California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) refused to see Vice President Harris as an underdog in the 2024 presidential election, arguing Democrats should “speak up” about their policy achievements and show more “pride”.
“She's not that. I don't want to hear that,” