Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, is smashing records by raking in $81 million for her campaign efforts in a 24 hour period after Joe Biden announced he would no longer run for a second term.
In the span of under 48 hours, Harris appears to have won the solid support of nearly every prominent Democrat in U.S. politics. And that dynamic is rewriting the playbook just 103 days before the general election.
Though it is unclear what this groundswell of support means for Democrats’ chances in November, that question may hinge, in part, on how Republicans respond to a Harris candidacy.
Brendan Steinhauser is a partner with the public affairs firm Steinhauser Strategies, which has worked with several Texas Republican candidates over the past decade. He said he was surprised by Biden’s decision to exit the presidential race.
“I thought that Biden would stick it out. He gave every indication that he would. But I think the pressure mounted quite a bit,” Steinhauser said. “So he decided it was time to drop out, in his view, for the good of the country and the good of the party and support Harris instead.”
Steinhauser called the unity behind Harris in the weeks leading up to the Democratic Convention in Chicago “striking” to see.
“The unity in the Democratic Party may not be quite what the Republicans have with former President Trump, but it is something. And it moved very fast,” he said. “But I think it’s very practical. I think the Democrats understand they have to be unified if they’re going to defeat Donald Trump, especially with a candidate that’s still somewhat new to the scene.
Sure, she’s been vice president, she’s been in the public eye. But Democrats know that they have very little time to make their case against Trump and for Vice President Harris.”
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As for what this change means for down ballot races in Texas, Steinhauser said it’s too early to say for sure.
“I do think it will change things a little bit,” he said. “When you have an incumbent president that is generally unpopular, especially in a state like Texas, that helps the Republicans. I think Harris is going to have to own some of the administration’s failures, in the views of Republicans, especially on the border and on inflation and the economy.
But at the same time, she has her own story to tell. And I think that at least some independent voters in Texas might be more open to hearing from her than they were from Trump or Biden. So she’s got some opportunity, but we’ll have to see how she handles it and what she decides to talk about.”
Steinhauser said his advice to Republicans is to focus on the economy.
“I would not focus on personal attacks against Kamala Harris,” he said. “I would focus on the border, because the border issue resonates not only with Republican voters, but with independent voters and swing voters. I think you have to talk about it a certain way. You have to show empathy for those who are coming across illegally, who are seeking a better life, but you also can stand for border security.
So I think there’s a way to do it for Republicans to be successful. But if they make this about attacks on Kamala Harris as a person, I don’t think that’s going to land well, especially with women voters who tend to be a disproportionate number of swing voters in suburban areas in this country.”
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Steinhauser said by his estimation Harris has at least as good of a chance at victory in November as Biden.
“And perhaps even a better chance just given that she doesn’t have to deal with the age issue. In fact, the Trump campaign had age as an advantage for them when Biden was on the ticket. And now it’s a big disadvantage to them,” he said.
“And so if you’re Harris, you have to project that difference… She’s going to have to stand on her vision for the country. And it’s going to be hard because she has to decide how much to kind of take advantage of the Biden administration service that she has versus charting her own course.”
