Vice President Harris is doing her best to appeal to centrist voters, even if this risks angering progressives.
The move toward the center raises recent questions about Harris’ authenticity, especially given that she advocated more left-wing positions during her 2020 primary campaign.
But the vice president and her allies clearly realize that the risk is worth it, because the outcome of the election will likely be decided by a handful of independent-minded voters in six or seven swing states.
The Election forecast According to The Hill and Decision Desk HQ, Harris currently has a 55 percent chance of winning in November, a result that underscores how close the election is likely to be.
Harris’ efforts to win the center are being waged on several fronts.
It no longer supports a Ban on frackingas in 2019. It is no longer push the Medicare-for-All health care concept, as she did in the Senate and in the early stages of her primary campaign. After once hinting that she wanted to decriminalize illegal border crossings, she says now There must be “consequences” for the people who make these border crossings.
Beyond these specific details, a more moderate tone can now be heard from Harris and her campaign team.
When she talks about immigration today, she often highlights her commitment to border security — and her record as California attorney general, during which she says she prosecuted gang members for human trafficking.
On Israel and Gaza – an issue that has deeply divided the Democratic base – Harris stresses her support for Israel’s right to self-defense, even as she admits that too many Palestinians have been killed. In her major CNN interview on Thursday, she said she opposes a suspension of U.S. arms sales to Israel.
As for domestic policy, Harris said in the same CNN interview that if elected, she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet, but stressed that she did not have anyone specific in mind. “I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who is a Republican,” Harris told Dana Bash.
In the meantime, Harris’ speech Her speech at the Democratic Party Convention is delivered in a demonstratively patriotic tone and emphasizes that, in her view, her own rise to power would have been impossible in any other country.
At the convention and elsewhere, she frequently invokes the term “liberty” – a concept that tends to be invoked more often by Republicans than Democrats – when making the case for economic justice, abortion rights and gun safety.
There has been some criticism of these measures, particularly from pro-Palestinian activists on the Gaza issue.
But on a broader level, leading voices on the left, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.), are supporting Harris largely because of her ability to prevent what they see as the disaster of a second Trump presidency.
Proponents of centrism within the Democratic movement are celebrating Harris’ recent tone without reservation.
“I thought her acceptance speech was the most centrist Democratic acceptance speech I’ve ever heard, including Bill Clinton in 1992,” said Jim Kessler, vice president of policy at Third Way, a moderate group.
“She expresses Democratic centrism very well. She has moved to the center on issues that voters really want to see – the border is the most important issue, but also on crime and by taking the word ‘opportunity’ and making it the economic buzzword of the campaign,” Kessler added.
Former Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Penn.) said he believed Harris’ moves would be made in a way that recognizes “that elections are won by appealing to moderate voters.”
Altmire, who served three terms as a moderate Democrat, later wrote a book decrying America’s growing polarization, claiming that Harris’ “departure from her previous positions, particularly on the fracking issue, is designed to appeal specifically to the states where the election is won.”
Altmire acknowledged, however, that Harris could face real challenges because, he said, “the positions she has held throughout her career are actually very far left.”
Of course, many left-wing activists would disagree with this assessment.
In the 2020 primaries, Harris faced skepticism from left-leaning voters who believed she was adopting some of her rhetoric for political reasons. “Kamala the cop” was a derogatory term often used to underscore these doubts, referring to her record as district attorney in San Francisco and later as her state’s attorney general.
Now it is Republicans and right-leaning independents who are voicing their skepticism. That is even true of Republicans who are not attacking Harris as harshly as Team Trump, who routinely label them “California radicals.” Trump himself seems to have finally settled on the nickname “Comrade Kamala” for Harris.
Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist, said Harris could gain some leeway to change voters’ minds, but there were limits.
“People are used to politicians changing their messaging and positions when they go into a general election campaign,” he said. “But I think some of these – like fracking – are going to hurt it more than others. If I were the Trump campaign, I would continue to harp on this, especially in Pennsylvania, but across the board.”
Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist who served as a senior adviser to Senator Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) presidential campaign, described the risks for Harris in more dramatic terms.
He said her recent centrist tone had increased criticism that she was a “fraud without a political core.”
For now, Harris is willing to bet that she can fend off these attacks and win the center – and with it the White House.
The Memo is a column by Niall Stanage.
