Julia FlanaganTonight, as part of what is already an historic, first-ever all-virtual political convention, Kamala Harris will accept the Democratic party’s nomination for vice-president, becoming the first woman of colour to be part of a ticket for either major party.
This year’s quadrennial gathering may be lacking in the pageantry and glitz – to say nothing of the crowds and balloons, always the balloons – that usually accompany the formal nomination of a presidential ticket, but the messages of change and unity, along with calls for a simple return to sanity are ringing louder and more urgently than ever.
Disagreements between candidates during the party’s primaries have been quickly reconciled – or at least parked for now – in an attempt to demonstrate unity behind the nominee, former Vice-President Joe Biden. And it’s the figure of Harris, one of his prominent primary rivals, on which the embodiment of the party’s optimistic collective face largely now depends.
The California Senator’s appearance in tonight’s all-star proceedings will come after 2016 presidential nominee, former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former president Barack Obama. After his wife’s crowning address to end the convention’s opening night, the 44th president has a lot to live up to. As The Hill’s Niall Stanage tweeted, it’s “pretty wild that the two best orators in American politics are married to each other.”
But the symbolic focus will be on the 55-year-old daughter of immigrants who for many represents the future of the Democratic party.
As part of a powerful personal narrative she is expected to share tonight, the former prosecutor has developed a formidable reputation for holding the Trump administration to account. Her sharp performances on the Senate Judiciary Committee – most notably against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 and her subsequent confrontation with Attorney General Bill Barr – have helped elevate this first-term senator on the national stage.
With Biden having committed to choosing a woman as his running mate in March of this year, the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis in May and subsequent national protests for racial justice, along with the passing of civil rights icon John Lewis, only solidified for the campaign the urgency in selecting a woman of colour.
But the relationship between Biden and Harris wasn’t always as unified as it now appears.
Viewers watching the second night of the first Democratic primary debate in June last year could have been forgiven for thinking that a Biden/Harris 2020 ticket might be a non-starter, after Sen Harris sharply criticized Biden for “very hurtful” comments he had made about working with two segregationist senators in the ‘70s and ‘80s. She also challenged him on his position on the government’s use of mandatory school busing in the 1970s, an issue of which she had personal experience as a schoolgirl.
No one looked more shocked by the exchange than Biden himself.
For that reason, among others, Biden’s choice of Harris was a smart move. By choosing a one-time rival – and one who clearly is not afraid to speak up and hold him to account – Biden has demonstrated he “does not hold grudges.”
Unlike the current incumbent of the White House – who often reflexively attacks anyone who criticizes him – Biden’s long political career has shown him that strong leadership involves listening.
Republicans have so far struggled in attempts to find an attack narrative against Harris. The president initially grasped for his usual knee-jerk pushback against women who challenge him, referring to her as “nasty” or “horrible,” while broader attempts to label her as a radical leftist who wants to defund the police have fallen short given her tough-on-crime reputation as a prosecutor.
A Period of Transition?
Many have speculated that Biden, who if elected would be 78 when he assumes the office, may not seek a second term. His choice of running mate was always going to be one of the most consequential decisions of his campaign.
With all those implications, reaction among other Democratic politicians and a broad range of opinion polls since the announcement have shown that Harris has been a popular choice.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll indicated that Americans approve of Biden’s choice. In that poll, 54% of Americans approve of the Harris selection and 29% disapprove. Perhaps most importantly, Democrats overwhelmingly approve of the pick (by an 86% to 8% margin) as do independents (52% to 29%).
Other prominent Democrats have rallied round. During Sunday’s morning political shows, primary rival and progressive candidate Bernie Sanders praised Biden’s choice of Harris. “I believe that Kamala, as somebody who has known her for a number of years, is incredibly smart, tough, and I would not want to be vice-president [Mike] Pence in a debate with her,” Sanders said.
That vice-presidential debate is set for October 7 in Salt Lake City.
If the Democrats’ strategy is to make this election a referendum on Donald Trump, then Kamala Harris’s speech on the evening Biden unveiled her as his running mate showed she was ready to bring her forensic prosecutorial skills to bear on the current administration.
“The case against Donald Trump and Mike Pence is open and shut,” she said.
“The president’s mismanagement of the pandemic has plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” she declared. “And we’re experiencing a moral reckoning with racism and systemic injustice that has brought a new coalition of conscience to the streets of our country, demanding change.
“America is crying out for leadership. Yet we have a president who cares more about himself than the people who elected him; a president who is making every challenge we face even more difficult to solve.”
We can likely expect more of the same tonight and throughout the remaining 76 days of this campaign. But with that notion in the background of being a “bridge” between the party’s past and future, there will be as much pressure on Harris to be seen as a president-in-waiting as there is an expectation that she might just be Biden’s attack dog.
Sen Harris personifies the growing power and influence of women in the Democratic party and a changing political dynamic in the country as a whole.
“Women have the power to steer the election,” Dahleen Glanton wrote recently in the Chicago Tribune. “At a time when our nation is more polarized than most of us have experienced in our lifetime, Harris will have the arduous yet essential job of seeing to it that every woman feels as though she has a stake in her success.”
Donald Trump is known for often living in the past. If he really believes the “suburban housewife” can still be scared into his camp, Kamala Harris has the chance – and the responsibility – to challenge such a sepia-toned assumption and bring the debate fully into the 21st century.
That task begins tonight.
You can watch a live-stream of Sen Harris’s speech and the third night of the Democratic National Convention here.
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See also:
Biden’s Choice – May 10
And read Julia Flanagan on last year’s Democratic primary debates:
Democrats face Foreign Policy Test – December
The Road To Iowa Goes Through Georgia – November
A Dozen Deliberative Dems Debate – October
And Then There Were Ten… For Now – September
