The path for Vice President Kamala Harris to win the nomination as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the 2024 White House race is wide open.
Getting nominated can be easy. The toughest test – defeating Republican nominee Donald Trump in November – still lies ahead.
Her elevation to the top candidate position will bring new strengths to the Democratic Party, but also reveal weaknesses that would be less of a concern if it were Mr. Biden.
According to recent polls, Ms. Harris’s position is slightly behind Mr. Trump’s – almost similar to Mr. Biden’s position before his historic withdrawal announcement. But those numbers could change as they move from hypothetical competition to actual rivalry.
At least for a moment, Democrats had abundant energy after more than three weeks of high tension over Mr. Biden’s health and ability to maintain his election campaign.
All of Ms. Harris’s top potential rivals for the Democratic nomination support her, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – still one of the most influential people in the Party. Democracy.
However, this could shape up for a tight race in November – a situation that reflects deep partisan divisions in American politics and many voters’ distaste for Donald Trump.
Harris’s main challenge – and opportunity – will be to capitalize on Trump’s antipathy, attract moderate voters in key battleground states and energize the Democratic Party. which has been pushed to the brink of despair in the past few weeks, to be able to match the enthusiasm of many of Mr. Trump’s supporters.
Restart?
Revitalized euphoria comes with a dollar bill. According to Ms. Harris’s campaign team, the vice president has attracted more than $80 million in new donations in the 24 hours since Mr. Biden’s withdrawal announcement – a record total of donations in one day compared to the previous year. any candidate in this year’s election.
This funding, along with nearly $100 million that Ms. Harris inherited from the previous Biden-Harris foundation, gives her a solid financial foundation for the upcoming campaign.
If she becomes the Democratic Party’s candidate, Ms. Harris will also defuse one of the most effective attacks that the Republican Party has aimed at their opponents: Mr. Biden’s age.
For months, Trump’s campaign team has criticized Mr. Biden as weak and doting – things that many Americans also saw more clearly after Mr. Biden’s faltering televised debate performance four weeks ago.
Vice President Harris, at age 59, would be a more aggressive candidate and could present a more coherent position for his party. She can also make Mr. Trump’s age of 78 become his weakness, because if Mr. Trump wins, he will become the oldest person ever elected president.
Ms. Harris could also win support from black voters, who polls show have drifted away from Mr. Biden in recent months. If Harris can combine this with greater support from other minority groups and young voters – the coalition that helped Barack Obama win in 2008 and 2012 – it could help. The vice president gained an advantage over Mr. Trump in a number of battleground states that will determine the outcome of this year’s election.
The vice president is also the administration’s champion on abortion, which has proven to be one of the issues with the most potential to boost the Democratic Party’s standing in recent elections.
On the contrary, Mr. Biden has sometimes been a reluctant supporter of this issue, as in the past he has supported some limits on abortion.
“I think she reminds women in urban areas across the country, especially in battleground states, of what’s at stake for reproductive rights,” said former New York congressman, Steve Israel, head of the Democratic Party’s House Elections Committee, spoke on the BBC’s Americast podcast.
“We have rebooted the basics of the campaign.”
Before I became vice president and before I was elected as U.S. senator, I was the attorney general of California. Before that, I was a prosecutor who took on predators, fraudsters, and cheaters.
So I know Donald Trump’s type.
In this campaign, I will put my record against his. pic.twitter.com/fdnlJNTIKH
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 23, 2024
First impressions
Perhaps the biggest challenge for Ms. Harris is that, unlike Mr. Biden, she is not a sitting president. Although she may have a chance to avoid the unpopularity of Mr. Biden’s record, she also does not have what it takes to become a figure known to voters as powerful.
It can be predicted that the Republican Party will find every way to portray Ms. Harris as an untested person and that electing her as president is too risky. In fact, Mr. Trump currently has the advantage in asserting that he is the only tested product.
In the coming days, Vice President Kamala Harris has the opportunity to make new impressions on the American public. If she falters as she warms up, it could open the door to a power struggle that lasts until the Democratic national convention in late August. The convention could end in a party collapse. coalesce with another candidate – or divide themselves.
As the past four weeks have shown, the odds in the race for the White House can change quickly and permanently. Harris has won her ticket to the biggest stage in American politics – now she must prove she can compete.
Tonight, I am proud to have earned the support needed to become our party’s nominee.
Over the next few months, I'll be traveling across the country talking to Americans about everything on the line. I fully intend to unite our party and our nation, and defeat Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/Bsq3N6pMAi
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 23, 2024
According to Capitoneshirt