By STEVE PEOPLES and ZEKE MILLER Related Press
CHICAGO (AP) — Time and again, from the huge stage within the electrical conference corridor, the Democrats this week predicted that Kamala Harris would defeat Donald Trump. They described her as a historic determine, the embodiment of hope, “the president of pleasure.”
However amid the extraordinary optimism, former first girl Michelle Obama supplied a sober warning: “Irrespective of how good we really feel tonight or tomorrow or the following day, that is going to be an uphill battle.”
The phrase of warning was shortly drowned out by the joy that overwhelmed the standing-room-only 17,000-person area in downtown Chicago. However as activists, operatives and occasion leaders depart the Democratic Nationwide Conference and fan out throughout America, a stark actuality exists: The true take a look at for Harris has solely simply begun.
Greater than a month after President Joe Biden stepped apart and endorsed her, Harris has barely began to stipulate detailed plans she would pursue as president to deal with the nation’s largest challenges — immigration, crime and local weather change, amongst them. She has but to take a seat down for even one complete media interview to face tough questions on her flip-flops on coverage lately, her management type and the give attention to race and gender that looms over her historic candidacy.
“We will’t put our heads within the sand. She’s a Black girl. The bar goes to be greater for every little thing,” stated John Anzalone, a pollster who has served the final three Democratic presidential nominees. “And guess what? Meaning, even errors. Errors are going to be magnified.”
On the identical time, Harris’ allies acknowledge she stays largely undefined within the minds of many citizens, having operated in Biden’s shadow for a lot the final 4 years. The relative anonymity affords each alternative and danger.
“The unhealthy factor about vice presidents is that no person is aware of who you might be. The benefit of vice presidents is no person is aware of who you might be,” stated David Axelrod, who served as former President Barack Obama’s chief strategist.
Harris now has simply over two weeks to organize for what might be her solely presidential debate towards Trump, a Sept. 10 showdown that would dramatically shift the course of the race. The primary presidential debate, after all, successfully pressured Biden to drop out of the race.
For now, Harris’ staff feels no urgency to roll out a complete coverage platform or sit for media interviews that may jeopardize the optimistic vibes which have outlined her nascent marketing campaign and produced a flood of marketing campaign donations and a rising military of swing-state volunteers.
Throughout a sequence of conferences all through the conference week, her advisers forged her coverage agenda as a continuation and enlargement on Biden’s first time period achievements, notably on financial issues, even when it could look and sound totally different in some circumstances.
Harris has notably dropped her opposition to fracking and her help for Medicare for All, which have been defining options of her 2019 presidential marketing campaign. Her aides insist her values stay the identical, however she’s embraced extra centrist insurance policies out of pragmatism.
In the meantime, Harris’ allies imagine it’s solely a matter of time earlier than Trump settles on an efficient line of assault.
In latest days, the Republican former president has adopted a kitchen-sink method towards Harris that features assaults about her racial identification, her chortle, her report as vp and her historical past as a “San Francisco liberal.”
“He’ll work out how you can get a message and land a political punch,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who delivered a prime-time conference speech this week, stated of Trump.
Polling reveals that voters’ views of Harris have shifted comparatively quickly within the month since Biden stepped apart and she or he grew to become the de facto nominee.
In a June AP-NORC ballot, simply 39% of Individuals stated they’d a good opinion of Harris and 12% stated they didn’t know sufficient to say.
After Biden stepped apart, an August AP-NORC ballot discovered that 48% of Individuals had a good opinion of Harris with simply 6% saying they didn’t know sufficient to have an opinion. The most recent ballot additionally confirmed that 27% of adults have a “very” favorable opinion of Harris, up from 14% in June.
The sharp shift raises the chance that public opinion might change once more as voters study extra.
It additionally raises the chance that Harris’ momentum has much less to do along with her candidacy than a way of reduction amongst Democrats that Biden stepped apart. Shortly earlier than he left the race, an AP-NORC ballot discovered that almost two-thirds of Democrats stated they didn’t need Biden to run once more, and about half stated they’d be dissatisfied if he was the nominee.
Younger Democrats of America president Quentin Wathum-Ocama stated his enthusiasm relies on a mixture of reduction that Biden stepped apart and pleasure about Harris. Given her comparatively low profile over the past 4 years, he conceded that even he doesn’t know a lot about her governing plans.
As a public college instructor, he stated he’d like to listen to extra about her schooling coverage, for instance.
“Do individuals know her? Persons are conscious of her,” Wathum-Ocama stated. “I will be excited, however I nonetheless need extra.”
AP writers Josh Boak in Chicago and Michelle L. Value in Asheboro, North Carolina, contributed.
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