Most Americans hardly knew Kamala Harris before Biden stepped down. What have they learned?
Kamala Harris is close to making history. She could become the first woman president, first Asian-American president, first woman of color president and first Democrat from California to be elected president.
But to claim all those firsts, she needs to get the public comfortable with her. And even with Election Day approaching, people are still trying to know just who the vice president is.
America has only been intimately acquainted with Harris since mid-July, when President Joe Biden declined to seek another term. Since then, Democrats and Republicans have engaged in a crash course to define Harris.
So far, the public has learned she’s a tough, disciplined campaigner, unrattled by Donald Trump’s insults and accusations. They’ve also found she can be vague about where she stands on all sorts of issues.
“We’ve learned a lot about her persona and about how she would handle herself as commander-in-chief. That does matter, especially because she’s fighting an uphill battle as a woman,” said Amber Boydstun, professor of political science at University of California, Davis..
“That’s why her team has effectively shown she’d be a calm, empathetic leader who would stand up for herself and the United States. She’s cool under pressure.”
But at the same time, Boydstun said, “I don’t know if in my lifetime we’ve had an election where we’ve heard so little about both candidates’ policies.”
The vice presidential problem
Until this summer, Harris was in a political purgatory familiar to vice presidents. She was loyal to Biden, a publicly silent but important insider who unquestionably supported his policies. That also meant she had to endure the criticism when things went wrong.
Harris was deeply unpopular with the public, as inflation crested at its highest levels in 40 years and undocumented immigrants poured across the U.S.-Mexico border. Unlike Biden, who got blanket media coverage and could defend himself in a very public way, Harris had to stay behind the scenes as the largely unseen, unheard partner.
Then suddenly, Biden was out of the presidential race on July 21, one month before the party’s nominating convention. Democrats, excited by her fealty to party causes and her energy, quickly rallied around Harris.
“She hit the ground running. For partisan Democrats she’s been a credible breath of fresh air,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York..
Harris’ sudden burst into the unrelenting limelight was unprecedented for a presidential campaign. In modern times, candidates are well known by the summer of the election year, having been through the intense media and voter scrutiny of the months-long nominating process..
Who is Kamala Harris?
The battle to define Harris was on, and continues. Is she the alternative that millions so desperately sought to counter Trump? Is she truly a liberal, or the tough prosecutor of her California days? Who is she anyway?
The October 26-29 Economist/YouGov poll shows the battle to define Harris remains a tug of war without anyone getting an advantage. About half the registered voters said Harris is a strong leader, but 56% said the same about Trump.
Half said Harris cares a lot or some about their needs and problems–the same percentage as Trump got. Half said Harris has the temperament to be president, only slightly more than Trump.
“Perceptions of both candidates’ traits have stayed relatively steady over the last several months, with a few small exceptions,” wrote Jamie Ballard, YouGov data journalist.
Like or dislike her, say the experts, here’s what American has learned in this quick campaign about Kamala Harris, presidential candidate:
▪ She’s been able to define herself as a center-left candidate.
“Her ads did a good job early in August of re-introducing herself to voters. Opinion of her was, on balance, negative at the time, but with a large number of Americans who did not have an opinion because they knew very little about her,” said Michael Franz, a director of the Wesleyan Media Project, which studies political advertising.
Harris had a record suggesting that for years, she adjusted her views to fit the election. As attorney general of California, she once proclaimed herself the state’s “top cop.”
Three years later, now a U.S. senator from California, she positioned herself as a devoted liberal when she ran for president. During her four years in the U.S. Senate, the independent group GovTrack rated her the fourth most liberal senator from 2017 to 2019 and the second most liberal, behind Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., from 2019 to 2021.
This summer she stayed away from starkly liberal positions and stressed how she was a daughter of the middle class who uniquely understood the challenges of working people.
Among her summer ads were one that described how “She grew up in a middle class home. She was the daughter of a working mom.”
▪ She hasn’t been specific on many policies.
“We haven’t heard a lot about her policies. She and her camp have decided strategically, whether wisely or not, to focus on shoring up her image as a potential commander-in-chief, and keeping her focus on Trump and the threats he poses to democracy,” said Boydstun.
Harris’ camp points to its 82-page economic plan that describes tax breaks for lower and middle income families, help for new homeowners and parents and higher taxes on the wealthy and on corporate profits.
Those plans, though, would cost an estimated $4 trillion over the 10-year period beginning in 2026, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and the campaign is not precise about how it would bring down that number. (Trump’s plan would cost an estimated $7.75 trillion).
Republicans argue that Harris’ vagueness is deliberate. “She’s trying to run from her radical past….what people have learned about her is she will say anything elected,” said California Republican Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson.
▪ She has trouble separating herself from Biden.
Since 1836, only one vice president, George H. W. Bush in 1988, immediately succeeded a president who had served a full term. Al Gore and Richard Nixon couldn’t immediately succeed their bosses.
Biden’s approval ratings averaged 39.5% in polls this week, according to FiveThirtyEight. Harris’ approval. Harris was at 45% this week, up from the upper 30s she was getting before her nomination.
Trump continues to tie Harris to Biden and his controversies. On “The View” October 8, Harris was asked whether there was anything she would have done differently than Biden over the past four years.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of — and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact,” she said. Later in the show, she said one different is that she would have a Republican in her Cabinet.
Eight days later, she told Fox News’ Bret Baier that her administration “will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency.” She has cited their different backgrounds and some policy differences.
▪ She has largely avoided reacting to Trump’s insults and crafted her own public image.
“We learned she’s a person who knows how to take criticisms. She’s taken care with her talking points and has been able to find her footing as a candidate,” said Aimee Allison, founder and president of Oakland-based She The People, a political network for women of color..
Whether that’s a liability or an advantage is something up for debate.
“Trump’s attacks on the stump and in his ads have offered a counter-narrative that is hard for her to refute easily,” said Franz.
In the swing state of North Carolina, “TV ads from Trump/Trump aligned PACs in North Carolina focusing on Harris’s liberal record in California on trans issues and crime,” said Christian Groce, academic director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute.
Groce, who was in North Carolina recently, found Harris trying to set her own agenda. She and her supporters have aired “a very frequent number of ads emphasizing how Harris understands middle-class voters and Trump is out of touch,” he said.
This story was originally published November 2, 2024 at 6:27 PM with the headline "Most Americans hardly knew Kamala Harris before Biden stepped down. What have they learned?."
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