PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN TOLD SUPPORTERS IN PITTSBURGH THAT VOTING FOR KAMALA HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT WILL BE THE BEST DECISION ONE COULD MAKE. (PHOTO BY J.L. MARTELLO)
An interviewer asked conservative talk radio host Larry Elder what advice he would give Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump before he debated Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Elder warned Trump not to underestimate her.
Elder stated that Harris became San Francisco’s district attorney and served for eight years. In the California Attorney General election, Harris emerged victorious and secured reelection. She then ran for and won election to the United States Senate. “Every time she’s been on a ballot, she’s never lost.” Elder reminded the interviewer. Elder then noted that she ran in the Democratic presidential primary in 2020, but she dropped out early, so he doesn’t count that against her.
Elder’s points are valid, but he might be the only conservative that doesn’t brush her off based on her previous presidential run.
Harris came into the Democratic presidential primary with high expectations. In January 2019, 20,000 people attended her campaign’s launch. Her campaign centered on universal pre-k, debt-free college, tax cuts for working- and middle-class families, and Medicare for all, but her ideas were no different than the other candidates.
Harris struggled to stand out in an overcrowded primary field with her progressive policy platform, and a 2019 ACLU candidate questionnaire found she supported measures that alienated moderate Democrats. Harris backed taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained migrants, pledged to end immigrant detention, and promised to reduce the budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
During a primary debate, candidate Joe Biden boasted that he had previously worked as a public defender and scolded Harris for pursuing a career as a prosecutor. Biden subtly implied that Harris, a person of color, was working for the system against her own people. Many progressive groups opposed her, accusing her of contributing to mass incarceration in California.
Democratic voters who evaluate candidates based on personality and charisma said Harris was as uninspiring and dull as Hillary Clinton.
The Harris campaign generated one viral moment that did not amount to five minutes of fame, and Harris’ candidacy fizzled as she failed to attract supporters. Many Democratic voters had concerns about Harris’ “electability.” Harris’ poll numbers had fallen to single digits by November 2019, and she dropped out of the race the following month. According to NBC, “Her exit comes just weeks before the deadline to get off the ballot in California, a move that could spare her some embarrassment if she thought she would lose in her home state.”
Harris refused to acknowledge that she did not separate herself from the other Democratic candidates and blamed her inability to connect with Democratic primary voters on the notion that “America isn’t ready for a woman of color to be president of the United States.”
The only person who was sympathetic toward Harris’ racial grievance was Joe Biden. After Biden became the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Biden indicated that he would make history by selecting a woman as vice president. In 2020, a White Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, resulting in widespread riots. There was pressure on Biden to select a Black woman as his vice president. Harris ultimately became Biden’s running mate.
Harris’ vice presidency was a historic first for a woman of color; therefore, President Biden wanted her to be more visible and undertake more administrative tasks than her predecessors. Once again, Harris faced high expectations on the national stage, but she fell short since she did not appear to understand the complexities of international challenges confronting the United States.
By the 2022 midterm elections, Newsweek reported, “Kamala Harris’ popularity remains underwater … Once one of the Democratic Party’s biggest stars, Harris is now less popular than the president she serves.” A Leger poll revealed that 57 percent of respondents disapproved of Harris’ performance as vice president.
Following the 2024 Democratic presidential primary and caucuses, in which incumbent Joe Biden secured all of the delegates required to run for re-election as the Democratic nominee for president, as well as a poor debate performance against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Biden withdrew from the presidential race due to declining health. The Democratic Party then chose Harris to replace Biden as its presidential nominee.
Since most Democrats expected Trump to defeat Biden, the Harris substitution sparked a lot of enthusiasm for the Democrats to win the White House, and Harris—the presidential candidate—was quickly neck and neck with Trump in the polls. Then Harris debated Trump for the first time on national television. Trump imploded as usual, and Harris never strayed from her carefully crafted but frivolous script.
The media praised Harris’ performance and declared her the debate’s winner.
The debate boosted Harris’ poll numbers, and her supporters believe she is on track to win. But Harris supporters shouldn’t be too excited about the poll numbers. In September 2016, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton led Trump in the polls by two points. Clinton led Trump by double digits in the polls following their third presidential debate in October, but she lost the election.
Clinton underestimated the degree to which Americans disliked her. The Harris campaign overestimates Americans’ hatred for Trump and fails to recognize that their candidate is no different from Clinton.
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