Kamala Harris held her first campaign rally in Wisconsin on Tuesday, after publicly receiving endorsements from two of the last Democratic bigwigs who had not yet supported her. Almost certain to be nominated as the White House candidate, she faces the challenge of defining herself to voters before her opponents do so for her, an expert points out.
The Democratic convention, which will open in Chicago on August 19, could be a major asset for the vice president. “If she is able to avoid Donald Trump and the Republicans succeeding in defining her before her convention even takes place, she will be able to use this kind of infomercial that lasts a week to represent herself to the American population,” says Rafael Jacob, associate researcher at the Raoul-Dandurand Chair’s Observatory on the United States.
This could be a pivotal event for Harris, given that there is a higher proportion of undecided voters than there are for Donald Trump, Jacob said. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday, 11 per cent of voters have not heard enough about her to make up their minds about her. For her opponent, that figure was just 2 per cent.
Still in this same survey, 37% of people questioned said they were in favor of Mme Harris, and 46% to Mr. Trump. “She has a deficit to fill [avant le 5 novembre] and she has little time to do it, but it is feasible,” the researcher says.
In the early days of her campaign, the 50-year-old won the support of a majority of Democratic delegates. These 4,000 people are responsible for officially nominating the party’s candidate. “I look forward to being able to formally accept this nomination soon,” before the convention in Chicago, said Ms.me Harris earlier this week.
Many of her party’s leading figures have already publicly aligned themselves with her, says Rafael Jacob. “Even those who have not yet spoken out officially, I believe, can be presumed to be in her camp.”
On Tuesday, Senate and House Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries added their voices to those of their peers who support her candidacy. Joe Biden, who announced last Sunday that he was withdrawing from the American presidential election, had encouraged Democrats to rally behind the candidacy of the former prosecutor.
Mr Biden will address the American public on Wednesday about his withdrawal.
A first gathering
On Tuesday, Kamala Harris began her campaign in Wisconsin, a key state retaken by Joe Biden in 2020, after being won by Donald Trump in 2016.
The Republican Party’s presidential candidate in November “wants to take our country backwards,” the vice president of the United States said in a forceful speech in Milwaukee. “Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and the rule of law, or in a country of chaos, fear and hate?” she added.
In order to take the pulse of the voters, Mr.me Harris stopped in the Great Lakes city where the Republican convention took place last week. That’s when Donald Trump was nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for the November election, days after he was the victim of an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
The director of the US Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, also resigned on Tuesday. “As director, I take full responsibility for any security breaches,” she said during a hearing before Congress on Monday.
For the past few days, both Republicans and Democrats have been calling for his removal, Rafael Jacob points out. “It’s indefensible, it’s so serious, what happened. And there was a complete lack of accountability for the past week.”
Ready to debate
In a virtual press conference Tuesday, Donald Trump said he was ready to debate Kamala Harris. According to him, she would be “easier” to defeat than Joe Biden in the election. “She’s much more radical than him,” he said.
For his part, Mme Harris on Monday night compared the Republican nominee to a “predator” and a “con man.” “I can see the kind of guy Donald Trump is,” she said at an event in Delaware.
The former California senator has already stressed her willingness to campaign on issues such as abortion rights.
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, M’s “strong point”me Harris is foreign policy. “She is a very strong, very effective and deeply respected voice for our country around the world,” he said at a news briefing.
Still early in her campaign, the former prosecutor has already managed to raise significant amounts of money, notes researcher Rafael Jacob. Since Sunday afternoon, she has collected more than 100 million US dollars.
With Agence France-Presse and The Canadian Press