In the battle to define Vice President Kamala Harris in the campaign for the White House , former President Donald Trump ’s nickname-giving power is often cited as a weapon.
Trump has, at times, been able to sum up an opponent’s weakness in a single word and then drive it home with relentless repetition.
“Low Energy” Jeb Bush , “Lyin’” Ted Cruz , “Little” Marco Rubio , and “Crooked” Hillary Clinton were among the most memorable political attack lines of 2016, when Trump was elected president.
“Sleepy” Joe Biden didn’t work as well during the 2020 campaign, which was shaped by the pandemic, but it looks better in retrospect.
Since Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee, Trump hasn’t landed on a definitive nickname for her. Some see this as symbolic of his campaign casting about for a way to run against her.
“One bad campaign is better than 10 good ones,” the Republican consultant Alex Castellanos observed.
When Harris rolled out an economic agenda that included price controls, Trump began flirting with “Kamala the Communist” and “Communist Kamala.” Others favor “Kamala the Chameleon” or “Chameleon Kamala” because flip-flopping goes beyond the ideological and gets to basic trustworthiness.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), often emphasizes that Harris is “fake,” altering her message and basic approach based on which audience she is addressing at the moment.
Libertarians and some progressives branded Harris “Kamala the Cop,” but the vice president is once again leaning into her prosecutorial record in this year’s campaign.
Harris’s signature guffaw has also been used in attempted nicknames. The Trump campaign has called her “Cacklin’ Kamala,” while the more alliteration-averse former president has dubbed her “Laughin’ Kamala.”
But the best name for Harris might actually be her title. She is the incumbent vice president. Joe Biden’s vice president.
This works against Harris’s strategy of presenting herself as a change candidate, someone new and distinct from the unpopular Biden administration.
A widely derided social media headline described Vance as trying to “tether” Harris to the administration as if the sitting vice president is not already so tethered.
Burdening Harris with what has been includes noting her tiebreaking Senate vote for the inflationary American Rescue Plan and claim to have been the last person in the room with Biden as he made his Afghanistan withdrawal decisions. The latter began Biden’s descent in the polls, and the former has kept him well below 50% job approval for much of his term.
It also fits in with a global anti-incumbent trend that cuts across ideological lines. Voters are angry and not always inclined to reward incumbents.
These sentiments are widespread in the United States as well. Just 25.8% believe the country is moving in the right direction compared to 64.9% who think it is on the wrong track, according to a Real Clear Politics polling average . Only 34% believe the American dream still holds true, per a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll, down from 53% in 2012.
A poll by Echelon Insights, a Republican firm, found that 54% believed Harris represented continuity with the Biden administration compared to 28% who considered her a change. That’s a public sentiment the Trump camp needs to reinforce regularly between now and Election Day.
With the debates coming up next month, emphasizing Harris’s incumbency and connection to Biden also gives Trump and Vance an opportunity to appear respectful in a way that no nickname will allow while also homing in on a major liability for the Democratic nominee.
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There will, of course, also be a time and a place for cackling, communism, and chameleons in anti-Harris messaging.
But for Harris, just being “the incumbent vice president” or “Joe Biden’s vice president” might be all the description that she needs.
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