The phone line was a little messy and the voice was hoarse due to several days of Covid isolation. However, the poignancy of the message and the moment itself couldn’t have been clearer: “I’m watching you, kid. I love you,” said the speaker.
Joe Biden’s warm phone call to his vice president, Kamala Harris, at Democratic Party campaign headquarters in Delaware on Monday marked a generational shift in US politics, a symbolic passing of the torch from parents to descendants.
In terms of the 2024 presidential election race, it was also a decisive moment. Harris, former prosecutor, state attorney general, senator from California and, for three and a half years, Biden’s replacement in the White House, appeared for the first time as her party’s new preferred candidate, less than 24 hours after her. The chief’s surprising announcement that he would not run for a second term sent a seismic shock across the country.
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There followed what, by any metric, could be called a turbulent week on the campaign trail, in an extraordinary month in American history, already notable for its assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump, Republican Party candidate for the November 5 elections.
On Wednesday, Harris was addressing a historically black sorority in Indianapolis as the presumptive Democratic nominee, having secured the support of enough delegates at the party’s national convention in Chicago next month to secure the nomination.
It was the same day that Biden gave an emotional speech, broadcast on national television, at the White House, explaining his decision to step aside “in defense of democracy”.
“I revere this office, but I love my country more,” he said, urging the country to support Harris.
One by one, other leading Democratic figures stepped forward to support her, culminating on Friday with outsized support from Barack Obama. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, all 23 party state governors and elected officials, from the youngest members of Congress to Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, respectively the House Minority Leader and the Senate Majority Leader, also gave their approval.
“We’re not kidding,” Harris told supporters at the sorority’s Indiana meeting on Wednesday.
“There is so much at stake right now. Our nation, as always, counts on you to energize, organize and mobilize; register people to vote, to get them to the polls; and continue to fight for the future that our nation and its people deserve.
“We know that when we organize, mountains move. When we mobilize, nations change. And when we vote, we make history.”
It was a rousing speech from a politician who just three days earlier was still playing a supporting role, despite weeks of speculation about Biden’s future following his disastrous debate performance against Trump in June.
But things changed quickly when the president’s decision to step aside was announced on Sunday afternoon. Biden’s campaign apparatus and election war chest of almost $100 million (£77.6 million) have become the property of a new entity called Harris for President (Republicans have vowed to challenge the transfer of funds in court). .
And the team hastily put together a new travel schedule for the vice president that saw her crisscross the country, including an appearance in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday in which she acknowledged the “rollercoaster” of the previous 24 hours. .
On Tuesday, she was demonstrating in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the campaign message: “We will not go back” to the “chaos” of the Trump years.
On Wednesday, for black women in Indianapolis, Indianashe said: “We face a choice between two different visions for our nation: one focused on the future, the other focused on the past.”
On Thursday, she told teachers in Houston, Texas: “In our vision, we see a place where every person has the opportunity to not just survive, but to thrive.”
Also on Thursday, her first meeting with a foreign leader took place – the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu – in her own right as a presidential candidate, and not at a joint summit as vice president. In a White House statement issued on his behalf, not Biden’s, Harris condemned the violence at Wednesday’s anti-Netanyahu protest in Washington DC and the burning of the US flag.
In blunt public comments after the meeting, she also went further than Biden ever did in criticizing civilian suffering in Gaza. “I will not be silent,” she said.
“Israel has the right to defend itself… [but] We cannot look away from these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become insensitive to suffering.”
Behind-the-scenes activities, however, progressed as quickly as Harris’ front-of-house appearances.
Fundraising operations began, generating a historic record of US$81 million for any 24-hour period in presidential campaign history, a windfall for the newly named Harris Victory Fund that surpassed $130 million, mostly from small or first-time donors, as of Thursday night.
Capitalizing on the enthusiasm of younger voters who polls found was noticeably absent for Biden, or the 78-year-old Trump, Harris’ team also put it out on social media your first campaign video. Beyoncé’s 2016 hit Freedom, Harris’ unofficial anthem for president, provided the soundtrack for a message that runs counter to what it says is Trump’s “chaos, fear and hate” vision for the country.
Harris has enormous appeal with Gen Z, noted for her support from numerous youth organizations, including March for Our Livesthe student activist group formed after the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
There could be no better illustration than the statement on X/Twitter by British singer Charli xcx that “Kamala is a brat”. Seen by more than 53 million people, the simple message that sums up a pop culture lifestyle enchanted the younger generation and confused older ones in equal measure. “You just need to listen to that Charli xcx album and then you’ll understand,” Maxwell Frost of Florida, the first Gen Z member of Congress, told CNN.
“Either Coconut trees or talking about brats or whatever, the message is reaching tens of millions of young people across the country and around the world, and that’s really inspiring.”
Wrong by Biden’s abrupt departure and alarmed by polls showing Harris gaining ground or same surpassing Trump in popularity, the former president’s campaign struggled to find lines of attack for his new opponent.
At a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Trump experimented with insults, including calling Harris a “radical left lunatic” and “the most incompetent, far-left vice president in American history.” Republican Party acolytes have also been busy with racist attacksaccusing Harris, who is of black and Asian heritage, of being “a DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] to hire”Or “not qualified” for the presidency.
Experts warn that an all-out attack of misogyny and racism is expected against Harris as the election approaches.
This week, however, as Harris’ fledgling campaign took its first steps, it was sharpening its own knives. Framing the upcoming campaign as “the prosecutor versus the criminal,” he attacked Trump’s 34 criminal convictions on fraud charges and, in a scathing letter on Thursday, mocked the former president’s incoherent anti-Harris diatribe on a news channel. right-wing news, issuing a “statement regarding the appearance of a 78-year-old criminal on Fox News.” The gloves are off.
Now, with the full and dynamic first week of Harris’ presidential challenge poised to enter the history books, the question is whether the initial enthusiasm and momentum can be maintained through the grueling 101 days remaining until the election.
Harris and his team are confident it will. Contradicting British liberal politician Joseph Chamberlain’s assertion more than a century ago that “in politics, there’s no point looking beyond the next fortnight”, they have their eyes set not just on the November elections, but on the eight years following.
