Looking back on the final weeks leading up to Election Day, one of Kamala Harris’s biggest problems was that voters felt they didn’t truly know who she was or what she stood for. But the more Harris put herself out there, the less voters liked what they saw.
According to polling averages, the high-water mark for Harris’s campaign was in the days following her only debate against Donald Trump, when she opened up a two-point national lead in the RealClearPolitics average by mid-September. That lead slowly evaporated over the following six weeks, and Trump now holds a slight edge on Election Day eve.
Looking back, there is a clear correlation between Harris’s efforts to define herself to voters and her sinking polling numbers. Far from reassuring voters, the vice president’s media tour, where she attempted to define something of a policy agenda, led to declining support.
Leading up to the debate, Harris was already under intense scrutiny for her unwillingness to answer questions off-script. After Biden was forced out of the race in July, Harris became the Democrat nominee in glaringly un-democratic fashion, without a single Democrat primary voter casting a ballot for her.
Harris subsequently refused to give interviews and rarely appeared in public outside of campaign rallies. It took her over 50 days to add an “issues” page to her campaign website.
During the debate, Harris struggled when pressed on actual policy. But with an assist from the debate moderators, she was able to avoid the disaster moment that befell Biden just a few weeks prior. The media predictably shouted her praises, declaring her the unquestioned winner even as several voter panels indicated a belief among everyday Americans that Trump had won.
Before and after the debate, the Harris campaign leaned into a “vibes”-based strategy. In essence, they seemed to suggest, Harris could be carried to the White House purely by manufacturing positive feelings around her candidacy. Her campaign embraced obscure online memes like “coconut army” and “Kamala is brat” in an effort to build the aura of a hip, successful campaign.
Still, however, Harris’s failure to define a policy agenda was a festering problem. Without anything to go on, news outlets began referring to her 2019 campaign, when she backed Defund-the-Police, supported abolishing private healthcare, and suggested that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be dismantled, among other far-left policies that are deeply unpopular with voters.
In response, Harris made two major changes to her campaign strategy that may ultimately have only helped sink her candidacy.
The first was to begin declaring that she had suddenly changed her most controversial policy positions from when she ran in 2019. After opposing fracking and border security while supporting Medicare for All, defunding the police, abolishing ICE, EV mandates, gun grabs, the Green New Deal, and every other item on the progressive agenda, Harris now claims to hold the opposite view on all of those issues.
Then Harris launched an ill-fated media tour that has led to a cascade of negative headlines leading up to Election Day. Despite appearing on seemingly “safe” shows like The View, 60 Minutes, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Harris couldn’t help but loft up prime material for Republican attack ads.
On The View, host Sunny Hostin asked Harris, “would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?” In response, Harris said she couldn’t think of “a single thing” – a line she repeated multiple times in subsequent days when asked the same question.
On 60 Minutes, when host Bill Whitaker asked Harris how she planned on paying for her agenda, she responded, “My economic plan would strengthen America’s economy” – prompting Whitaker to retort, “But pardon me Madam Vice President, the question was, how are you going to pay for it?”
More embarrassment followed that interview when it was revealed that CBS doctored the footage to make Harris’s responses seem more coherent.
Then came Harris’s disastrous interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, where she showed up late, stumbled through 26 minutes of non-answers, and then was rushed away by aides complaining that Baier had been too tough in his questioning.
Late last month, Harris tried again with an appearance on a CNN Townhall. Despite the liberal network doing everything it could to make Harris look good, a panel of bipartisan commentators all concluded that Harris’s policy answers lacked substance and she was evasive when asked straight questions.
On her performance, CNN’s Dana Bash stated, “What I’m hearing from people who I’ve been talking to… if her goal was to close the deal, they’re not sure she did that.” Former Obama Chief Strategist David Axelrod, meanwhile, blasted Harris for her habit of going to “word salad city” when “she doesn’t want to answer the question.”
In some cases, the bad headlines for Harris have been out of her control. Just last week she gave a major “closing argument” speech on the Ellipse at the White House that was entirely overshadowed by President Joe Biden’s comments calling Trump supporters “garbage.” But Harris subsequently made the problem worse by refusing to disavow or condemn Biden’s inflammatory remark.
Harris may yet win the election, but the flood of self-induced negative headlines in the critical final weeks of the race does not provide reason for confidence with just hours to go until ballots begin being counted.
To be sure, there are still plenty of media voices out there working to prop Harris up and bash Donald Trump. But no matter how hard they try, it may not be enough.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
The intelligent female knows that Helene in WNC came in with more dead and homes dissolved than Katrina.
Kamala, heartless allowed application for $750.00 After volunteering with Samaritans Purse, these senior victims were shocked at age 77-92 yrs.
Heartless. Harris never went to visit the border (our Border Czar). Harris never went to North Carolina. She Did visit a Philadelphia Baptist church with a strange black/southern accent.
Her quotes of scripture were bits and pieces that had nothing to do with anything.
’But Joy Commith in the Morrrning! ‘ Amen Brothers and Sisters! ‘
WE need intelligent, experienced, leadership to keep us out of wars and bring our economy back to where it was 4 yrs ago.
vote Trump/Vance for keep us globally safe and build back our nation.
Another 4 yrs. Of this incompetence is a path to 3rd world ruination.
???????????????? Trump loves this nation. Kamala is a deep state puppet.
Besides media bias, Harris never gets “fact checked” because she never provides any!
She was a VP and did not leave any mark,, as it is was only an honorary position. She and her boss were the most weakest and embarrassing duo ever to occupy the WH Not one world leader took them seriously, now there is a possibility that it will be dejavu all over again,not by the vote but by fraud.I don’t understand the hate for the country that has been so good to them.
it doesn’t matter how dumb this _itch is, all the other female dumb _itches will vote for her simply because of what is between their legs. can’t fix stupid but you can turn them into sex slaves. vote for trump save yourself.
Combine Trumps slight lead, with the guaranteed ‘found ballots by the democrats’ does surely not assure a win. In a fair head to head race … kama kameleon, would be short by a head … No popularity in her Presidential bid … handed VP due to DEI. Nearing the end of 4 years, she was unpopular as a VP, and handed the nomination for President … she suddenly is popular? Is that all it takes to be popular? Handed the nomination? She is unlikable, like Pocahontas Warren, using a non existent race card to guilt people to caring about her. She has no spine, no sense of self, she is the perfect puppet for the ‘machine’ that is currently in control of America right now. But because she is a woman, and a democrat … she is wildly popular … with a chance to win? I’m calling BS. If she wins, they cheated again!
I’ve noticed the last couple of days, her speeches seem more positive and optimistic, but it’s too little, too late. And she still lies, can’t help herself.