The ‘Kamalanomenon‘ has turned Harris’ word salads and cackling laughter from fodder for derision to endearing traits of authenticity. Black Twitter has offered a new slogan – MALA – Make America Laugh Again. It contains part of her name. A new Axios/Generation Lab poll of Gen Z and younger millennials done after Joe Biden withdrew from the race shows Harris with 60% support and Donald Trump at 40%.
She is closing in on Trump in the latest Wall Street Journal poll of registered voters, which shows the race is essentially tied. She gets 47% support and he 49%, but that’s within the margin of error. Biden trailed by six points in the last WSJ poll as candidate.
Trump is now the ‘old man’ in the sea who must battle a younger woman. The escape from an assassin’s bullets and the clenched fist worked better against Biden, an older, more feeble rival. Against Harris, not so much. She can punch back. Trump’s vice-presidential choice of J D Vance is already proving somewhat burdensome. Vance has talked of a national ban on abortion, discussed women in a pejorative way and generally had a bad landing.
Republicans didn’t fear Biden. But they do fear Harris. She is clicking the vast Democratic Party machine into motion. Energised local networks, support groups, the Obama coalition of Black, women and young voters coming together along with multiple streams of donors can outperform Republicans. In the end, it’s about the ground game to get the vote out. Question is: will the young actually turn up, or just meme away?
The latest WSJ poll has Harris with 47% support and Trump 49%, the latter now the ‘old man’ in the sea who must battle a younger woman
As the political weather changes, Republicans are racing to define Harris before she can define herself. She is an uber California liberal, a DEI hire (a beneficiary of ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies) and not deserving of her position. For Vance, who is married to an Indian American, Harris is ‘a childless cat lady’. Trump’s abusive language is in full flow – he called her ‘a radical left lunatic’, ‘Lying KaMaala Harris’. Deliberately mispronouncing her name to stress her non-Whiteness is a political tactic, not a disability.
Republican rhetoric will get harsher as they confront the reality of a race that is suddenly tight. The election is no longer in their pocket. Trump is painting dark pictures and apocalyptic tomorrows if the Dems win. The kinder, gentler phase after the ‘hand of god’ saved his life lasted all of 20 minutes before his ‘normal’ persona came roaring back at the Republican Convention.
As Harris crafts her message, she will run towards the centre on some issues. As Biden’s vice-president, she is the inheritor of his maladies – illegal immigration, inflation, high gas prices at home and two wars abroad, to say nothing of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. She will have to own some, disown some. On the positive side, she is still a largely unknown figure for voters and has the space to fashion her image. But time is short.
Current exuberance aside, it’s worth remembering that Harris’ presidential bid in 2020 collapsed miserably. Republicans will cite chapter and verse from her campaign and emphasise her thin political history. Her record as California’s attorney general has controversial baggage that will be opened. As vice-president, she alienated staff and many left in anger. For now, she is using Biden’s campaign operation for the most part.
On the plus side, Harris can cite the administration’s impressive legislative record – funding for infrastructure, hi-tech manufacturing, expanded background checks for guns and the Inflation Reduction Act. And go all out on abortion rights – Trump’s weakest point. That’s one issue she has forcefully championed, and it’s one on which she sounds eloquent, not forced.
Harris can bring in Republican women – the secret anti-Trump voters who soured on him after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. African-American men and women are already uniting behind the ‘sista’ in large numbers. But Harris also has to attract White men in swing states and solidify the Indian American vote once again for the Democrats. Yes, there’s been a 19% drop in Indian American support. But it hasn’t necessarily gone to Trump, according to a survey of Asian American attitudes.
Harris’ electoral fate will depend on a wide coalition. Kam she?
