How Kamala Harris got this far against Donald Trump

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

On March 12, the presidential contest was held in place. On that day, Donald Trump picked up his third presidential nomination and Joe Biden has secured the Democratic nomination. There was slightly more doubt about Biden’s performance than Trump’s, due to his party’s deep concerns about his old age and unpopularity. Nevertheless, he had put aside some of his own and his party’s concerns about his re-election, partly out of fear that if the vice president Kamala Harris If it were the nominee, it would be her incompetent of beating Trump. Indeed, it had been mentioned before Biden dumps Harris of the ticket to find a more attractive vice president.

Suffice to say, almost no one had Harris as the Democratic candidate on their bingo cards in early 2024. Yet she seamlessly took over the party when Biden withdrew from the race after a catastrophic debate against Trump on June 27. She then united the Democrats, made big gains in the polls against Trump, and now finds herself in an incredibly close race that could make her the first female president.

This sudden leap to the doorstep of the White House is a stark contrast to the slow and steady progress Harris made earlier in her career. Although Trump’s first successful run for office in 2016 was something of a lateral transfer of the heights of popular culture he had long led as a reality TV star and a fixture in New York high society, Harris was then just entering Washington . She had spent the past quarter century as a state and local prosecutor and had risen through the ranks of California law enforcement and politics. Within three years, this junior senator was running for president, and the following year she was elected vice president. During her years as a prosecutor, she was known as much for her interpersonal as her professional achievements, becoming a staple of California’s more rarefied circles despite her own humble background as the child of Jamaican and Indian immigrants. Harris’ views and interests fit her comfortably into the pragmatic-progressive wing of her state’s Democratic Party. But she showed some real strength in winning her first statewide race in the tea party year of 2010, narrowly defeating Los Angeles’ popular district attorney to become California’s attorney general. By then, she was known as an ally of President Barack Obama, whom she had supported during his candidacy in early 2008 when he was an underdog running against Hillary Clinton. Her 2020 presidential campaign was closely modeled on Obama’s historic efforts, following a period of senatorial tempering when she was a remarkably effective member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But looking for a “path” to the presidential nomination in a crowded field led Harris to take some notably left-wing positions that would later help Trump brand her as an extremist, including support for single-payer health care, total commitment to LGBTQ rights, and criminal justice reforms that extended to the decriminalization of illegal border crossings. When her candidacy failed (after a brief moment of rise in 2019, when she scored big points against early front-runner Joe Biden over his one-time opposition to busing), amid signs of disorganization and strategic errors, her reputation as an emerging political superstar boom. a hit. But her many assets were enough to make her a logical choice as Biden’s running mate in 2020, and she did a fine job as a vice presidential candidate, never challenging her boss but also not submerging her identity in his .

While she will be forever grateful to Biden for appointing her to the vice presidency when other options were fully available, the 46th president did her some favors once they were in power. Even as it became clear that the new administration’s handling of migrants and asylum claims was controversial and quickly unpopular, he placed Harris in the highly visible position of representing the new administration in Latin America, where she was sent on a hopeless journey to convince refugees of poverty and violence to stay home. No, she was not a “border czar,” but her commitment to the issue was indelible. She was also accused of being the public face of another governance initiative that was not unpopular, but doomed: a drive to national voting rights measure about a Republican filibuster in the Senate. She finally got the chance to do something distinctive and right in her wheelhouse when the Supreme Court overturned the case Roo v. Wading in 2022. Biden’s reluctance to talk plainly about abortion, the wave of state bans and restrictions that called for it, quickly led to Harris becoming the administration’s — and to a significant extent the Democratic Party’s — chief advocate for the restoration of reproductive rights.

