close
close

What Harris must do to beat Trump

This is an adapted excerpt from the October 13 episode of “Ayman.”

With just over three weeks to go until Election Day, the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is a dead end. New polling from NBC News released Sunday shows the race tied, with Harris and Trump both representing 48% of registered voters nationally. It’s a notable drop from last month’s NBC News poll, which had Harris leading Trump by five points within the margin of error.

What if adhering to presidential norms hurts Harris’ campaign?

When Harris entered the race in July, she brought with her a wave of momentum and excitement. So just a few months later, many may be wondering: how did we get here? How is it possible that the race is still so close?

After all, Trump has steered clear of debates in favor of interviews with podcast bros, ranted nonsensically across circles and even appeared at Coachella — of all places — in a last-minute Hail Mary attempt to win support in the blue states.

Meanwhile, Harris is acting like a presidential candidate. She held town halls with voters and spent all of last week on a heavy media blitz. But what if that’s the problem? What if adhering to presidential norms hurts Harris’ campaign?

After all, she has positioned herself as a new candidate for the future. It was a message concerned Democratic voters needed to hear after President Joe Biden buckled under pressure and withdrew from the race. But since then she has not distanced herself from Biden, but has kept a firm grip on him and his policies.

In two different interviews in recent days, Harris had the chance to explain how her presidency would be different from Biden’s. But the best thing the vice president seemed to come up with was telling Stephen Colbert, “I’m not Joe Biden, but I’m not Donald Trump either.”

The problem is that that distinction may not be enough for voters. The closer she has adhered to Biden’s unpopular policies, especially on Gaza, the more damaging it has been to her campaign.

Instead of meeting with leaders of the Uncommitted Movement to address their concerns about Israel’s attack on Gaza and put daylight between Biden’s position on the war and hers, Harris is enlisting the support of Republicans like former Rep. Liz Cheney. She has even promised to convene a bipartisan board of advisers, including Republicans, on policy if she wins.

Compare the vice president’s current polling to Trump’s in 2016. Eight years ago, he was a complete political novice. Voters had no idea how he would govern, but they voted him into office anyway. Today, his supporters know exactly who he is and who he will be as president. So much so that Trump is performing better today than in 2016 and 2020, according to USA Today’s David Jackson.

The closer she has adhered to Biden’s unpopular policies, especially on Gaza, the more damaging it has been to her campaign.

This should serve as a wake-up call for the Harris campaign. With Trump, the American people know what they get. He stands for fascism, authoritarianism and the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

But the question for Democrats in this final stretch remains: what are you for? What is Harris for? And will it ultimately be enough to stop Trump and his authoritarian vision of the country?

Allison Detzel contributed.