Vice President Kamala Harris has jump-started moribund Democratic fortunes, even as Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance has been a drag on GOP hopes. But another newbie will soon enter the fray, when the veep fills out her ticket.
The rise of Harris to the top of the Democratic ticket reshaped the presidential race as dramatically as a big trade by a contending team to obtain a heavy hitter at the Major League Baseball trade deadline.
President Biden was barely afloat in the battleground states. But the Democratic tide is rising with Harris at the helm. She has a double-digit lead in Michigan and is in a tight race with Trump in all of the other battleground states, according to new surveys for Bloomberg News.
There are two factors that account for this change in Democratic fortunes.
First, Harris came out of gate loaded for bear. Quickly, she went right after Donald Trump, raised tons of money and locked up her party’s nomination.
Secondly, she is a fresh face for the “double haters” who doubted both Biden’s and Trump’s fitness for office. Biden’s departure from the race leaves only Trump to hate, if Harris plays her cards right.
A fresh ABC News national poll shows her with significantly more African-American support than Joe Biden enjoyed. Trump’s putrid performance at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention will only make matters worse for the failed former president.
Her aggressive first ad, “Fearless,” demonstrates the energy and the excitement she brings to the contest. The ABC News poll shows Democratic enthusiasm for Harris is now stronger than Republican excitement for Trump.
The new spot on television and social media extols her prosecutorial experience of more than 20 years. She brought murderers and abusers to justice as a district attorney. As the California attorney general she fought against big banks and won homeowners millions of dollars.
She has the right stuff to be the candidate who takes on the felonious former president and will be the president who will challenge the predatory corporations who are making big bucks and ripping off hard working families. This streak of prosecution and populism is the best way to reach men who live in the Electoral College combat zone.
While Harris rocked, the other new face in the race got off to a rocky start. The ABC News national poll indicates that there has been a sharp drop in Vance’s popularity since the GOP confab. The same survey shows an increase in Harris’ favorability and a decrease in Trump’s.
Trump’s new running mate violated the first rule of vice presidential politics which is to do no harm. He’s in over his head and his awkward introduction on the national stage concerns some Republicans and should worry the guy at the top of his ticket.
Vance and Trump are a good match. They are both wired to insult people. Vance criticized Democrats, including Harris, as childless cat ladies whom he described as sad, pathetic and lonely. Then he professed his love for his wife even though she isn’t white. Vance’s job is to activate the GOP base, not galvanize Democratic diehards.
Soon, we will have still another new face in the race when Harris chooses her running mate. Two top contenders for the No. 2 job, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, represent constituencies in closely contested states. Both men are popular in the Bloomberg key states survey. That’s more than you can say about Vance.
The change in Democratic command caught Republicans flat-footed but they will quickly recover and throw everything, including the kitchen seat and the bathroom toilet, at the new Democratic ticket.
Already, Trump has questioned Harris’ racial identity just as he cast doubt on President Barack Obama’s U.S. roots. The GOP has also got up a new ad that attacks the vice president’s immigration record, which is another dog whistle racial attack.
To keep her big mo rolling, Harris needs an upbeat message and vision for America that nails all the pieces of her platform together. Harris won’t go back and neither will Americans.
She should contrast her youth and desire to move forward to the American future of social harmony and economic fairness with Trump’s age and his desire to go back to the bad old days of racism, sexism and corruption.
The Democratic contender needs to strike while the iron is hot and she still basks in the glory of the Harris Honeymoon. We will know in three months whether the honeymoon turns into a blissful marriage with voters.
Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster, CEO of Bannon Communications Research and the host of the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.
