Kamala Harris’s ascension to the top of the ticket has energized the Democratic base and refocused Republican attack lines. With fewer than 100 days to go until the election, defining Kamala Harris will take place at break-neck speed. This Washington Examiner series will take a closer look at various aspects of her campaign and persona. Part Three is on “Kamala the Liberal.” Read Part One and Part Two.
Former President Donald Trump has been workshopping political attacks on new Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and one that he’d like to see stick is “radical Left lunatic.”
But as other Republicans criticize her as a “San Francisco liberal,” more traditional political nomenclature, the strategy is clear: caricature Harris for her past policy positions.
Republicans have been increasing their criticism of Harris’s substance rather than her style since Democrats started calling for President Joe Biden to step down as their party’s presumptive nominee. From her past support of Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and Black Lives Matter, to her backing an assault weapons buyback program and the reconstruction of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement federal agency from “scratch” as recently as five years ago during her 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Harris’s record provides the GOP with an opportunity to turn persuadable independents, disenchanted Democrats, and disaffected Republicans against her.
California Republican strategist Duf Sundheim, who will likely vote for Harris over Trump, described the GOP criticism of Harris as “liberal” as “the right move,” dismissing the likelihood it will have the unintended consequence of encouraging more Left-leaning Democrats to coalesce behind her.
“It is going to force the Harris campaign to decide whether to allow ‘Harris to be Harris,’ which is too liberal for swing states or to have her tack to the middle,” Sundheim told the Washington Examiner. “She is much more comfortable when advocating [for] liberal change.”
PART ONE: KAMALA THE COP
PART TWO: KAMALA THE ABORTION ADVOCATE
One example is in the must-win commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick has seized on Harris’s past opposition to fracking, among her other energy policies, to undermine incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).
“Bob Casey just endorsed the most liberal nominee in U.S. history,” McCormick posted on social media earlier this week.
A California Democratic strategist disagreed, contending the liberal criticism is “so overused and predictable” that it has “become juvenile pablum.”
“The Harris campaign should keep doing exactly what they are doing,” the strategist told the Washington Examiner.
To that end, the Harris campaign has been trying to balance countering the liberal criticism, by walking back her past positions and embracing Biden’s own record, with the need to reintroduce her to the public by underscoring her work experience as a San Francisco district attorney, a California attorney general, and a Golden State U.S. senator. As a result, Harris no longer supports Medicare for All or a buyback program and backs fracking, in addition to surging resources to the border.
“Vice President Harris spent her career as a prosecutor who took on predators and fraudsters and stood up to big banks on behalf of middle class families — it’s why convicted felon Donald Trump is scared to debate her, and why his campaign is lying about her record,” Harris campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika told the Washington Examiner. “The facts are clear: Vice President Harris has been a key leader in working across the aisle to pass the Biden-Harris administration’s historic, popular agenda, including landmark bipartisan bills to rebuild our roads and bridges and keep our communities safe from gun violence.”
At the same time, some Democrats acknowledge the liberal criticism could become problematic for Harris. For instance, preliminary public opinion research from Democratic polling firm Blueprint found the word most commonly associated with the vice president was “liberal.” Although other top choices were positive, others included “out of touch,” “Leftist,” and “extreme.”
Blueprint lead pollster Evan Roth Smith had this advice for the Harris campaign regarding its message: “Don’t burden it with ideological stuff.”
“‘She’s a pragmatic. She’s a bold progressive.’ Nope, doesn’t work,” Roth Smith told reporters last week. “Give me the policy. Give me the breath of fresh air. Give me champion of the middle class. Give me reproductive freedom. Give me a change in our political system.”
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is downplaying Harris as “just as incompetent” as Biden and “even more liberal, and Americans of all ages are worse off thanks to her failed record.”
“She was the tie-breaking vote in the Senate for Joe Biden’s most disastrous policies,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told the Washington Examiner. “Not only does Kamala need to defend her support of Joe Biden’s failed agenda over the past four years, she also needs to answer for her own terrible weak-on-crime record in California. A vote for Kamala is a vote to allow illegal immigrants from all over the world to invade our country, a vote to defund the police, abolish ICE, and bail violent criminals out of jail.”
While Harris has experienced an immediate bump in polling and donations, undercutting Trump’s lead after an assassination attempt, Republicans have discounted the bounce as a honeymoon period before voters better understand her liberal record. Regardless, the GOP does retain one advantage. According to Marquette Law School Poll Director Charles Franklin, “there are more conservatives than liberals nationally” and “this has been true for a long time.”
“Harris’ voting record in the Senate was quite liberal, slightly to the right of Elizabeth Warren but to the Left of all other Democrats when she was in the Senate,” battleground Wisconsin-based Franklin told the Washington Examiner, alluding to the Massachusetts senator. “[Harris’s] record as a prosecutor and attorney general are less clearly so, but will no doubt be argued about.”
Another California Republican, strategist Ron Nehring, implored the GOP to criticize Harris as a “Leftist” and not a “liberal,” asserting “Leftist” is stronger and more accurate.
“The traditional meaning of the term liberal refers to being free and open, which more accurately describes conservatives today than the woke Left, which won’t even tolerate pronouns they don’t like, and labels as a ‘hater’ anyone who believes women’s sports should be for… women,” Nehring told the Washington Examiner. “In today’s polarized society, activists in both parties easily fall into the trap of just echoing terms which work well for people in their camp, but don’t work for appealing beyond it. Labeling Harris a ‘liberal,’ as opposed to other, more persuasive terms, is an example.”
Nevertheless, the liberal criticism of Harris has not been not enough to deter Sundheim, the first California Republican, from voting for the vice president over Trump in 100-odd days, conceding more centrist members of the GOP, including himself, were considering not casting a ballot for Biden again because of his age and mental acuity.
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Simultaneously, Republicans need to be mindful that the liberal criticism of Harris has emboldened more Left-leaning Democrats, including young people such as Jack Lobel, spokesman for Voters of Tomorrow.
“Vice President Harris will restore reproductive rights, protect our climate, and build up the middle class,” Lobel told the Washington Examiner. “MAGA might call that radical — we call it fighting for everyday Americans, including young people of all walks of life.”
