The Harris-Walz campaign website still contains no issues or policy section.
Chicago – Not too long ago, Kamala Harris was facing one of the biggest tests of her political career. Her boss had completely fumbled on the debate stage for the entire world to see, and it was her job to defend his performance – and presidency — to the American people.
“Yes,” Joe Biden had a “slow start” to the debate that was “obvious to everyone,” the media-shy vice president said in a post-debate interview with CNN on July 27. But, she added, “I’m not going to spend all night with you talking about the last 90 minutes when I’ve been watching the last three and a half years of performance.”
Out with the old and in with his second-in-command.
“America, the path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected. But I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys,” Harris told the crowd. “My mother Shyamala Harris had one of her own. I miss her every day–especially now. And I know she’s looking down tonight, and smiling. My mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, traveling from India to California with an unshakeable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer.”
These days, Kamala Harris really does face the biggest test of her political life as she and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, take the mantle for the Democratic Party in its fight against Donald Trump. Her remarks were upbeat and patriotic, leaning into her background as a prosecutor taking on sexual abusers and human traffickers.
She told the crowd that in her entire career, she has only ever had “one client — the people.”
Harris, who has rarely waded into foreign policy from the stump as vice president, made a point to address the importance of preserving American national security by projecting strength abroad. She pledged to uphold the country’s “sacred” obligation to honor and care for veterans, help the U.S. compete with China, “stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies,” and continue fighting for a cease-fire in Gaza.
And she cast her opponent as a threat to democracy and national security. “In many ways,” she told the crowd, Trump is an “unserious man.” But the consequences of putting him back in the White House, are “extremely serious.” She assailed his behavior leading up to and following the storming of the U.S. Capitol three years ago. “When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite – he fanned the flames.”
She spoke of his convicted by a Manhattan jury of “everyday Americans” and his conviction a separate sexual-assault trial.
“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails, and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United states. Not to improve your life, not to strengthen national security,” she said. “But to serve the only client he has ever had – himself.”
Things weren’t always looking up for Harris. Winning this November would mark quite the turnaround for this vice president, whose approval numbers hovered even below Biden’s for much of his presidency until she was crowned his replacement.
Soon after she was elected vice president, story after story unveiled the dysfunction that plagued her office and the frustrations that surrounded her team over her lack of policy portfolio under the Biden administration. That’s all water under the bridge for Democrats these days.
Throughout the week, delegates and politicians sang her praises as a former prosecutor, attorney general, and U.S. Senator with the skill and experience to take on Trump. Harris is bringing back “joy,” will protect “freedom,” and will keep the country from “going back” to Trump.
But if she wins, how will she govern? Last Friday, Harris announced an economic platform to lower the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans, end corporate “price gouging,” and expand affordable housing.
On the stump, she tells voters she will codify Roe v. Wade into law, protect voting rights, and keep Americans safe from gun violence. She touched on all of those themes Thursday evening, promising to cut taxes for the middle class and to create a “opportunity economy” where everyone has the chance to “compete” and “succeed.”
As of today, the Harris-Walz campaign website still contains no issues or policy section. And according to the New York Times, “campaign aides say Ms. Harris intends to release a few targeted policy proposals” but is “unlikely to detail a broader agenda beyond what Mr. Biden has already articulated.”
Here in Chicago this week, Democrats are confident in their new nominee. Harris has been part of an administration “that has saved our economy from destruction in the aftermath of COVID,” Representative Jim McGovern (D., Mass.), the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, told National Review Thursday evening inside the convention arena. She has spent her entire career “fighting for economic justice.”
No nominee can do a thousand things all once, he said, especially one who emerged as a candidate just one month ago. “So people should be a little patient. But if you want to know where she stands on some of these issues, look at her record. It’s only been a few weeks, and so she has to play catch up in terms of getting all the position papers up.”
And what does he make of criticisms from the right that Harris is a shape-shifter on policy? “The right wing should be a little humble right now, a little quiet, given who their candidate is. You want to talk about flip flops and constantly changing his political stripes over his lifetime?”
Donald Trump fits the bill, he said. “Their candidate is imploding and it’s sinking like a like a rock.”
Most people have two years to develop campaign websites and policy positions, former Senator Doug Jones (D., Ala.) said in an interview with National Review inside the United Center Thursday evening. “She assumed this mantle not too long ago, and said she wants to make sure she gets it right. She wants to make sure that what she says she can absolutely defend,” he said.”
The goal this week, Jones continued, is to celebrate her nomination and to tell her story to the American people.
“She’s going to continue to carry the message of hope, of joy, of going forward, not backward, because at the end of the day, policies mean a lot, and they’re what really form the basis,” he said. “But at the same time, people want to feel good about a candidate. They want to feel good about a ticket. They want to know that they can trust them.”
She hopes to earn that trust by casting herself as a bipartisan candidate who will put party above partisanship — no small feat for a nominee who carries the baggage of an unpopular administration. For now, she’s hoping she can ride the high of this week’s raucous energy well into the fall.
“I know there are people of various political views watching tonight. And I want you to know: I promise to be a President for all Americans,” Harris told the crowd Thursday night. “I will be a President who unites us around our highest aspirations. A President who leads — and listens. Who is realistic. Practical. And has common sense. And always fights for the American people. From the courthouse to the White House, that has been my life’s work.”