The abbreviated campaign season afforded to Kamala Harris due to the late exit of Joe Biden – and of course the exit of the frontrunner after all but securing the nomination – creates two immediate needs for the Harris campaign. The first they have already attended to, in securing the support of any credible contender ahead of any momentum towards additional primaries or a possible floor fight at the Convention. In doing so she has secured the credibility of her presence at the top of the ticket.
The next key step – necessary towards the securing of funding and votes – is securing the credibility of her candidacy. By this I mean identifying her positions as quickly and thoroughly in the public eye as quickly as possible. The Vice President is always a bit of a mystery, and Harris has played that part well. Sidekicks however don’t win elections, voters need a hero. The electorate has had years (and years, and years, and years… ) to get to know both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and where their thinking takes their politics. They will only have a few months to meet and get to know Kamala Harris. This is a considerable obstacle; in the presence of an unknown quantity voters may at best shy away and stay home, and at worst vote for the familiar.
Note that this does not necessarily mean she identify herself as different from Joe Biden, just distinct from him. It would make sense for much of her politics to align with the outgoing President’s, but voters need to know where his politics end and hers begin.
Establishing that political identity will identify both her base and her brand. The news so far suggests she has jumped into this role as well. Campaign events at minority sororities are a clear pitch to women and diversity, which signals an embrace of the issues driving women and younger voters- reproductive freedom, economic viability, inclusion. Her emphasis to Netanyahu that she would look at both sides of his conflict was a message to younger voters in support of diversity and equity. Her speaking distinctly and being able to quickly step into the role of candidate reinforces the suggestion that she can just as quickly step into the role of President.
These issues however are as much a function of Harris’ identity as her politics. That her campaign would embrace them is not just playing to her strengths, it is embracing a predictable image. Just as the Left’s ground game is getting going, the default play call from the Right was about color and gender. They were prepared for the broad strokes of a Harris candidacy, so her winning will come down to what Republicans can’t counter.
One of those elements is illustrated by who she’s talking to- younger voters. And one crowd that has proved to be largely resistant to conservative programming is younger voters. Charlie Kirk doesn’t count. Motivating younger voters into action at the polls is frequently an insurmountable task, but the potential political energy contained within that solution could literally change the world. If the Harris campaign can take that energy, cycle it up, and channel it into political action, they will have a source of support Republicans would be unable to match. The fiercest of conservatism (i.e. Boomers) is tempered already by moderates (i.e. GenX), but not effectively enough to tip any scales. Millennials and GenZs (who really need a new moniker) would be new players on the board, with more than enough numbers to command majorities.
A second foundation Trump will be unable to counter is that of Joe Biden’s incumbency.
Because of course that makes no sense? Joe Biden isn’t running for anything, he’s not the incumbent anything. He wants to amend the Constitution to limit Trump’s freedoms as litigated by a corrupt Court? That’s a foolish idea, he has no way of making it happen. Even the Speaker of the House could figure that out, and called it as dead in the water as the idea actually is. Except that Joe Biden was never going to see such a comprehensive reform made real in such a short time anyway; the proposed reforms were never going to be a benefit to his candidacy for anything, they were always going to be a future President’s line in the history books. He’s using his office to serve up aspirational policy structures for the Harris campaign to use as a light at the end of Trump’s political tunnel. Voters are given confidence in the candidate by her presentation, and confidence in her candidacy by the clarity and durability of the message.
There is some irony in that this is an exact mirror of the work being done by the conspirators at Project 2025. While their blueprint is far more advanced in scale and developed in process, they are working to provide A) a picture to voters of what their vote has the potential to secure, and B) a framework for the next officeholder to step into managing significant change with minimal overhead.
This is in some ways perhaps what Joe Biden’s administration should have always been about; making sure the last steps of an outgoing demographical dynasty are to correct for the path they’ve beaten away from the one taken by their dynastic heirs. With a generation gap highlighted right there on the ticket, The Biden Presidency was always going to be one of transition. If the office has finally embraced that role, the Harris campaign will have the appeal to moderates of tested political experience. Added to the conservative voters rejecting Trump, the younger voters wanting a future, and the unheralded voter of habit that was always going to vote with the Party, the cards Harris is playing for are becoming clear. Whether she can secure them into a winning hand…?