With arguably the most unexpected plot twist in the recent history of U.S. politics playing out in the form of incumbent President Joe Biden stepping back from the race for the November election, the hope for building a less toxic and more compassionate paradigm of politics for the next four years has fallen to his nominee, Vice-President Kamala Harris. Ms. Harris, of mixed Indian and Jamaican heritage, has been formally recognised as the Democratic Party’s candidate to take on Republican challenger and former President, Donald Trump, after she secured more than a majority of votes from party delegates just before the Democratic National Convention later this month. Now, Ms. Harris is in the throes of a high-speed dash to the finish line, including a flurry of campaign activity relating to her vice-presidential pick, the optics of the Convention, the presidential debates to follow, and the ceaseless generation of media and online advertising material aimed at swaying voters’ minds in her favour. Her strategy appears to be working — in picking Minnesota’s progressive Governor, Tim Walz, as her running mate, she has partnered with a leader with a reputation for turning Republican districts Democratic. Although Mr. Biden had trailed Mr. Trump by a few points in approval surveys across the critical swing States, Ms. Harris has not only tipped the scale back towards Democrats by a margin of 1.9% based on an updating adjusted average of major national polls, but she has also proven her credentials in pecuniary terms by raising a whopping $310 million in July, including $200 million in the first week after entering the race.
Her late entry comes with both advantages and risks. On the one hand the Trump campaign has had to scramble and re-focus its critique on her after spending months and even more dollars targeting Mr. Biden, especially highlighting his age, and blaming his administration for alleged failures regarding the economy and job creation, and immigration. Now, Mr. Trump appears to be pivoting to a baser tenor of name-calling and race-baiting, disputing Ms. Harris’s racial identity in uncharitable terms. This, ironically, cedes the high ground to Ms. Harris, potentially giving her the space to cast a broader political net and forge a more inclusive policy agenda that could rise above race politics, reinvigorate the liberal base and values of her party, and allow her to be seen as more than just the alternative candidate to Mr. Trump. The reality is that it is not only the U.S. but also the world that would stand to gain from Washington under the next President holding firm to core democratic values and genuinely working towards peace across the many troubled regions of the world, most immediately in the context of the conflict in Gaza spiralling across West Asia, and Russia’s belligerence in Ukraine.
Healing a nation: On Kamala Harris and the U.S. Presidential race
