Harris sidesteps the spotlight when it comes to her identity

Vice President Kamala Harris keeps facing questions about the historic nature of her candidacy. She’s choosing not to engage.

Harris, in her first sit-down interview with a journalist since rising to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, was asked about former President Donald Trump’s comment that she had only recently “turned Black.” She simply said: “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please.”

And when asked about the now-iconic photograph of her grandniece Amara Ajagu listening to her acceptance speech in Chicago , and what it meant for young women of color, she responded, “I am running because I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment, for all Americans, regardless of race and gender.”

Her response was an encapsulation of both a campaign strategy and a long-held belief from Harris herself about what she should focus on as a politician. She has repeatedly been the first woman, Black person or South Asian American to hold a position throughout her career. But rather than talk about it explicitly, she lets the historic nature speak for itself.

“Race and gender? Honey, I wouldn’t even play two minutes with that. Barack [Obama] broke the mold when he became the Democratic nominee, and he broke the mold when he became president of the United States. Hillary Clinton broke the mold when she became the Democratic nominee,” Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic operative and outside Harris adviser, told POLITICO.

“We've had these conversations before, we've had them, there's nothing new that she can add to. Every time you break the mold, you no longer have to recreate it,” she added.

Aides say that Harris has never wanted to get caught up in “identity politics,” even if she doesn’t shy away from the cultural touch points that make her candidacy historic. The campaign, they say, needs to make the final stretch about broadening her appeal, and she needs to reach those who are still on the fence about voting for her or Trump. Downplaying her identity ensures voters who may not prioritize her identity are open to her candidacy.

“The people who those things matter to have made up their mind. But the people who aren’t motivated by the historic nature haven’t made up their mind. We are in the phase of convincing that second group,” said a Harris aide granted anonymity to discuss the campaign's thinking.

In the past, politicians talking explicitly about one’s race or gender was about getting voters used to the idea of someone in the United States holding power that isn’t a white man. But aides and allies of Harris argue that she no longer has to do that.

It’s a welcome shift, some Black women say, thankful that Harris is leading the way in showing what it looks like when Black women in politics get to focus on policy and not have to talk about being “the first” in every interview.

“As a Black woman, you wake up every day knowing you are a Black woman and the world don't ever let you forget that you are a Black woman, so she doesn't need to profess or wear a sticker on her shirt that she is a Black woman,” Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), a former Harris aide and current ally, told POLITICO recently. “ The way that she thinks about what she is doing in this moment, it is bigger than just her gender or her race.”

And some point out that women and people of color are often asked questions that men and white people are not.

“Nobody asks a white man that question,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. “What she is doing is responding to, 'I am not going to be boxed in a way that I have to defend my humanity and my identity by anybody.' That is a powerful stance.”

“She has decided she is not going to feed into the same racist, sexist tropes that seek to dehumanize us to make us justify our very being on this Earth,” she added.

It’s not that Harris doesn’t ever talk about being Black, but it’s almost never explicit. She has talked about going to Howard University, a historically Black university, about being a member of the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha and about how her mother often told her to “be the first, but not the last.” Even in her response to the question CNN's Dana Bash asked about the photo, she said, “I did see that photograph, and I was deeply touched by it.”

But her strategy does represent a stark departure from the approach that Hillary Clinton took to her candidacy in 2016, in which she leaned heavily into her identity as the first woman with a real shot at the presidency.

“Women, and particularly women of color do not often get that luxury. We often find ourselves in institutions where we are constantly defending ourselves,” said Ashley Allison, who worked on Biden and Harris' 2020 presidential campaign. “I feel like I'm getting a master class right now in permission structures and how to show up. [Harris is saying]: 'I don't have to defend myself to you about my identity.’ It's like, ‘I have been very clear. If you don't like it, that's on you. That says more about you than me.’”

Trump, for his part, has struggled to define Harris as an opponent and has tried to tempt her into engaging on those terms. The first time Harris responded to the attack that she'd recently "turned Black," she called it “the same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect,” adding “Let me just say, the American people deserve better.” The Trump campaign has leaned on a grab bag of attacks, some of which include her race and gender, some of which do not.

Kimberly Peeler-Allen, co-founder of Higher Heights, a national organization focused on advancing Black women's political power, said Republicans are “still trying to figure out how to deal with a candidate” who isn’t leaning into her gender or race.

“With Obama and then with Hillary, we saw people just saying, ‘Oh, it’s a Black presidency, it’s a woman presidency,’” Peeler-Allen said. “Without naming or having to say, 'I am a woman of color, I am the daughter of immigrants, I am a woman,' [Harris] is able to draw on all of that as she is navigating this race.”