The Democratic opportunity

It is not enough for Kamala Harris to reaffirm what she is against. She must also set out a vision of national renewal.

Photo by Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In a single month, Kamala Harris has transformed the US presidential election. What had begun to resemble a forlorn rerun of the last race between two ageing and unpopular candidates is now a genuine contest. Democrat operatives excitedly invoke Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign as vast crowds attend stadium rallies and millions of dollars pour in, shattering political fundraising records. The polls are encouraging, if mostly still within the margin of error. Key battleground states, such as Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, that were seen as all but lost to Donald Trump, are once again in play.

Tim Walz, Ms Harris’s vice-presidential nominee, has delivered a masterclass in how to pitch progressive policies to a mainstream audience. The Minnesota governor, who is 60, understands that his role on the ticket is to reassure the “old white guys” he invokes during campaign rallies, making frequent references to hunting and emanating what the internet calls “big dad energy”. But he segues effectively from his biography into key political issues, such as abortion, which he frames as a matter of personal choice. “There’s a golden rule,” he likes to say of his time growing up in the rural Midwest: “Mind your own damn business.” He defends the bill he signed in 2023 introducing universal free school meals by drawing on his many years as a Minnesota high-school teacher. “What a monster!” he mockingly exclaims. “Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn.”

But winning this election will take more than competent campaigning and good vibes. The Democrats must learn the lessons of 2016, when the election of Hillary Clinton as the first woman president seemed all but assured until those final, fateful hours delivered victory to Mr Trump instead. With hindsight, the focus on Mrs Clinton’s identity, encapsulated in her campaign slogan – “I’m with her” – was a mistake. The message this time around must be: “She’s with us.”

By avoiding the traditional Democratic primary process and limiting her interactions with the press, Harris has avoided early missteps, but her political honeymoon will soon end. Her current stump speech is noticeably light on specifics; she will need to articulate a coherent policy platform. This includes an economic approach that acknowledges the affordability crisis and the searing impact of inflation on many Americans during the Biden administration, of which she has been part. Likewise, she must acknowledge that many voters view Mr Biden’s handling of immigration as a failure and set out how she would govern differently (polls show that voters continue to trust Mr Trump more on both immigration and the economy).

In this regard, Labour’s recent election victory offers lessons on how the centre left can win in an era of polarisation: by occupying the common ground. In contrast to supposed centrism, this means reflecting the broad public consensus on economic interventionism, workers’ rights, law and order, and immigration. Keir Starmer vowed to “smash the gangs” that profit from Channel crossings; Ms Harris has promised to challenge “transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers who came into our country illegally” like she did when she was a lawyer.

There is also an opportunity for the Democrats to expose the hollowness of Mr Trump’s gestures towards economic populism. Despite the efforts of a vocal minority on the right to reposition the Republican Party as the vanguard of the working class, it remains beholden to corporate interests. In his farcical two-hour interview with Elon Musk, Mr Trump praised efforts to fire striking workers en masse, resulting in the Republican claim that it is the party of workers’ rights being undercut as well as a lawsuit against both by the United Auto Workers union.

Mr Trump has always been a weak candidate. He lost the popular vote in both 2016 and 2020 and, in JD Vance, he has selected a historically unpopular vice-presidential nominee. The Republican duo is eminently beatable.

But the hardest task for the Democrats lies ahead. To win the presidential election, it will not be enough for Ms Harris simply to reaffirm what she is against. She must also make clear what – and who – she stands for. “We are not going back,” makes for an effective rallying cry, but Ms Harris must now set out an equally compelling vision of national renewal.

[See also: A rediscovery of who we are]