Vice President Kamala Harris’ first campaign stop following her debate with former President Donald Trump was the same as her predecessor’s: North Carolina.
Only this time, she had a different job than him: to keep up the momentum gained by her debate performance, rather than try desperately to gain it back.
North Carolina was a natural place to do so. Polls show that Trump and Harris are virtually tied here in one of the closest races of any battleground state. Harris held two rallies in North Carolina Thursday — one in Charlotte and one in Greensboro — only a few hours apart.
Like Trump, Harris has her own line to walk: reassure the relatively small number of persuadable voters that she isn’t the scary radical Trump and Republicans say she is while still ensuring that younger, more progressive voters are excited enough to cast a vote for her.
It’s important for Harris to make clear the difference between her policy positions and his extreme ones — and she has, emphasizing Project 2025 whenever she gets the chance. But she also has to emphasize the difference in character and temperament.
That’s something Harris did well in Tuesday’s debate. While she didn’t always offer the most direct or substantive answers about her plans for the country, she succeeded at making Trump look unhinged while she came across poised and level-headed. She doesn’t just have to show that her plan is the opposite of Trump’s — she also has to show that, unlike him, she actually has one.
Thursday’s speeches were smartly a bit heavier on policy. Harris spoke in more detail about her policy plans, touching on everything from the economy to voting rights. But at every turn, she continued to draw that contrast between herself and Trump. She wants to help the middle class, he wants to help the rich. She wants to protect voting rights, he wants to dismantle them.
Like in the debate, Harris was strongest Thursday when speaking about issues on which she most differs from Trump: abortion and democracy. On those issues, she spoke with conviction, her words louder and laced with more anger.
On abortion: “One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not tell a woman what to do with her body.”
On Trump and democracy: “Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States. Never again!”
That’s the kind of message that can appeal to voters in battleground states — and across the country — who may still be unsure about who to vote for in November. In Thursday’s rally, Harris defined herself as a candidate for everyone, vowing to “put country before party” and touting the endorsements of Republicans like former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and some former members of the Trump administration.
But Harris is going to have to keep talking about policy if she wants to win in November, as polling shows that one of her biggest challenges is the fact that voters feel like they just don’t know enough about her. She’s going to have to answer the questions she’s left unanswered so far, including why her positions have changed since her 2020 run and what truly separates her from Joe Biden. Those answers still weren’t given at Thursday’s rallies, but they need to be soon.
To her credit, Harris knows what’s at stake in this election, and she’s well aware of the task ahead of her. Despite whatever confidence she may have in her ability to beat Trump, she also knows that he could beat her, and the election isn’t over until it’s over.
“Ours will be a very tight race until the end,” Harris said Thursday. “And we are the underdog, understand that.”
While Harris maybe didn’t give all the answers she needed to Thursday, she did manage to do what she came here for: she kept the momentum going. And that may be the most important job of all, because in a race where she’s the self-described underdog, momentum is something she can’t afford to lose.
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