Democrats have been elated with their new standard bearer, Kamala Harris since Joe Biden stepped down from the ticket.
Support for the Democratic ticket has swelled, with a massive influx of cash and volunteer labor and, more importantly, genuine optimism that the ticket is now built for victory.
But can the honeymoon, the “sugar high,” sustain itself?
The 2024 election has been recast. Fortunes have shifted. Vegas odds have been adjusted. Biden had been a zombie walking towards what some predicted would be a Mondale-esque defeat. Harris gives Democrats a fighting chance, and the voters are ecstatic.
The other shoe will drop. Soon. Even Harris acknowledged as much. “She is not blinded by the sugar,” one Harris aide told POLITICO. “She understands the gravity and excitement of the moment but also understands the work that needs to be done.”
Namely, Harris needs to use the critical three weeks before the Democratic National Convention to sustain her newfound momentum, expand her appeal further, and capture swing states.
Not long ago, Democrats were asking themselves whether Biden’s ticket was suffering from dead weight at the bottom of the ticket; whether Kamala Harris had the appeal or the ability to boost Biden’s reelection chances, or whether instead she was a glaring liability.
Some Democrats, even allies of the Vice President, proposed privately that Harris needed to be dropped from the ticket. When Biden announced that Harris would indeed be his running mate, many questioned the wisdom of his decision.
Obviously, the contrast between that Harris – the one that might be a political liability – and this Harris – the one that is enjoying cult-like status – is unprecedently stark.
Chances are strong that Harris will revert back towards the mean, as one tends to do. The new cultlike status is likely unsustainable, at least at its current fever pitch, because one, the status is more about the Biden-dropping-out circumstances than anything Harris has done, and two, Harris lacks the Obama-like charisma to sustain her own cult of personality.
Expect gravity to take hold before Harris achieves escape velocity – especially given that the entire GOP will now be pivoting their attention toward maligning the once deeply unpopular Vice President.
Republicans will do what they can to deride Harris and remind voters how unpopular she was just a few short weeks ago.
“Kamala Harris is just as incompetent as Joe Biden and even more liberal,” Trump campaign staffer Karoline Leavitt told POLITICO. “Not only does Kamala need to defend her support of Joe Biden’s failed agenda over the past four years, she also needs to answer for her own terrible weak-on-crime record in California. A vote for Kamala is a vote to continue inflation, open borders, high has prices, and war around the world.”
Then, of course, you have Donald Trump himself. Trump has a talent for sniffing out a political opponent’s weakness, rebranding them with a crippling nickname (Crooked Hillary Clinton. Lyin’ Ted Cruz. Low Energy Jeb Bush), and recasting them as an unserious choice – it may be Trump’s most significant political talent. Expect Trump to entirely shift his attention to Harris in the next few days.
Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
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