CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris has repeatedly referred to herself as a political underdog as she prepares for the fall fight in her new role as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.
But with her persistently strong polling and fundraising numbers , Democrats at the party 's national convention in Chicago last week were starting to consider her the election's front-runner, a drastic reversal of their prospects against former President Donald Trump compared to a month ago under President Joe Biden .
For Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, for example, whose home state of Georgia is once again part of the Democratic nominee's electoral map after Biden suspended his campaign last month, Harris is the front-runner against Trump 70-odd days before November.
"She might have been underdog when she first started because you've got to get the name recognition change from Biden to her, but now she's leading," Dickens told the Washington Examiner at a Georgia delegation breakfast. "She's got the polls to prove it, and the energy right here at this convention is definitely saying this is gonna be our next president."
New York delegate Tonya Lewis Taylor, executive director of the I Will Graduate youth development program in New York City, was similarly adamant regarding Harris, underscoring the importance of confidence.
“We're never underdogs," Taylor, a gospel recording artist, told the Washington Examiner at a New York breakfast. "We have to run our race and believe that we can accomplish the goal that we set forth, and so I never view myself as an underdog, so I would not say she's an underdog.”
A fellow New Yorker, New York City Councilwoman Pierina Ana Sanchez, amplified Harris's political and prosecutorial experience, but she tempered her expectations, concerned that the vice president will encounter problems because of her race and gender as former President Barack Obama arguably did in 2008 and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
“We don't see her as the underdog, don't believe that she is the underdog, but I think she needs to do whatever is necessary to reach as many voters in as many places as possible," Sanchez told the Washington Examiner. "As a woman, as a woman of color, as a woman that is black and Indian … she has so many potential challenges in this country, right? There is racism in this country. There is sexism in this country. And so in that way, emphasizing [her] record and where she's been in her career, I think that's the winning strategy, and reaching out to as many voters as possible.”
Sanchez's concerns reflect a greater self-awareness among Democrats after 2016, when the party was overconfident in Clinton's chances against Trump before the former president won Michigan , Pennsylvania , and Wisconsin by 78,000 votes for the White House .
Maryland delegate Sharonda Huffman said she agreed that though Harris may be leading Trump by an average of 2 percentage points in national polls, "it's all about these swing states."
"She is the underdog," Huffman told the Washington Examiner at a Maryland breakfast. "America is on the cusp of something new and different, and she is the underdog, and we can never take anything for [granted]."
One of those states is Michigan, where Harris has another average 2-point edge on Trump, her largest margin in any of the six 2024 battlegrounds of Arizona , Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina , and Wisconsin, according to Real Clear Politics.
Speaking of confidence, Michigan Democratic Party Chairwoman Lavora Barnes was confident in her organization's ground game, which is being coordinated with the Harris campaign, particularly in contrast to that of the Trump campaign and Michigan Republicans. But Barnes simultaneously insisted she and her colleagues are "working in some tough territory."
"We're making sure we're talking to voters who maybe voted for Obama and then went away from the party for a minute, and now we're bringing them back," Barnes told the Washington Examiner at a Michigan breakfast. "They're coming back, but it's work to make sure they're coming back. If you don't run as the underdog, if you get complacent and comfortable, that's how you lose."
But there are advantages to being an underdog, according to Michigan delegate Bobby Christian, who ran for Detroit-based Wayne County commissioner this year.
"The underdog story, everybody loves it, because the majority of us in America, we're underdogs, so we believe in that story. That's gonna be one of her stronger suits," Christian told the Washington Examiner at an earlier Great Lakes State breakfast. "Sometimes being too confident can come off real cocky and negative, so you always just want to, you want to be even-keeled, and you want to relate to everybody you can. But the underdog, everybody relates to."
Georgia DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston quipped that Harris being the underdog "is the best place" for a politician to be.
"It means that she wants, she's not going to take anything for granted, and it also means she wants everyone out here not to take it for granted," Boston told the Washington Examiner at the same Georgia breakfast attended by the Atlanta mayor. "We have to keep on working all the way up until the polls close on Election Day. Every vote will matter."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Harris campaign has bristled at descriptions of the vice president as the front-runner, with aides more comfortable promoting how she and 2024 vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) raised $82 million and had 200,000 volunteer shifts filled during the week of the convention.
"The convention was a galvanizing moment for the Harris-Walz coalition throughout the country, energizing and mobilizing volunteer and grassroots donors alike," Jen O'Malley Dillon, the Harris-Walz 2024 campaign chairwoman, wrote in a memo on Sunday. "Headed into Labor Day, our campaign is using those resources and enthusiasm to build on our momentum, taking no voters for granted and communicating relentlessly with battleground voters every single day between now and Election Day — all the while, Trump is focused on very little beyond online tantrums and attacking the voters critical to winning 270 electoral votes."
Most Popular
Comments / 0