Kamala Harris’s Presidential Campaign: An Examination of Her Defeat

Approximately one month prior, Kamala Harris participated in an interview on ABC’s The View, an appearance anticipated to be amicable and designed to introduce her to American voters seeking further information. However, the discussion was swiftly overshadowed by her reply to an inquiry about potential differences in her approach compared to the sitting president, Joe Biden: “Not a thing comes to mind.” This statement by Harris – subsequently utilized repeatedly in Republican attack advertisements – highlighted the political obstacles her rapidly launched campaign was unable to surmount, culminating in her definitive defeat by Donald Trump on Tuesday. She publicly acknowledged her loss late Wednesday afternoon, advising her supporters to “do not despair.” Yet, introspection into her missteps and alternative actions is expected to be a more prolonged process as Democrats commence assigning blame and questioning the party’s future direction. Officials within the Harris campaign remained quiet during the early hours of Wednesday, while several aides conveyed tearful astonishment, having anticipated a significantly tighter electoral contest. Jen O’Malley Dillon, Harris’s campaign manager, communicated to staff via email on Wednesday, stating, “Losing is unfathomably painful. It is hard.” She added, “This will take a long time to process.” In her capacity as the incumbent vice-president, Harris found it challenging to distance herself from an unpopular president and persuade the electorate that she could deliver the transformation they desired amidst prevalent economic concerns. Following President Biden’s withdrawal from the election after a poor debate showing, Harris was elevated to lead the ticket, thereby avoiding the rigorous examination of a primary election without any votes being cast. Her 100-day campaign commenced with a pledge for a “new generation of leadership,” mobilizing women concerning abortion rights and committing to regain working-class voters by emphasizing economic matters such as increasing expenses and housing accessibility. With only three months remaining until election day, she initially built considerable momentum, marked by numerous social media memes, a list of prominent endorsements featuring Taylor Swift, and an unprecedented surge in donations. Nevertheless, Harris was unable to overcome the pervasive anti-Biden sentiment prevalent among a significant portion of voters. The president’s approval rating consistently stayed in the low 40s during his four-year term, and approximately two-thirds of voters expressed a belief that the United States was heading in the wrong direction. Certain allies have privately pondered if Harris maintained excessive loyalty to Biden during her campaign to succeed him. However, Jamal Simmons, who previously served as the vice-president’s communication director, labeled this situation a “trap,” contending that any perceived detachment would have merely furnished Republicans with an additional basis for accusations of disloyalty. He stated, “You can’t really run away from the president who chooses you.” Harris endeavored to navigate the delicate balance of discussing the administration’s achievements without criticizing her superior, demonstrating an unwillingness to diverge from any of Biden’s policies while simultaneously refraining from overtly endorsing them during her campaign. Yet, she subsequently failed to present a compelling case for her leadership of the nation, or how she intended to address economic grievances and widespread anxieties regarding immigration. Data from AP VoteCast, a survey of over 120,000 US voters carried out by NORC at the University of Chicago, indicated that approximately 3 out of 10 voters reported their family’s financial circumstances were deteriorating, an increase from roughly 2 out of 10 four years prior. A significant 9 out of 10 voters expressed either strong or moderate concern regarding grocery prices. The identical survey revealed that 4 out of 10 voters believed immigrants residing in the US without authorization should be repatriated to their native countries, an increase from approximately 3 out of 10 who held this view in 2020. Furthermore, despite Harris’s efforts during the final phase of her campaign to emphasize that her administration would not merely extend Biden’s, she did not clearly articulate her distinct policies, frequently avoiding direct engagement with perceived shortcomings. The Harris campaign had aimed to reconstruct the electoral coalition that secured Biden’s 2020 triumph, intending to attract core Democratic segments including Black, Latino, and young voters, in addition to achieving further inroads with college-educated suburban voters. However, she performed below expectations among these crucial demographic groups. She experienced a 13-point decline with Latino voters, a two-point decrease with Black voters, and a six-point drop with voters under 30, according to exit polls; these figures are subject to revision as ballots are tallied but are regarded as indicative of broader patterns. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who was defeated in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary by Hillary Clinton and in the 2020 primary by Biden, issued a statement asserting it was “no great surprise” that working-class voters deserted the party. He remarked, “First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.” He concluded, “And they’re right.” Although women predominantly favored Harris over Trump, the vice-president’s advantage did not surpass the levels her campaign had anticipated her groundbreaking candidacy would generate. Furthermore, she failed to realize her objective of securing the support of suburban Republican women, losing 53% of white women. In this initial presidential election since the Supreme Court invalidated the constitutional right to abortion, Democrats had harbored expectations that her emphasis on the struggle for reproductive rights would secure a conclusive win. While approximately 54% of female voters cast their votes for Harris, this figure was lower than the 57% who supported Biden in 2020, based on exit poll information. Prior to her elevation to head the ticket, Harris had aimed to characterize the election as a judgment on Trump, rather than Biden. The former California prosecutor leveraged her background in law enforcement to build a case against the former president. However, her nascent campaign chose to abandon Biden’s central contention that Trump represented an existential danger to democracy, instead prioritizing an optimistic, “joyful” message focused on safeguarding personal liberties and sustaining the middle class. Nevertheless, in the concluding phase, Harris strategically decided to re-emphasize the perils of a second Trump presidency, labeling the president a “fascist” and campaigning alongside disaffected Republicans who were weary of his discourse. Following the revelation by Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff, John Kelly, to the New York Times that Trump had spoken favorably of Adolf Hitler, Harris made statements outside her official residence, characterizing the president as “unhinged and unstable.” Veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz commented on Tuesday night, “Kamala Harris lost this election when she pivoted to focus almost exclusively on attacking Donald Trump.” He continued, “Voters already know everything there is about Trump – but they still wanted to know more about Harris’ plans for the first hour, first day, first month and first year of her administration.” He further stated, “It was a colossal failure for her campaign to shine the spotlight on Trump more than on Harris’s own ideas.” Ultimately, the victorious coalition Harris required to defeat Trump did not materialize, and the electorate’s decisive repudiation of Democrats indicated that the party faces a more profound challenge than merely an unpopular president. North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher provides insights into US politics and its global implications in his bi-weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. UK readers can subscribe here. Individuals outside the UK can subscribe here. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content of external websites. Information regarding our external linking policy is available here.