The challenge for Kamala Harris is substantial
Washington:
The 100-day run to the US election began on Sunday, the final act of a campaign transformed by an assassination attempt and the surprise exit of President Joe Biden.
After weeks of infighting and discouragement over Biden’s candidacy, Democrats consolidated behind Vice President Kamala Harris, radically reshaping the November 5 race that was quickly becoming Republican nominee Donald Trump’s defeat. Trump.
Harris’ candidacy has clearly reinvigorated the Democratic campaign, which said Sunday it had raised $200 million — mostly from first-time donors — since Biden dropped out and endorsed his vice president a week ago.
A new Wall Street Journal poll showed Harris narrowed Biden’s six-point deficit over Trump to just two points — well within the margin of error — with increased support from black, Latino and young voters.
But Republican pollster David Lee, who conducted the Journal poll, warned Democrats not to get carried away by the tightness of the race.
“Donald Trump is in a much better position in this election compared to a similar period in the 2020 election,” Lee said.
If the race is tied nationally, the advantage still belongs to Trump, given the mathematics of the Electoral College system for electing the president.
Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 came despite losing the popular vote nationwide by nearly three million votes.
‘We are the oppressed’
“We are the underdogs in this race,” Harris acknowledged at a fundraiser Saturday.
“But this is a people-driven campaign and we have momentum,” she added.
The Democratic convention in mid-August will try to maintain that momentum with a jubilant celebration of Harris’ candidacy.
Everything seemed so different just a month ago.
Dogged by voters’ concerns about his age and mental acuity, Biden, 81, was an outside bet at best, trailing his predecessor in the first presidential rematch since Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson in 1956.
Biden’s dismal debate on June 27, showing alarm and panic in his party.
The flames were fanned by an impeccable display of unity behind Trump, 78, at the Republican national convention – an event galvanized by the failed attempt, just days earlier, to assassinate the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania.
After an initial show of defiance, Biden bowed to the inevitable and dropped out last weekend.
Harris, a generation younger at 59, threw her hat into the ring – turning what had been a stale contest between two unpopular, aging white candidates into a dynamic, unpredictable showdown.
The final result on November 5 will likely be determined by about 100,000 independent and undecided voters in a handful of swing states that both campaigns will target extensively over the next three months.
Harris’ honeymoon
The challenge for Harris is substantial. Once Republicans adapt to her candidacy and hone their lines of attack, they should hammer her home on key electoral issues like immigration and rising prices.
Democratic strategist James Carville told MSNBC that Democrats needed to stop the happy talk and prepare for the coming storm.
“They’re coming toward us and they’re going to keep coming. And that kind of giddy euphoria isn’t going to be very helpful for much longer, because that’s what we’re going to face now,” he said.
Even former President Barack Obama warned against arrogance, highlighting Harris’ underdog status and the need for her to earn voters’ trust.
Trump, who has seen his favorability ratings rise since the July 13 attempt on his life and the success of the Republican convention, made his attack priorities clear at a rally on Saturday in the traditionally Democratic state of Minnesota.
Labeling Harris a “crazy liberal” and a “radical left lunatic,” Trump lied to make her seem like an abortion extremist and mocked her laughter.
“We have a whole new victim,” he told his supporters.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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