Vice President Kamala Harris sprang from the Democratic National Convention with a momentum that’s been building throughout her short campaign — but with just over two months until Election Day, a victory for Harris is still far from certain.
Her team is selling her condensed run as an underdog candidacy, and throughout the convention, a litany of speakers emphasized it would continue to be an uphill battle.
“The energy is good, but the energy has to be harnessed for good, because energy not harnessed doesn’t always turn out to be good energy in politics,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist based in South Carolina.
Here are five obstacles the Harris campaign will need to address as the race kicks off in earnest.
Tight polling in battleground states
Harris has gained a small lead in the polls in recent weeks, leaving her now ahead of former President Donald Trump nationally and in most swing states. But strategists are cautious about whether she’ll be able to maintain that trajectory.
One poll commissioned by the Democratic messaging firm Navigator Research and released last Tuesday, before Harris’ DNC speech, showed Harris and Trump essentially tied across the swing-state map. And the founder of Future Forward, the main pro-Harris super PAC, said early last week the group’s internal polling was “much less rosy than what you’re seeing in the public.”
That’s not to mention that polls consistently underprojected Trump’s performance in 2016 and 2020, prompting a handful of top Democratic polling firms to join forces after the last election to avoid making past mistakes.
“Nobody knows what to believe, except that Trump’s numbers are probably underrepresented,” said veteran Democratic strategist Doug Herman.
Harris still hasn’t sat for an interview
Despite pledging earlier this month to “schedule” an interview before the end of August, now days away, there are still no public plans for her first sit-down as the Democratic nominee. And the longer she waits, the more pressure builds for her to ace her first interview or news conference.
Trump — who has hosted several news conferences and live interviews with reporters in recent weeks — is slamming her for it, calling her “barely competent” at interviewing earlier this month.
A veteran Democratic strategist called sit-down TV interviews “one of her central challenges.” The vice president received pushback for her 2021 interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt, when she stumbled through responses about why she hadn’t visited the U.S.-Mexico border.
“[Harris] has always struggled with interviews and has an argumentative streak in those interviews. She vacillates between argumentative and word salad,” said the strategist, who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.
The debate debates
A presidential debate with Trump, a white man nearly 20 years her senior with a history of unsavory outbursts, is a prime opportunity for Harris to contrast herself with the former president and reintroduce herself to a national audience.
As of now, the two are set to debate on ABC News on Sept. 10. But on Sunday, Trump criticized the network for a “biased interview” on Truth Social, asking “why would I do the Debate” on ABC. Harris’ campaign mocked the apparent hesitation, adding chicken emojis and sounds to social media posts with Trump’s remarks.
The campaigns have also been struggling to find consensus over whether the candidates’ microphones should be muted while the other is speaking, POLITICO reported. While Harris’ campaign is betting that a hot mic would benefit her, Trump’s team had been pushing to stick to the rules it had agreed to with President Joe Biden’s campaign. But Trump told reporters Monday “it doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have it probably on,” referring to his microphone.
Where’s the policy?
Harris’ campaign so far has been light on specific policy, making it more difficult for her to maneuver around Republican attacks that she’s too progressive and a flip-flopper.
Her campaign website includes no policy language, and although she’s spoken about her economic and foreign policy agendas during campaign events and her DNC address, specifics have been scarce.
Herman emphasized that Harris has “had a million things to do that are far more important” than a detailed policy rollout after being thrust into an election with an unprecedented timeline. But, he added, “Kamala Harris needs to flesh out her policy positions as part of the campaign in order to have a broad mandate to govern if elected.”
It’s not yet clear how Harris plans to distance herself both from the parts of Biden’s presidency unlikely to win support from her base — such as the U.S. military’s disastrous exit from Afghanistan in 2021 — and from the more progressive policies she has supported in the past, including a ban on fracking, which her campaign has since walked back.
Trump’s support from white men
Every vote will count for Harris — and she still lags with some big groups.
Harris is attempting to rebuild the broad Democratic coalition and has made inroads with nearly every demographic compared to Biden before he dropped out — especially among young voters, women voters, Black voters and independents.
But Trump still polls more strongly among men and white voters, both nationally and in the battleground states.
“Some would say that putting the thumb on the scale and increasing turnout among other subsets of the electorate is far more fruitful for her campaign, and it’s hard to argue with that,” said Herman. “That said, you don’t want to get your clock clean with any subgroup when you’re in a tight election that’s neck and neck across the board.”
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Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
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