Vice President Harris' campaign is planning to go into Tuesday's debate portraying her as an underdog, after recent polls have shown her running neck and neck with former President Trump.
Both candidates are under pressure to perform well in the debates, but Harris has tempered expectations, telling voters that despite Democrats' enthusiasm for her candidacy, she still has a lot of redemption to make before November.
“Vice President Harris has viewed herself as an underdog in this race since she became the candidate, and she has campaigned with that mindset. There is a lot of work to be done over the next 50-plus days,” said Harris spokesman Brian Fallon. Social Platform X.
A New York Times poll released Sunday showed Trump narrowly leading Harris among likely voters nationwide, 48% to 47%. The result was within the poll's margin of error and nearly identical to a Times poll released days after President Biden dropped out of the race and Harris took over as the Democratic candidate.
The poll shows Harris and Trump are neck and neck in five of the seven battleground states expected to decide the winner in November, with Harris holding narrow leads in Wisconsin and Michigan.
The poll was a reality check for some Democrats who had been riding high since Ms Harris took the lead over Mr Biden, drawing huge, enthusiastic crowds at rallies, smashing fundraising records and giving confidence to party members who had written off Mr Biden's chances of staying in the White House.
“There are only two ways to run a healthy campaign: eliminate your opponents or scare them away,” said Ivan Zapien, a former Democratic National Committee official. “Pointing out that they're outnumbered is a truthful way to focus people together on efforts big and small. At this point, everything is cumulative, and you can't add time to the clock, so it's important to get everyone contributing.”
Harris' campaign has tried to temper expectations for the debate, warning that Trump would lie on stage and arguing that each candidate's microphones would be muted while the other spoke, putting the vice president at a disadvantage.
Harris' aides also point out that Trump has plenty of experience, having debated Biden in 2016, 2020 and this June.
The Trump campaign also has not been shy about arguing that Harris faces a tougher challenge in Tuesday's debate, noting that she will have to defend her record and face millions of voters for the first time since becoming the nominee.
“She's been bubble-wrapped since she got the nomination, so I think the bar she has to clear is much higher because a lot of people haven't seen her be asked straightforward questions about her record,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said on a conference call hosted by the Trump campaign.
Gaetz called the June debate with Biden the “most dominant performance” in history and argued that combining Harris and her track record would give Trump a win on Tuesday.
In a new interview, Harris said there is no limit to how vile Trump will get and that Americans “should be prepared for the fact that he feels no burden for telling the truth.”
The vice presidential campaign argued that the debate rules should allow for the use of hot microphones, believing this would create an opportunity for Ms Harris to challenge Mr Trump and for the two to engage in quick back-and-forth exchanges.
Tuesday's debate is shaping up to be a pivotal moment for Harris, as she seeks to make her candidacy clear to viewers, some of whom may still be undecided about her candidacy. It could also be her final chance to make a big splash in the race, as early voting begins in several states later this month. A second presidential debate is not currently scheduled.
The Times poll found that 28% of voters felt they needed to know more about Harris, compared with just 9% who said they needed to know more about Trump. Ahead of the debate, Harris added policy positions to her campaign website, giving voters a glimpse into what her administration might envision.
“Donald Trump has been running for president every day for nearly a decade, while Kamala Harris has only been running for a few weeks. That alone puts her at a disadvantage,” said Adam Abrams, communications director for President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign.
“The Harris team has seized the opportunity to successfully position Trump as a sitting president, giving her an opportunity to articulate a new vision for the country that voters prefer to Trump's frustrating politics,” added Abrams, a partner at strategic communications firm Seven Letters.
A former aide to Harris said the campaign had been playing her at a disadvantage “because it was clear from the moment she began running that this was going to be a close race,” adding that the vice president's busy travel schedule showed the campaign was taking nothing for granted.
“The polls continue to suggest, as she has argued from the beginning, that she is behind and that it will be a close race,” the former aide said.
The Hill/Decision Desk average of national polls holds the vice president ahead of the former president by 3.3 percentage points, with Trump at 46.1 percent and Harris at 49.4 percent.
With the race so close and expected to remain so over the next two months, Democrats have warned that the “final yards” are of utmost importance.
“To those who were annoyed a month ago when I warned Democrats about 'irrational exuberance,' I now warn against irrational despair,” says David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to the Obama administration. Post to X“Polls fluctuate, that's why there's something called a 'margin of error.' The Electoral College is tough for Democrats, and the last few yards will be a tough fight, but this is about a 50-50 fight.”
