As Kamala Harris Emerges, Olympics Could Stall Momentum

This article is part of The DC Brief, TIME’s political newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.

There’s no point in denying it: Vice President Kamala Harris’ launch was nothing short of a storybook introduction. A clean exit for President Joe Biden? To check. Delegates It is donors getting in line? Double check. A vote I emphasizeThe outbreak in activist interest and, on Friday, the blessing of the country’s most popular Democrats, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama? Check them all.

Everything is coming Kamala in this summer restart of a campaign that for months left even the most interested members cold, if not sour. Suddenly, Democrats think they have a chance of keeping the White House and prevailing in a narrowly divided Congress. And Republicans are finding themselves in an unexpectedly close race, where all their attacks on 81-year-old Biden — his age, his acuity, his ability to articulate a fully formed idea — can now be easily countered against 78-year-old Biden . Trump. The new battlefield is so unstable that Trump’s allies are now declining to say whether he will participate in the September debate, which was initially intended to be a rematch between Biden and Trump but has now been recast with Harris in the lead spot.

But like all good fairy tales, there is always a complicating factor behind the scenes. And instead of sorceresses or dragons, the intruder in this story is none other than the global spectacle that is the Olympic Games.

Starting Friday, most Americans — and connected citizens of the planet, in fact — will have their attention drawn, in part, to sporting competitions nominally centered in Paris but taking place in locations across France. It’s a distraction from politics, to be sure, but it comes at the very moment when Harris’ rise appears to be gaining momentum by the day. The lighting of the torch and nearly three weeks of athletics will steal Harris’ thunder in a major way; more than one quarter of a million hours of broadcast television are impossible to master, never mind political fundraising. Of course, the first debate – the one that kicked Biden off the ticket after three miserable weeks of doubt – had an audience that covered 51 million, but the Olympics will attract billions of eyes. In the competition for TV gold, it’s Harris versus Global Games, and it’s not even remotely a fair field.

Harris’ allies note that she has no plans to take her foot off the pedal. Since she replaced Biden, the campaign says more than 100,000 new volunteers have signed up and another 2,000 people have applied for full-time campaign jobs, an astonishing flood of interest and talent that, frankly, was never going to intensify. operation with Biden at the top. Her team plans to keep Harris on the road where it makes sense, like next week’s trip to Georgia, but also take advantage of the diminished glare — at least from the public, if not the political press — to retool parts of the Biden operation. apply new talent and tones focused on Harris and test the resilience of the machinery with just over 100 days until the votes are counted. Oh, and she has to pick a running mate, with Democrats quietly circling August 7 on their calendars as the last possible day to make the announcement.

There are plenty of reasons for Harris fans — an expansion of the K-Hive is part of the play, of course — to carry legitimate optimism. A New York Times/ Siena College survey taken after Biden’s departure found Harris’ favorability numbers rising, with 46% of registered voters liking her, compared to the 36% who said the same in February. Among those who have an unfavorable view of the vice president, the number fell to 49%, compared to the 54% level also obtained in February. And so-called Double Haters – voters who support neither option – are now down to 8% from the 20% that has held steady for most of this year. In simpler terms, people are liking Harris now that she’s a real option, Democrats are done clutching their pearls at her weird tics, and voters are realizing they have a choice between a convicted felon and a district Attorney.

A cynic would say that Biden and his allies planned this to launch Harris with a clean and restart the race against Trump, but all signs indicate that this was far from a master scheme and yet another confusing family therapy session with geopolitical weight. No, until Biden announced his plans to step aside on Sunday afternoon, Harris’ orbit was largely maintained in a loyal holding pattern.

Harris on Ice ended quickly, however. In addition to essentially ending any competition for the nomination and aligning any potential rivals as inviolable allies, Harris has been working the phones, wires, and political giants like the unions and activist groups with an enthusiasm not seen since the turmoil of the summer of 2007, when Barack Obama seemed stuck in neutrality in his race against Hillary Clinton, but ground with an organization power that no one saw coming.

For Harris, however, his challenge will be to stay in the game as long as he can over the next three weeks. Games will dominate — and unify — Americans in a way not seen since, well, last week, when Biden dropped out. (A shocking 87% of Americans support her decision, although Democrats and Republicans have very different reasons for sharing this opinion.) Harris has the opportunity to slow down a bit and ensure that her early days as Democratic leader are sustainable and not a freakout. Judging by his confident run forward, it’s a good bet that his throw was far from a fluke. Now she just needs to wait for the uproar in Paris to die down and have a second reboot ready.

Understand what’s important in Washington. Sign up for the DC Brief newsletter.