SAVANNAH, Georgia — Voters who planned to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November are not bothered by her recent policy “flip-flops,” viewing it as personal growth.
Harris has faced criticism over her shifting support over Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, a mandatory gun buyback program, a fracking ban, expanding the Supreme Court, and a federal job guarantee since she became the Democratic nominee.
However, attendees at Harris’s speech inside the Enmarket Arena outside downtown Savannah on Thursday explained to the Washington Examiner that the changes in policy her campaign has divulged did not concern them.
Kai Williams, born and raised in Savannah, said it was natural for any person, even Harris, to have evolved in her views on public policy issues.
“No, not really concerned,” said Williams in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “It’s kind of human to have a different opinion as you dig deeper into things or learn more about them. So I wouldn’t necessarily call it flip-flopping. I would call it learning more, advancing to another level, as far as her knowledge of situations.”
Married couple Vicky and Jon Haley of Daytona Beach, Florida, drove 230 miles to be in Savannah for Harris’s visit, the first time that a nominated presidential candidate from either party has visited the Hostess City since the 1990s, according to the campaign.
Vicky characterized changes in Harris’s views as the result of her willingness to “listen to” the public and “her adjusting to the American people.”
“Kamala Harris is in government, and she hears a lot more things than we do as citizens,” said Jon Haley. “And I think that they can change, change their mind.”
Chris Finney, who works for the city’s largest employer, Gulfstream Aerospace, said he believed Harris had evolved in her views based on her time in the White House over the past 3 1/2 years.
“That was when she first ran and didn’t have a long campaign. So she’s been in office four years as vice president. You get to see a whole lot more as vice president that she didn’t get to see before that to change her opinion,” said Finney, 64. “I don’t have a problem with somebody just evolving to a different opinion. If you go Wednesday and say one thing and go Friday and say something totally different, then then I have a problem with that.”
Finney noted that former President Barack Obama softened his views on gay marriage.
Harris did her first media interview since starting her campaign 40 days ago on Thursday and offered an explanation for the policy shifts for the first time, confirming voters’ beliefs that her time as vice president had informed her new understanding of certain issues.
“My values have not changed. So that is the reality of it. And four years of being vice president, I’ll tell you, one of the aspects, to your point, is traveling the country extensively,” Harris said. “I believe it is important to build consensus, and it is important to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems.”
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Miles Pearlman, a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, said his concern over Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump led him to show up today to support Harris.
“From past errors and mistakes that Trump has made, it’s clear that I don’t want him in the office again,” said Pearlman, 19. “Obviously, the support of Obama and Biden — she seems like a great choice.”
