Kamala Harris completes her reinvention
KAMALA HARRIS’S acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention on August 22nd marked the culmination of one of the most rapid and comprehensive political reinventions in modern American history. Across five years at the highest levels of American politics, Ms Harris developed a reputation as unsteady, left-wing, inauthentic and gaffe-prone. Yet one month into her second attempt at the presidency, the old Ms Harris is gone, replaced by a self-assured and polished politician who energised thousands of party faithful, moderates and left-wingers alike.
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past. A chance to chart a new way forward,” Ms Harris told a cheering arena filled with American flags and signs bearing her name. “I promise to be a president for all Americans.”
The press-shy candidate—now a slight favourite to win the presidency, according to The Economist’s election-forecast model—stuck to the strategy she has used to revive her party’s fortunes since in effect becoming the Democratic nominee in July. She spoke at length about her own biography (“I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys”) and touted selected accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration (“I helped mobilise a global response…to defend against Putin’s aggression”). The candidate then warned of a “Donald Trump with no guardrails” and offered more than a few platitudes about freedom, opportunity and justice.
Aware that for millions of Americans this would be their first viewing of the new Kamala Harris, she repeated her campaign’s de facto slogan six times in less than 40 minutes: “We are not going back.” Mostly, she struck an optimistic tone, in keeping with the festive energy of the night. Before she spoke, audience members spent much of the evening on their feet, with a DJ and live musical performances filling space between speakers ranging from the candidate’s sister to a former Republican congressman.
Ms Harris had the crowd the moment she took to the stage. After extended applause, she eventually quieted the United Centre in Chicago by exclaiming, “Let’s get to business!” Ms Harris nodded to Joe Biden, who had been largely an afterthought throughout the convention. (Michelle Obama, in one of the week’s best-received speeches, didn’t even say the current president’s name.) “Your record is extraordinary, as history will show, and your character is inspiring,” Ms Harris said of the man she replaced atop the Democratic ticket, well-aware that none of this would be happening had he not chosen her as vice-president.
The speech shed some light on how Ms Harris is approaching the final ten weeks of the campaign. She referred to Hamas as “a terrorist organisation” and said she “will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself”. Yet she also described conditions in Gaza as “devastating”. Her solution, aimed at satisfying competing members of her coalition, was unsurprising: “Now is the time to get a hostage deal and ceasefire done.” Ms Harris is aiming to unite her party—from coastal leftists to midwestern moderates—while remaining as acceptable as possible to Trump-sceptical independents and Republicans. The policy portions of the speech were clearly designed to maximise political effect rather than lay out a detailed agenda. She spoke in defence of abortion rights and government-run pension programmes, while vaguely promising to “end America’s housing shortage” without explaining how.
Her approach to immigration highlights the challenge. During her previous presidential run, Ms Harris spoke of decriminalising unauthorised border crossings and flirted with scrapping the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Now she takes a more balanced, and murky, approach. “I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants—and reform our broken immigration system,” she said. “We can create an earned pathway to citizenship—and secure our border.”
For voters sceptical of her change of heart on so many issues, or simply dubious that she could do what she promises, fear of Mr Trump might be enough to win their support. She was at her most effective when criticising Mr Trump’s policies, as well as his personal failings, particularly on January 6th 2021. “In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she said. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.” She warned of his “explicit intent” to imprison journalists and political opponents.
Democrats leaving the convention hall in Chicago were as enthusiastic as Republicans were at their own gathering in Milwaukee in July. Yet much can change in the coming weeks. The Trump campaign certainly hopes that the convention will be the peak of Ms Harris’s popularity, and may be betting that an imminent endorsement from Robert F. Kennedy junior, who is expected to abandon his independent candidacy for the presidency in a speech in Arizona on August 23rd, will bring a shift in momentum. (In fact the impact of Mr Kennedy’s withdrawal is likely to be marginal.)
On the campaign trail, Ms Harris has described herself as an underdog, and Democratic strategists warn against complacency. But the candidate remained upbeat in her speech, closing by encouraging her supporters to vote and help “write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told”. ■
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