“She is now much closer to the center left,” notes Robert Rowland, professor of political communications at the University of Kansas, estimating that the 59-year-old Democrat “seems much more comfortable now explaining her ideas “.
In an ultra-divided America and one month before an election that promises to be extremely close, the vice-president is betting that the November 5 election against Republican Donald Trump will be won in the center, by mobilizing undecided voters decisive States, and not by giving guarantees to the most left-wing electorate.
Flat on the death penalty or hydraulic fracturing
Kamala Harris no longer promises, for example, to ban hydraulic fracturing, even though she has opposed this highly polluting method of hydrocarbon extraction in the past.
The former California senator also promises to toughen migration policy. She cites analyzes from Goldman Sachs to tout her economic program and welcomes the support of former Vice President Dick Cheney – two names that make the most progressive Democrats bristle.
At the same time, she vigorously defends the right to abortion, proudly recalls having been one of the first political leaders to marry homosexual couples when she was a magistrate in San Francisco, and intends to increase taxes on large fortunes.
Since entering the campaign, Kamala Harris has avoided talking about the death penalty, the abolition of which she has long called for.
Yes to weapons, but also to more controls
His approach to the gun issue, politically explosive in the United States, speaks for itself. The former magistrate promises to ban semi-automatic rifles and tougher background checks on Americans who purchase firearms.
But she now never misses an opportunity to say that she herself owns a weapon. On the set of American television popess Oprah Winfrey, she even declared with a laugh: “If anyone forces entry to my home, they will be shot. »
Her rival takes pleasure in calling her a “weather vane”, while asserting that deep down she remains an inveterate “Marxist”.
Kamala Harris, who has never been a figure on the left wing of the Democratic Party like Senator Bernie Sanders for example, insists that her “values” have not changed.
“She has to be careful not to be perceived as someone who has no backbone,” notes Melissa DeRosa, a Democratic strategist.
She refuses to go like Donald Trump in the field of personal insults, even if she did not hesitate to abuse the notorious sensitivity of her opponent during their debate on September 10.
Criticisms of the method
The 59-year-old Democrat is leading an extremely disciplined campaign, made up of well-rehearsed speeches, targeted trips and interviews with people committed to her cause. She is not fond of major television interviews, after which the Trump camp takes pleasure in mocking her sometimes abstract, even abstruse, remarks.
Getting more in touch with voters is what strategists are advising Kamala Harris, here last week in Georgia with survivors of Hurricane Helene.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP
“She has to be careful not to be perceived as someone who has no backbone,” notes Melissa DeRosa, a Democratic strategist. “Being against Donald Trump is not enough,” she judges, calling on him to reach out more to voters, with very concrete proposals.
“Fewer celebrities, more trade unionists and women from the suburban suburbs,” she demands, in reference to the participation of Kamala Harris on the Oprah Winfrey show, during which the singer Jennifer Lopez or even the The actress Julia Roberts intervened via screen.
There is more contradictory than her…
Professor Robert Rowland, for his part, doubts that the accusations of inconsistency really harm the vice-president “because they also apply to Trump and to JD Vance”, his running mate.
