With Harris in charge, Democrats are meeting new hopes and some old worries By Reuters
Written by Jarrett Renshaw
(Reuters) – In the five weeks since US President Joe Biden abandoned his bid for re-election, the fortunes of the Democratic Party have changed dramatically, and this week this change will be fully visible.
Vice President Kamala Harris, now the party's candidate, is heading into the Democratic National Convention riding a historic storm: her campaign has broken fundraising records, packed stadiums, and swung some battleground states in favor of Democrats.
Harris and his partner, the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz – answered “joy” the name of the campaign, a painful reminder of the despair that the group felt in the last few weeks. The two publicly accepted their party's nomination at a conference in Chicago that begins Monday.
“This has been a historic turning point,” said Joseph Foster, the 71-year-old former chairman of the Democratic Party in the Philadelphia suburbs and party worker. “People are interested, young people are dating. I have never seen anything like this.”
With less than 80 days to go until election day, the party is hoping to ride that wave of enthusiasm to victory.
That would make Harris, the first black and Asian vice president, the nation's first female president.
But pollsters and strategists from both major parties warned that the “too much sugar” of Harris's initial operation will wear off, leaving sharp divisions between Democrats on issues such as the economy and the Israel-Hamas war and the tough fight against Donald Trump.
Harris' personal story is “nice and good, but it's the issues that will ultimately decide this election. Those issues include inflation, security, leadership and the world stage,” predicted Republican pollster Adam Geller.
Harris gave his first economic speech on Friday and presented proposals to cut taxes for most Americans, prevent “price gouging” by consumers and promote affordable housing, a nod to the progressive party.
He will face increased public pressure to provide more details on the policy in the coming weeks. Aides have indicated that he is unlikely to provide much detail in other areas such as power to avoid alienating the centrist and progressive wings of his party.
Harris may also navigate intra-party disputes over US support for Israel's war against Hamas and the general divide between progressives and moderates on many policy questions such as energy, health care and immigration.
About 200 social justice groups plan to march at the Democratic National Convention on Monday to protest the Biden administration's continued support for Israel in a war that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
A NEW MAP TO VICTORY
Harris, who will address the rally on Thursday, is entering a week of celebrations buoyed by a string of polls showing he has redrawn the electoral map in Trump's favor in the final weeks of the Biden campaign.
Harris leads or is tied with Trump in six of the seven swing states expected to decide the Nov. 5 election, according to the latest report released Wednesday from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
The polling handicapper shifted his ratings in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia and Nevada to Harris after he moved all three states to “lean Republican” in early July when Biden was still a Democrat.
“I think what we have is a reset race where the Democratic candidate has now renewed, or at least reassembled, the Biden 2020 coalition, not completely, but more integrated than it was when Biden was on the ticket,” Amy Walter, Cook's editor, said in a call explaining the findings of the survey.
Biden won the White House in 2020 with strong support from black, Hispanic and minority American voters, but their enthusiasm for him this time around was very low.
He finally resigned on July 21, under pressure from longtime allies and top Democratic leaders amid growing concerns about his sanity and chances of beating Trump.
Biden endorsed Harris and quickly won the party's support. The change quickly reshuffled the race, giving Democrats a boost and forcing Trump's campaign team to seek a new battle plan.
A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday found a huge jump in enthusiasm among registered Democratic voters and a large number of independents.
In June, only 46% of registered Democrats said they were fired about a Biden-Trump rematch — down from 85% in the latest Monmouth poll conducted earlier this month.
The jump in enthusiasm among independents went from 34% in June to 53% in the latest poll.
Still, Walter said concerns about immigration and the economy are helping Trump this time after he lost his relegation bid against Biden in 2020.
“It's a double whammy,” he said of the race between Harris and Trump.
