Jul 27, 2024 09:22 PM IST
In seven days, Harris has shattered the popular caricature around her, infused energy into the Democratic campaign, unified the base and made 2024 an open election. But she has a long way to go
Here are the facts. Kamala Harris is the daughter of an Indian and Jamaican immigrant to the US. Her parents split early. She didn’t go to any Ivy League institution. Yet, she rose up from being a district attorney to attorney general (AG) in California. She became the first Indian-American, and only the second Black woman, to be elected to the US Senate. She became the first woman, and the first person of her biracial background, to become America’s vice-president. She is now the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. And she is just 59.
Here is the popular caricature about her, fuelled by the Republican machine. Kamala Harris is weak, her personality is awkward, her laugh is cringeworthy, she has no achievements, she is “dangerously liberal”, and she is product of only “identity politics”. Aided occasionally by Harris’s political missteps, public gaffes, a presidential campaign that collapsed before it took off, and the very nature of the vice presidency that leaves the incumbent looking unemployed, this caricature gained ground in the past four years.
Now, here is the new narrative on Harris, propelled by her supporters. She is strong, smart, skilled and persistent. No one with her background has ever made it so far in American politics. No one else has her kind of experience at the apex of the criminal justice system (as AG), of lawmaking (as senator), and executive (as VP). No one has straddled the different worlds that she belongs to — as an Indian-American, an Asian-American, an African-American, the wife of a Jewish-American, and a woman who hasn’t shied away from speaking up on women’s rights, including abortion rights.
The 2024 election is now as much about the facts of Harris’s life, the evolving Republican caricature of her, and the Democratic narrative around her, as it is about Donald Trump. And in the very first week of announcing her intent to compete for president, Harris’s story is winning.
Just trace what’s happened in the past month. The debate exposed Joe Biden’s age-related deficits. The assassination bid made Trump a hero and victim figure. The Republican National Convention showcased his complete dominance over the party. The morale among Democrats was low as they resigned themselves to a second, more radical Trump presidency. And then, last Sunday, Biden withdrew and offered one final gift to his party. By endorsing Harris, he prevented an ugly internal race.
Harris ran with that endorsement. She made 100 calls in 10 hours that Sunday, and won the endorsements of the key progressive, Black and centre-left legislators. Her potential rivals for presidential nomination rapidly endorsed her, as did other Democratic elders. By Monday night, she had raised $100 million, with a record $81 million haul over 24 hours. By Tuesday, Harris had secured the support of a majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention. She travelled to her campaign headquarters in Delaware where Biden told the team to embrace her, addressed a big public rally in Wisconsin, and went to Texas and Indiana. And on the one foreign policy issue that has divided up the Democratic base, she straddled a fine line. Harris refused to chair visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the Congress, and in the meeting with him, she made it clear she won’t stay silent on Palestinian suffering. But by meeting him, reiterating her support for Israel’s security and condemning protesters who waved Hamas flags, she made it clear that she won’t tolerate terror and excuses for it.
Harris’s candidacy has unified the Democratic base. For them, what’s at stake — preventing Trump from returning — has made gender and race perhaps less salient than it would be otherwise. Instead, Harris’s identity has been an asset so far. Among the different groups who have got on to separate calls just this week to commit their support are, in tens of thousands, Black women who see Harris as one of their own; Black men who see her as a sister on the cusp of making history; South Asian women, South Asian men, and Indian-Americans more broadly, all of whom take pride in her Indian heritage; White women, who laud her position on abortion; and the Democratic-leaning Asian-American, Hispanic and Black political action committees that fund candidates of marginalised backgrounds.
Harris has become a GenZ star. She has managed to energise Silicon Valley that was witnessing a growing exodus to Trump’s camp as well as Hollywood. And the momentum is getting reflected in the polls, with the New York Times/Siena poll showing Harris trailing Trump by just one percentage point. For context, Trump was leading Biden by six percentage points.
But while Harris has unified the base and made this a competitive election by throwing the carefully laid Republican plans that revolved around attacking Biden’s age into disarray, this is only the beginning of a 100-day sprint. This election will boil down to which of the two candidates succeeds in ensuring that their party base turns up, and winning over the vote in swing states. To do so, Harris has to overcome at least four challenges, some of which stem from misogyny and racism. One, most American voters may know Harris’s name but don’t know her, and she has just the next few weeks to introduce herself to the nation before the Republicans end up defining her. This will also mean capitalising on Biden’s record, while carefully distancing herself from his failures, including inflation.
Two, she has to carefully define her position on the border, for Republicans have cast as her the “border czar” who failed to stem illegal immigration. Dispelling this impression and proving her commitment to American sovereignty is particularly important for a Black woman who is the children of immigrants to appeal to the White working class and elderly voters, the only two groups where she has less support than Biden.
Three, the Republicans are framing this election as a battle between Trump, the strongman who stood up defiantly after being shot, versus a weak woman who the world will mock. How Harris projects her authentic self, promises to care, while showcasing strength (including by leaning into her past as a tough prosecutor as she is doing) will be key in the campaign.
Four, Harris’s stance on abortion is her biggest strength, and Trump is aware that abortion is the one issue that can cost him this election. That is why Republicans will seek to recast the gender debate away from abortion and towards sexuality, particularly trans rights, and portray Harris as “woke”. She will have to find a way to retain her commitment to both abortion and the rights of sexual minorities, without feeding into the Republican-manufactured paranoia that America’s children are under threat.
Trump vs Harris is the most honest expression of America’s political divide and the robustness of both its conservative and liberal political worlds, both almost equally strong. Both parties are not being apologetic about who they are. As the New York White real estate baron and the Black desi lawyer from California take on each other and fight for their vision of America, the world’s oldest democracy has regained its vitality.
The views expressed are personal
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