Vice President Kamala Harris has roughly 100 days between now and Election Day to make the case to the public that she is better suited than former President Donald Trump to serve in the White House, assuming she becomes the Democratic nominee.
This truncated amount of time could be daunting for Harris, who did not lead the ticket until President Joe Biden exited the 2024 race on Sunday. But top Democratic strategists claimed the short timespan could actually work out in Harris’s favor.
“You could argue they lost some time in fundraising in July, and time matters for fundraising. But, gosh, I’d like to think that was made up for in the last few days when they broke $100 million. So I’m not concerned about that,” Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in 2016, told Politico during a roundtable with two other strategists.
Within 24 hours of Biden endorsing Harris for president, her campaign raised $81 million. By Tuesday, that figure had climbed to $126 million, a staggering amount for any presidential candidate. Harris also has the benefit of inheriting much of Biden’s campaign infrastructure.
“She has a staff in place. It was a prepared, capable campaign that had plenty of time to get set up. The DNC and the party were in good shape. She is vastly outmatching Trump on ground game right now,” Mook continued. “The only things I could point to is it would be nice to have more time to think about a VP, but I think the ones she’s looking at are excellent. And I just don’t think that’s really going to have much impact.”
Similarly, Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton’s campaign manager in 2008, added: “She’s not starting from scratch; she inherited a campaign apparatus and structure.”
“I don’t think she really has the burden of not having enough time,” Solis Doyle continued. “I like the sprint to Election Day from now until November. I think it works to her advantage.”
The strategists did, however, caution that Trump still has time to severely attack Harris over the American public’s souring mood over the economy and inflation given the fact that she is the sitting vice president.
“Inflation — that’s the drum that he’s going to beat,” Mook said when Politico asked what Trump’s biggest advantage over Harris was. “And as we all know, he opposed a very conservative bipartisan agreement on immigration and killed it for the express purpose of perpetuating what’s happening at the border. So those are two cudgels that he can use.”
“People aren’t happy. I think that’s his strongest advantage,” added Solis Doyle. “If people aren’t happy, why are they unhappy? In presidential politics, it is always a referendum on the sitting president. I think that’s the advantage that Trump has.”
Stuart Stevens, who was Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign lead strategist, went in a different direction on Trump’s biggest advantage.
“I’d say Trump’s greatest advantage is that there are still a lot of racists in America,” Stevens said. “For all the talk we have about how race impacts our politics, I don’t think we talk about it enough.”
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Republican leaders have warned the GOP against criticizing Harris as a “DEI” candidate, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusive initiatives, while Solis Doyle warned Harris to ignore Trump’s attacks against her identity.
“In terms of how she reacts to his racist, sexist, misogynist attacks on her, I would just not even go there. Do not take the bait,” she said.