Finally, there is a real contest in the US elections. President Joe Biden has bid adieu and Kamala Harris is a hundred days away — give or take — from making history.
For weeks, a miasma of despair had settled over the Democrats. But now, suddenly, all bets — and gloves — are off.
The Donald Trump campaign machine has pivoted, tying Harris to a largely fictitious, but seemingly effective, narrative about Biden’s failures. A digital storm of misogyny, racism, xenophobia and videos of Harris laughing is brewing. The Harris team must now catch up and get ahead and win over voters from a handful of swing states — the ones that eventually determine the outcome of American elections — without losing the enthusiasts.
Harris must consider seven steps.
Don’t repeat Hillary Clinton’s mistakes. Comparisons to Clinton are only natural. So far, Harris has played it smart. For one, she committed to “earn and win” the nomination. Clinton’s campaign had assumed her inevitability, ensuring both complacency and resistance. Secondly, Harris’s first campaign stop was at the all-important swing state of Wisconsin — one that Clinton never visited. She must watch everything that comes out of her mouth and debunk deepfakes that might appear to say things she never said; the “basket of deplorables” comment stuck with Clinton.
Don’t repeat your own mistakes. Harris, the candidate in 2020, had failed to articulate a coherent message. A former hard-charging prosecutor, she was attempting to win over the progressive wing of a party sceptical of hard-charging prosecutors. Her positioning came out as jumbled and inauthentic. Now, she has choices to make, and her message risks being jumbled yet again. The options: Ride Biden’s coattails and promise continuity; emphasise her prosecutorial past and hound Trump, the convicted felon; play the gender-plus-race card. The loudest applause Harris has been getting is when she talks about how she’ll be tough on Trump. This could be a trap, as locking out — or even locking up — Trump could become the entirety of her message.
None of these will help with the all-important swing-state voters, except the Trump haters. To win them, Harris will need to speak about what she will do to improve their day-to-day circumstances — take a page out of Biden’s pledge in his goodbye speech to “lower costs for hard-working families”. While she makes talking points of the other issues, if she doesn’t make the last one a headline, she will lose the swing voters.
Reinforce a burning issue while dancing around others. Just as Trump picked on immigration as America’s central crisis, Harris needs one that she can own. The overturning of Roe vs Wade by the US Supreme Court and the cloud of a nationwide abortion ban is a powerful mobilising force. According to Pew Research, two-thirds of centrist Republicans want abortion to be legal, while Democrats overwhelmingly support it. A majority of men, women, White, Black, Hispanic and Asians want abortion to remain legal.
Other issues are more contentious. Harris will need to take her now-viral dancing skills to manoeuvre around them. Consider: The Israel-Gaza crisis, ending the war in Ukraine, keeping Big Tech in check. One wrong move could alienate key constituencies. Like numerous women before her, she will be unfairly scrutinised for every misstep. Dancing requires practice and discipline.
Define yourself before others define you. Most voters, even Democrats, don’t really know Harris. As Vice President, she’s been in the background. What people know about her is a narrative that has been shaped mostly by her detractors, whether they are videos of her laughing or repeating trite comments – “I love Venn diagrams”. The result is that in the past she’s been unfairly branded as a lightweight.
Ironically, there’s a brand new cool Kamala Harris. Her memefication in lime-green colour, coconut emojis and “brat” status have made her pop: It reminds everyone that she is the alternative to Trump, the oldest presidential nominee in American history. But cool Harris must also ask: How will this play in the swing states? Do coconut emojis risk adding layers of alienness on top of her identity as a woman of colour? Harris needs to take control of her story without losing her cool.
Get organised. Harris’s organisational record is less than exemplary. Past teams have been marked by low morale and high staff turnover. Now, she inherits members from the Biden campaign team, who may not all be “Kamala’s people”. Harris will need deputies she can trust and who are trusted by the team.
Most significantly, Harris will be picking a vice president. Sadly, apart from all the usual considerations that go into a VP pick, she will need to consider questions about “balancing” gender and race as well as appeal to swing-state voters — and each candidate comes with tradeoffs.
Attack the attacks. Immigration policy will, without question, be the cross to which Trump’s Republicans will attempt to nail Harris. She was given the task of understanding the root causes of migration from Central America’s Northern Triangle. Harris needs to seize the narrative: She was never the “border czar”; there have been major improvements on immigration; an immigration bill was stymied by Trump; her time as attorney general in California has given her experience in dealing with international crime syndicates and facilitating legal immigration routes. She should proactively articulate a comprehensive immigration reform plan, including legal pathways, asylum processes, and border management.
Return to the beginning. Harris must get to the debate stage soon. No doubt she can demonstrate her skills as a prosecutor who lays bare Trump’s falsehoods and shows the difference between the opponents. But it will also remind voters of the difference between her and Biden and his debate performance — which is what set Harris on the highway to history.
For a politician who had sparked such little enthusiasm in the past, Kamala Harris is an overnight sensation. Unimaginable sums of money are rolling in. Democrats have coalesced. Harris has gone from underrated maami to internet meme in just hours.
But there’s much work to be done.
The writer is dean of Global Business at The Fletcher School at Tufts University
