Republicans calling Harris a 'childless cat lady' are fumbling the opportunity to beat her

Republicans face a new challenge in light of President Joe Biden’s exit from the race. How can they attack likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris after spending years focusing the strategy on Biden?

While most of the strategic foundation should stay the same, given Harris' role in the Biden administration, there are new opportunities against the vice president and a few pitfalls that Republicans would be wise to avoid but have already stepped in.

While attacking politicians personally has become a staple of American politics, the Republican Party should tread carefully. Certain attacks, which include how Harris laughs , come off as childish and ignore the real issues that matter to Americans, which Harris and the Democrats are weak on.

If Republicans believe we have a better platform for Americans, this is an opportunity to show it.

Republican Party has many policy opportunities to attack Harris

The through line of the GOP strategy against Harris should be holding her accountable for the Biden administration’s record that has given the Republicans any momentum they had before he dropped out. Highlighting that Harris has already been in the White House under an extremely unpopular administration should be the center of their attacks.

Hammering Harris on the economy, immigration and other issues Donald Trump holds more favorability on should be the GOP focus. Most Americans disapproved of Biden . Harris, as his vice president, was part of that disapproval.

In this sense, the GOP attack plan should remain the same. Simply asking Americans if they are better off now than they were under the Trump administration is a powerful question.

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Additionally, Harris has no shortage of personal weak points.

When she ran for president in 2020, then-Sen. Harris of California attempted to differentiate herself by leaning into progressive policy. She said she opposed hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas, would consider abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, opposed hiring more law enforcement officers and supported mandatory buyback programs for certain firearms.

The immigration stances are particularly damning for Harris, given the record high level of illegal crossing attempts our country faced last year and her critical role in addressing the root causes of migration for Biden.

However, these radical stances can and should be used as a preview of what a Harris administration could bring. If she walks these stances back, as she has when it comes to her position on fracking , then the GOP should highlight her disingenuous nature.

Then there is the question of how much Harris was complicit in attempts to hide Biden’s mental decline from voters. This is important for the election and for accountability.

Harris was in the White House alongside Biden as it became clear he was not fit for office, and she certainly had insight into how fragile the president had become. The vice president consistently defended Biden's mental fitness against criticisms from the news media, despite what she must have known from her interactions with him. She had to have seen that Biden was not mentally fit for office.

Congress should investigate Harris' role in covering up the truth. She will have a lot to answer for there.

Republican Party should avoid attacking Harris’ characteristics

Democrats have been eager to label Republicans as sexist, racist, homophobic or any other -ism in the book for how they've responded to Harris. Republicans should deprive them of chances to do so by stopping some of the reaction that came immediately after Harris took over for Biden.

GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance quickly came under fire for referring to prominent Democrats as "childless cat ladies." Harris, who has stepchildren , was one of the names he highlighted.

These sorts of remarks are not helpful to the Republican cause of winning in November and will not be popular among suburban female voters, an important group for former President Trump's chances at reelection. In fact, early polling shows Harris gaining ground that Biden had lost with women voters. Vance's comments will make that worse for Republicans.

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One misguided attack against her has been the charge that she is a “ DEI ” candidate due to Biden’s promise in the 2020 election to pick a woman to be his vice president, as well as his focus on Black women throughout the search.

Republicans can call Harris unqualified without a framing that is off-putting to some moderates. Instead, highlighting the failed record of the Biden administration will force the vice president to either take credit for it or admit she had no control in the White House the past four years.

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According to news reports, the National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a memo last week that outlined attacks against Harris, including a section simply labeled "weird," which included her laugh, her love of Venn diagrams and her enthusiasm for school buses. None of these attacks are actually productive, and I'm not sure why Republicans insist on including them in official memos.

Harris has no shortage of policy decisions −both hers and Biden's − that leave her vulnerable to attack, and the GOP would be wise to stick to that. Anything else is unnecessary and a distraction from what matters.

Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Republicans calling Harris a 'childless cat lady' are fumbling the opportunity to beat her