But even as her public profile improved (along with her job appreciation), Harris still had to weather the seas of Democratic displeasure over Biden’s age, unpopularity and signs of unfitness as president for four years without a trace of disloyalty. When the crisis of his candidacy broke out after him disastrous performance during the June debate with Trump, Harris was ready. As continued pressure from Capitol Hill and across the country confronted Biden over his declining support, she was even more steadfast in her support for her boss. And when Biden finally came to terms with the need for his self-determination as a Democratic nominee, the moment came and went when the president and the party could have seriously entertained the idea of ​​choosing someone other than Harris as his successor through a “blitz primary” or some other ploy to restart the nomination process all over again right before or even during the Democratic Convention in August. Biden, determined to keep control of the nomination even as he abandoned it, never wavered taking advantage of his withdrawal to strongly support his vice president as his replacement, and after only a few days of uncertainty the party, including every possible alternative to Harris, joined.

It was this near-miraculous switch that left Republicans angry and confused called a ‘coup’ that, in turn, created the sense of relief and excitement that turned the DNC into a lovefest and gave Harris the kind of almost instantaneous lead over Trump (in fundraising, enthusiasm and the polls) that Biden could never achieve.

Harris’ battle against Trump has been a tempestuous battle that has steadily intensified as the former president has targeted her as a progressive (or as he calls her, a “Marxist”) extremist on one level and an extremist on a much lower, personal level. a diversity queen with a “low IQ” who is as unfit as Biden to serve and share responsibility for his alleged policy mistakes. Her own campaign has combined old-fashioned mobilization of the Democratic base with a clear focus on converting anti-Trump Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, while continuing her demands for the restoration of abortion rights and slowly but surely building an economic and immigration platform that is slightly different. enough of Biden to give her credibility as a “change candidate.” As the race entered its final stages, Harris stepped up media appearances and began emphasizing her own version of the threat to Trump’s democracy, focusing on his dangerous unpredictability and hinting at an age-based disability reminiscent of what Republicans said about Biden. While anything could happen on November 5, Harris is almost certainly doing better than any Democrat could have expected in the doldrums of June.

If Harris loses, some of the key strategic decisions she made during her short candidacy will be called into question. The first will be her choice of Tim Walz as her running mate. He was a meaningful partner with no real enemies in the Democratic Party and some personal characteristics, such as his long military service and rural roots. His selection resembled the calculation Biden appears to have made four years earlier when he chose her. But many Democrats favored the Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro for its specific popularity in its crucial state and, more generally, its perceived superiority as a signal that Democrats were eschewing the outright progressivism that Republicans called extremism (or even “Marxism” or “communism”).

Other hard doubts could arise if Harris doesn’t do enough to reject some of the policy positions she took in 2020 and/or doesn’t do enough to establish a tangible and popular White House agenda that will replace the old bad replaces things. She can be criticized for not doing enough media interviews until late in the campaign, missing the opportunity to define herself before Trump’s vile ads demagoguering about transgender people could define her as a bit left of tofu. And most importantly, if she loses, hapless Democrats will wonder whether Harris should have done so more done to distance itself from Bidenwhose job approval review never really recovered from the low point caused by his debate performance, despite improved economic conditions and significantly fewer border crossings. It is unclear what kind of future a defeated Harris would have.

However, if she wins, she will long enjoy the gratitude of Democrats and Never Trump Republicans. Yes, Biden beat Trump in 2020, but he significantly underperformed his polls, and his real miracle performance was winning the nomination after terrible performances in Iowa and New Hampshire. Harris would have won a crucial general election against the fearsome 45th president, which the 46th president was almost certainly on the verge of losing. All the rising Democratic stars who waited for Old Uncle Joe to hang at the start of this cycle would be deeply overshadowed by Harris (who just turned 60, a relatively young age for a presidential candidate these days, while being much younger than her own 60-year-old running mate).

Certainly, a President Harris would have her own problems. Even if she wins decisively, an extremely unhappy Senate landscape for Democrats means that the Republican Party will very likely flip control of that chamber and deny her automatic confirmation of executive and judiciary appointments, along with the trifecta that drives the legislative process for would smear her. At best, she will preside over a divided government. And if she has to work overtime to complete her takedown victory a new attempt by Trump to undo itshe will take office because of the vengeful cries of an opposition party more bitter than any in living memory. Any joy her followers experience will likely disappear soon after her inauguration.

But without a doubt, President Harris would have come a very long way through an unlikely path that she followed with great skill and composure. Her formidable self-assurance will certainly be earned as we ‘win when we fight’.