By failing to prevent the return of Donald Trump to the head of the country, Kamala Harris loses a major fight in the history of the United States. A fiasco which is as much a political failure of the Democratic Party as the personal failure of its candidate.
1. A blitzkrieg and blur campaign
Faced with Donald Trump, who entered the campaign after his lost election in 2020, the Democratic Party got bogged down by letting Joe Biden run for a hypothetical second term. Many signals were already red when he announced his candidacy for re-election in April 2023. Then the obvious precariousness of his health and his disastrous television performances should have encouraged him to make a clear and rapid withdrawal. This was without taking into account the stubbornness of his close family clan. His late decision (July 21) to throw in the towel only allowed a blitzkrieg campaign for his running mate.
Kamala Harris was only officially inaugurated on August 22, on the 4th day of the Democratic convention… Without having gone through the party primaries, this method of nomination where she had recorded such a disastrous score in 2020 that she had withdrawn from the race from the 5th internal debate. A time carried by a wind of hope and a smiling optimism, candidate Harris suffered from a lack of notoriety in the face of the Trump-Musk arena, omnipresent in the media. And despite her efforts to reactivate the communication codes formerly used by Barack Obama, she was unable to generate massive support for his personality.
2. Offbeat themes
Weighted down by the legacy of the Biden Administration, Kamala Harris has relentlessly suffered the blows from her brutal opponent. Trump used shocking slogans (“repair the country”, “Make America Great Again”) to denounce the spectacular inflation of recent years and immigration issues. In response, Harris chose different themes: abortion, the rights of women and minorities, support for Israel and Ukraine…
A gamble far from finding the desired response; Kamala Harris even recorded a poor performance among voters: the candidate attracted fewer Americans than Joe Biden four years ago (54% compared to 57% in 2020). Ditto, in Latino and African-American electorates, where Kamala Harris encountered the same handicap as Hillary Clinton in 2016: being a woman. In recent days, former President Barack Obama came to the rescue to try to break through this glass ceiling… In vain.
3. Dividing support
Caricatured as a candidate of the system and the powerful, the Californian Kamala Harris received, from the Obama clan and the big stars, double-edged support: in an America more divided than ever, the stars of Hollywood and the song embody a ” establishment” decried by part of the rural and popular electorate.
As for the running mate, his choice appears today to be an important strategic error: the likeable but not very charismatic Tim Walz is governor of Minnesota, a state won by the Democrats. The option of a ticket with Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, would undoubtedly have helped him to win this pivotal state and generate another dynamic.
