Last updated on August 29th, 2024 at 07:01 am
As the final 100-day sprint to the US election gets underway, Vice President Kamala Harris has been thrust center stage in a campaign transformed by President Joe Biden’s unexpected exit and an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. And Harris’ candidacy has been seen to give the Democratic campaign new life, now that the election is looking like an uphill battle for the party, with a low chance of winning against the Republicans’ candidate.
After weeks of spiraling internal infighting and concerning doubts on Biden’s ability to be a consistent candidate, the Democratic Party has pulled behind Harris, who announced his campaign raised $200 million last week, most of it from first-time donors, since Biden’s endorsement of Harris a week ago. Interesting polling data from the Wall Street Journal says Harris has cut Biden’s previous 6-point deficit to Trump to just 2, driven by increased support from Black, Latino, and younger voters.
Caution Amid Optimism
Republican pollster David Lee, who conducted the Journal survey, among others, urged Democrats to caution. According to him, this is because Trump is in a stronger position compared to when he was facing the same situation in the 2020 election. While nationally it’s a dead heat, Trump’s advantage lies in the Electoral College system.
A Campaign Transformed
The Biden candidacy, only a month ago, was still struggling under questions about the 77-year-old man’s age and mental fitness. Alarm bells within his party rang louder than ever when Biden underperformed in a debate on June 27. By contrast, unified Republicans led by their convention, a week earlier, gave new hope to Trump’s campaign. That ranked as a surprise, considering that a failed assassination attempt on Trump, days before, had threatened to overshadow the gathering. Biden endorsed Harris shortly after he withdrew from the race.
Wooing the Battleground States
The outcome of the election on November 5 is almost certainly going to hinge on an estimated 100,000 independent, undecided voters in critical battleground states. Both campaigns are undoubtedly going to try to capture these voters in the next three months.
Harris’s Honeymoon
The road ahead for Harris is substantive. Now that Republicans are getting accustomed to her candidacy, their attacks are sure to mount on issues ranging from immigration to rising prices. Democratic strategist James Carville said the party needs to steel itself for a brutal fight and not be complacent. Even former President Barack Obama reminded everyone how Harris needs to gain voters’ trust.
Where Trump went was in framing his line of attack, which he did during a rally in Minnesota. He called Harris a “crazy liberal” and “radical left lunatic” among other outlandish attacks on her position on abortion while mocking her laugh. “We have a brand-new victim,” he told his supporters.
Kamala Harris’s selection to the presidential ticket is now expected to inject new vigor into the Democratic campaign, but serious challenges remain. With both parties gearing up for the final sprint in this race of the last hundred days, they will try to engage their estimates of the size of the vital swing voters in battleground states. The outcome of this contest is still largely unpredictable and will determine the future of American politics.
