In the week U.S. President Joe Biden announced his departure from the upcoming U.S. election, prospective candidate and Vice-President Kamala Harris fundraised US$200 million and 170,000 volunteers signed up to help her campaign.
But what can we expect in the now 100 days leading up to Election Day?
For Democrats, even though the Democratic National Convention (DNC) is set to take place in Chicago later in August, political and social commentator Avis Jones-DeWeever says their eyes will be on what takes place Aug. 7.
“What’s happening on Aug. 7 is when Vice-President Harris will become officially the candidate for the Democratic party, there’s going to be a virtual meeting where the delegates can actually vote virtually prior to the convention and they need to do that in order to meet certain state deadlines to get her on the ballot in all 50 states,” DeWeever said during an interview with CTV News Channel that aired Sunday morning.
The virtual meeting will also reveal who will join Harris as her running mate on the official Democratic ticket.
Only then will everyone turn their focus toward the DNC, DeWeever says, which will now be treated as a celebration after Harris breathed new life into the party – something predicted by recent polling, as an AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found about six in 10 Democrats believe Harris would do a good job as president.
Before Biden dropped his re-election bid, a symphony of Democrat voices called for the president to step aside following his disastrous performance during a debate with the presumptive Republican nominee, former U.S. president Donald Trump, on June 27.
DeWeever called it an “ugly moment” for American liberals, with donors telling the president they’d close their pocket books and Hollywood’s George Clooney penning a New York Times article opining Biden’s inability to serve another term – but now Harris is propping the party back up.
“It is amazing to see the bounce that she has provided the Democrats in the polls – she’s literally closed the gap in several key states with Donald Trump just in a week’s time,” DeWeever said.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday the race between Harris and Trump is “essentially tied” with its latest poll seeing Trump with a two per cent lead over the current vice-president, while HarrisX/Forbes polls Trump with a three per cent lead.
“What’s going to be interesting to watch out for: will there be an additional bounce at the conclusion of the Democratic Convention? If so, that would be a very, very encouraging tailwind that she’ll have going forward into the final months until the election.”
Trump’s next steps
It’s crucial for the former president to reconsider his messaging, DeWeever said. Although Trump is leading in the polls, she notes it’s still within the margin of error.
“The momentum is going in the direction of the Harris campaign and so clearly their initial instincts in terms of really harkening to racism and sexism with regards to attacks on her, isn’t working,” DeWeever said.
Republican leaders warned its party members to steer clear from these types of attacks earlier this week and urged lawmakers to stick to critiques on the Biden-Harris administration’s policies. The admonitions came after some members and Trump allies called Harris – a former district attorney, attorney general and senator in California – as a “DEI” hire (a derisive reference to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives).
Vice-presidential pick JD Vance might also be hindering Trump’s reach with prospective voters, DeWeever adds, and called the Ohio senator a “dud” and an “embarrassment.”
“They’re going to have to figure out how can they not only energize those people who would have voted for him anyway, because they have them, how can they reach out to independents? How can they maybe sway some key demographics? I know at one point they were going after Black men very aggressively – are they going to be able to do that now? Those are some things that they need to rethink and figure out,” she said.
Then there’s the question of whether Trump will debate Harris on Sept. 10 – something the current vice-president accused him of “backpedalling” on. That said, Trump’s camp ascertains says it will not commit to a Trump-Harris debate until the Democratic Party formally chooses a nominee, deeming it inappropriate to “schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.”
With files from The Associated Press