Democrats Are Scrambling to Nominate Kamala Harris. Our Strategy Hasn’t Changed

I have been working on behalf of Republican candidates for almost 40 years. In all my years in politics, I have never witnessed a more chaotic news cycle for the Democrats.

After Donald J. Trump’s dominant debate performance in June, Democrats hit the “panic” button. At first, Joe Biden’s campaign released internal polling meant to quell Democrats’ fears that Biden wasn’t up to the task of reelection. When the writing on the wall became too obvious to ignore, Democrats abandoned the will of their primary voters and forced Joe Biden off the stage themselves.

Now, Democrats have been forced to do an about-face, rip up the playbook that they have spent almost four years developing, and create an entirely new campaign around a backup candidate. In their chaos, Democrats are trying to flip the script and pretend that Republicans are scrambling as we prepare to take on Biden’s co-pilot Kamala.

Sorry to break it to Democrats, but our strategy hasn’t changed. As vice president and border czar, Kamala Harris owns all of the Biden administration’s many failures, and our operation has been centered around electing Donald J. Trump since he became our presumptive nominee in March.

In fact, Kamala Harris was always clearly at fault for one of Joe Biden’s biggest vulnerabilities during his campaign. Biden made Harris border czar in March 2021. Since then, Harris and Biden have undertaken 94 executive actions to dismantle all of the protections that President Trump put in place to secure the border, including his “Remain in Mexico” policy — which has resulted in an average of 5,000 illegal immigrants being released into the United States every day. Harris and Biden’s Department of Homeland Security admitted that more than 40 percent of catch-and-release migrants have totally disappeared.

The result? Our country has ushered in nearly 10 million illegal immigrants since Harris and Biden took office. More people on the FBI terror watchlist were arrested at the southern border in fiscal year 2023 than in the last six years combined. 112,000 fatal drug overdoses occurred in 2023, a new record high, as fentanyl rose to become the leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 45. Migrant crime has led to the brutal murders of women like Rachel Morin, Laken Riley, and countless others across the country.

Harris’s record is not restricted to the border. As vice president, Harris owns all of Biden’s failures. That includes the Harris-Biden economy, under which Americans experienced the worst inflation in four decades, with groceries up 21.2 percent, rent up 21.2 percent, and electricity up 29 percent since they took office. Harris and Biden halted oil and gas leases on federal lands, issued sweeping bans on drilling, and proposed billions in new taxes on the U.S. fossil-fuel industry, leading to higher energy costs for consumers.

It also includes their America Last trade agenda, which has sent 7,000 jobs in the American iron and steel industry overseas, and foreign-policy agenda, under which Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Taliban control Afghanistan, Iran-backed groups are attacking U.S. troops and allies, Iran can fuel at least three nuclear weapons now, and China is menacing Taiwan.

The truth is that Kamala Harris brings the same approach to the Democrats’ presidential ticket. She is going to double down on her administration’s policies to dismantle our border security, raise costs through runaway spending, weaken America’s standing on the world stage, and make our communities less safe.

While Democrats scramble to rewrite history and distance Harris from her own failed record, our strategy has not changed. We will run our race and speak the truth: Donald J. Trump is the only candidate who can unite America and resolve the kitchen-table issues that are on the minds of every American family.

After our historic convention in Milwaukee, Wis., where we formally nominated Donald J. Trump and welcomed Ohio senator J. D. Vance to our ticket as the next vice president, Republicans are in a stronger position than ever not only to win the White House, but also to translate the energy behind Trump-Vance into nationwide successes down the ballot.

Kamala Harris should enjoy her public honeymoon period, because she has 100 days to establish and execute a presidential campaign, and there is no amount of time that will allow her to change who she is or her failed policies. We look forward to meeting her at the ballot box on November 5.