Vice President Harris' second failed presidential bid mirrors the face of her first campaign in 2019, which proved short-lived and unfocused on key issues that matter to American voters Experts say it did.
“Both started with great expectations,” Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former official in the George W. Bush administration, said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“There's a sense that she's the savior of the new flavor and the next generation of the Democratic Party, and in some ways both have failed spectacularly,” he said.
Harris lost to Trump and became the second Democratic candidate to vote without speaking to supporters on election night.
Vice President Harris delivers a concession speech at Howard University in Washington, DC, November 6, 2024. ((AP Photo/Stephanie Scarborough)
In December 2019, then-Sen. Harris put her presidential bid on hold 11 months later, citing a lack of campaign funds and delays in polling. That was a while ago Exposed staff The turmoil in her campaign.
But before she became one of the most notable early dropouts among Democratic candidates, Ms. Harris' campaign was marked by her strong start, which drew a large crowd in Oakland, California, and a major It started with momentum. She was initially seen as the frontrunner.
But as the campaign progressed, her campaign message became unclear, and she faced stiff opposition from then-candidate Joe Biden, as well as Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, and Bernie Sanders.
Go here for the latest FOX News election results
Vice President Harris delivers a concession speech at Howard University in Washington, DC on November 6, 2024. (FOX News/Caroline McKee)
“both [campaigns] I was stranded on the same two things. The biggest problem is that she is unable to convey even the simplest ideas to the American people. And it's not because she's not intellectually capable, it's because she's in a box,” Troy said of Harris.
“She's trapped,” he added. “On the one hand, her leanings and voters are on the left, and on the other hand, she wants to win the general election, and to appeal to people in the general election, she needs more woke policies than she has in the past.” She believed this throughout her life. ”
But doing that, Troy said, would come at the expense of her excited progressive mega-donors.
Harris became the Democratic front-runner after President Biden put her re-election bid on hold in July amid reports of her declining intellectual ability following her poor performance in a June debate against former Republican President Donald Trump. It became. Mr. Biden quickly endorsed Ms. Harris, who made “reproductive rights” a top issue in her campaign, a strategy that ultimately focused on gaining enough support from voters in battleground states. I couldn't do it. Harris was the Democratic nominee for only about four months.
“I don't think voters felt that abortion rights were in jeopardy,” another Republican strategist told Fox News Digital. “They pretty much agreed that the voters should decide, and that was President Trump's message that this should go to the states for the voters to decide for themselves.”
“I think our biggest strength was Kamala's own words, because she has so many far-left San Francisco liberal policy proposals, all of which she explained in front of the cameras during the 2020 campaign. , we were able to roll out really effectively and target neighborhoods where people were struggling.''These are really negative views,'' the Republican expert said.
And voters may have wanted more from Harris on the economy and the border. Preliminary data from Fox News Voter Analysis, a survey of more than 110,000 voters across the country, provides an early look at voters' moods as they cast their ballots.
Voters say the economy is the biggest issue facing the country, followed by immigration and abortion. Roughly three times as many voters feel they are falling behind economically than those who feel they are making progress, a sign of the economic damage caused by inflation.
Democrat Adam Schiff wins Dianne Feinstein's former Senate seat
Supporters react to early election results during Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' election night rally at Howard University on November 5, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Reuters/Daniel Cole)
Mustafa Rashed, a Philadelphia-based Democratic strategist, said Harris faced the challenge of breaking with Biden, but otherwise ran a “professional campaign.”
“It would be difficult to distance herself from a sitting president. She could not use him as a surrogate mother because he was not an effective surrogate mother,” Rashed told Fox News Digital. told. “He's not very good at campaigning, and he's not popular enough to outweigh the downside of having him as a partner.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Harris conceded to Trump in a phone call Wednesday morning after winning a majority of electoral votes overnight. She gave a concession speech later that day at her alma mater, Howard University.
“The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, it is not what we fought for, and it is not what we voted for,” Harris said. “But hear me out…As long as we never give up, and as long as we keep fighting, the light of America's promise will always burn bright.”
Get the latest on the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more with Fox News Digital's Election Hub..
Fox News Digital's Polling Department contributed to this report.
