it was "extremely" or "very" important that a candidate share their economic background, while 53 percent said it was "not too" or "not at all" important.
However, DiMaggio believes that Harris saying she worked at McDonald's, especially as a teenager, is a "resonant symbol" because it's such a common experience — according to the company, one in eight American workers have at some point been McDonald's employees.
As for McDonald's itself, the franchise is not taking sides.
Following Trump's appearance at the Pennsylvania branch, the company's CFO and national field president Joe Erlinger, said in a statement: "McDonald's does not endorse candidates for elected office, and that remains true in this race for president. We are not red or blue — we are golden."
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