Vice President Kamala Harris has entered the second week of her surprise presidential campaign. While she has accumulated the necessary delegates to become the nominee and secured the endorsements of most major figures in the Democratic Party , including President Joe Biden , she is still working on rallying key members of the Democratic coalition, such as terrorist sympathizers.
The 2024 presidential election has entered uncharted territory after Biden’s decision to drop out of the race, as it will be the first time a major-party nominee did not win a single primary in more than a half-century. With roughly 100 days until the election, Harris is in a time crunch to reintroduce herself to voters, ease concerns about how she earned the nomination, unify the Left, and appeal to independents.
Perhaps the most important choice Harris needs to make is who her running mate will be. While names such as Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC), and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have all been floated as possible candidates, one name has drawn the ire of the Hamas caucus: Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA).
Shapiro has stood firm in his support for Israel and condemned pro-Hamas demonstrations on college campuses. He has also been criticized by teachers unions, another key Democratic constituency, for supporting school choice programs, although Shapiro did eventually cave to the unions' demands. While picking Shapiro could anger progressives, he would also be extending an olive branch to centrists and independents.
To avoid isolating the furthest left flank of the Democratic Party, Harris opted not to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress last week. However, anti-Israel protesters still showed up, marching with Hezbollah flags just days before a Hezbollah missile strike killed 12 children in Israel. The protesters covered streets with fake blood, held up signs with Netanyahu depicted as Satan, and burned American flags they stole from Union Station. While she condemned the anti-American aspects of these demonstrations, Harris has previously expressed support for anti-Israel protests and called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
While Harris is walking a fine line on that particularly controversial matter, she has taken firmly left-wing stances on abortion, Supreme Court reform, climate change, and economics. Nevertheless, her approval rating is soaring while former President Donald Trump’s has dipped. Furthermore, while Biden had been fairly consistently losing to Trump in polls since his disastrous debate performance, Harris-Trump matchups have shown a tight race with no clear front-runner.
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The Biden 2020 coalition fought hard to bring reluctant progressives on board, but the Harris 2024 coalition is still fighting for the support of progressives and centrists. Harris, thus far, has tried to be all things to all people. This is not an effective strategy in the long term, but the media have been fawning over her for days and likely will not force Democrats to answer difficult questions about her candidacy.
In other words, it may be a normal presidential campaign after all.
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