It’s all upside. That’s what a Kamala Harris presidential candidacy offers to the Democrats. Harris has a long way to go, but her trajectory is up.
President Joe Biden finally did the right thing, by standing down from his struggling presidential campaign and making way for his vice president to mount the charge. It is a strategic and tactical win.
Biden was a weakling with the youth vote. No self-respecting 22-year-old could get revved up by an 81-year-old presidential candidate whose favorite adage is “malarkey.”
Youth turnout has been anemic in recent election cycles. If Biden had stayed on the ticket, it would have hit catastrophic lows.
Now, the tables have turned, and it’s Harris, 59, versus former President Donald Trump, 78.
Harris would be the first Black woman and person of Asian descent to take the White House. Voters of color, especially African Americans, have been the most resolute Democratic Party backers in recent decades.
In 2016, Black voters made up nearly one-fourth of Democratic primary voters in the United States and about one-fifth of Biden’s voters in 2020, according to research by NBC News and the Pew Research Center.
During Biden’s presidency, that support has been melting away. Are the loud proclamations of Black people for Trump breaking through? Ha!
According to a poll by the Pew Research Center conducted in April, 18% of Black registered voters said they “would vote for or lean toward” Trump in their voting decisions. Trump captured 8% of the Black vote in 2020.
Harris’ candidacy is changing all that. Traditional Democratic voters are now energized by the party’s new presumed presidential nominee.
Voter enthusiasm among African American women can be evinced in the 40,000 women who jumped on a Zoom call within hours of Biden’s announcement that he would drop out of the race. The group, #WinWithBlackWomen, raised $1.5 million in three hours, Bloomberg News reported.
Black folks are stoked and just getting started. Harris is dashing to take full advantage of the surge in enthusiasm among her party’s key constituent groups. Her campaign is sending out volleys of social media appeals that tout her as a ‘brat.”
For you oldsters, that doesn’t mean a whiny, snot-nosed kid. Shortly after Biden endorsed Harris for president, Charli XCX, a British super-pop performer, was singing Harris’ praises on X. “kamala IS brat,” she declared.
Charli XCX’s album “Brat” has been the hit of the season. “Memes about the album and its signature lime green aesthetic have exploded online since its release in June, with many dubbing the summer of 2024 as ‘Brat summer,’” ABC News reported.
USA Today has described the album as “a hot-mess pop star aesthetic, prioritizing club culture at its core but still offering introspective lyrics on aging, womanhood, grief and anxiety.”
Harris and her fans are embracing the “brat” imagery and messaging, flooding social media with memes that feature video clips of Harris dancing and singing to tunes from the album. Harris memes are blowing up on TikTok.
Meanwhile, Beyoncé, the iconic uber star, has granted Harris permission to use her song “Freedom” as an emblem of her presidential quest. The campaign has already deployed it at events and rallies.
Constituents that represent people of color, from her national sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha to the Asian American Action Fund, are lining up to host virtual and in-person fundraisers, rallies and massive canvassing efforts. Last Thursday, there was an online gathering, “White Women: Answer the Call! Show up for Kamala Harris.”
Of course, it’s not all upside. The presumed nominee must climb a high mountain and navigate a treacherous path to victory. Standing in the way is Trump, who will do anything, say anything, to regain power.
Trump and his mouthpieces have already mounted a smear campaign to throw a mountain of political mud her way. Among other things, Trump is labeling Harris as “crooked,” “the most incompetent and far left vice president in American history,” and a “DEI” hire. The latter is a sneering reference to the diversity, equity and inclusion movement to suggest that Harris has not earned her success and is there only because of the color of her skin.
“Childless cat lady,” put forward by Trump’s running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance, is a new one on me. In 2021, while Vance was running for the Senate, he referred to Democratic Party leadership as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”
That included, Vance said, Harris, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
Guys, go ahead, bring on the racist and misogynistic name-calling and dog whistles. Go right ahead and alienate the female swing voters Trump needs to win. Go ahead and fire up the base that Harris is counting on to bring her to the White House.
Harris is flying high now, but to win, she must race to fully define herself to voters by presenting her credentials and make her best case for the presidency, before the Trump campaign does it for her — by tearing down her personal and policy resume in the ugliest and most negative ways possible.
That is coming, soon.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at LauraLauraWashington@gmail.com.
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