The 2024 race for the White House is facing a number of major challenges for Vice President Kamala Harris. Despite the excitement of the Democratic National Convention, Harris is still considered a "weak" candidate due to her lack of media presence or clear policy strategy.
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, August 10, 2024. Photo: Kyodo/VNA
Despite the excitement at the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is still facing major challenges and is still seen as the underdog in the race for the White House, Politico reported on August 28. Harris came into the convention with strong momentum, but with just over two months until Election Day, the road ahead remains challenging. "Energy is good, but energy has to be harnessed for good, because unharnessed energy doesn't always translate into good energy in politics ," said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist based in South Carolina. In recent polls, Vice President Kamala Harris has gained a slight advantage, putting her ahead of former President Donald Trump nationally and in most swing states. However, strategists remain concerned about whether she can maintain this momentum. A poll from Democratic media firm Navigator Research shows Harris and Trump nearly tied in battleground states. Chauncey McLean, chairman of Future Forward, a super PAC that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars to back Harris in the Nov. 5 election, said the group’s internal polling paints a much less rosy picture. This is compounded by the fact that polls incorrectly predicted Trump’s results in 2016 and 2020, leading to skepticism about the reliability of the current data. “Nobody knows what to believe, except that Trump’s numbers are probably underrepresented,” said veteran strategist Doug Herman. One of the campaign’s biggest problems is that Harris has yet to do a single interview as a Democratic candidate. Despite a pledge earlier this month to schedule an interview before the end of August, no public plans have been made. The longer it takes, the more pressure will be put on Harris to prove she can handle her first interview or press conference. Meanwhile, Trump has held multiple press conferences and in-person interviews, criticizing her for her lack of presence. One veteran Democratic strategist said that in-person televised interviews are “one of Harris’s main challenges.” Vice President Harris fumbled a 2021 interview on NBC News over a question about why she did not go to the US-Mexico border. The upcoming debate between Harris and Trump, scheduled for September 10 on ABC News, will be a key opportunity for presidential candidate Harris to reintroduce herself to the public and prove her credentials against her opponent. However, the sides have yet to reach a consensus on debate rules, including whether a candidate’s microphone should be muted while the other is speaking. Harris’s campaign hopes a “hot mic” will work in her favor, but Trump’s team wants to stick to the same rules agreed to with President Joe Biden’s campaign. Although Trump has suggested that “it doesn’t matter to me,” the disagreement could become a sticking point in the debate.
Another weakness of Harris’s campaign is the lack of a clear policy strategy. Her campaign website does not offer any specific policy language, and while she has spoken about her economic and foreign policy agenda at campaign events, details are limited. Veteran Democratic strategist Doug Herman said Harris needs to clarify her policy positions to appeal to a broader base of voters. That will also require her to decide how to distance herself from parts of Biden’s presidency that may be unpopular, such as the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021. Another issue Harris faces is her weak support among men and white voters, both nationally and in battleground states. While she has reached out to most other demographic groups, her lack of support from these key groups could be a major challenge. Strategist Herman said that boosting turnout among other groups would be much more beneficial to Harris’s campaign. However, in a tight election like this, Harris cannot afford to ignore any group of voters. So, despite the positive signs from the Democratic National Convention, Harris’s campaign still faces many major challenges. From tight polling to a lack of a clear policy strategy, Harris will need to find a way to overcome these obstacles if she wants to win the 2024 race.
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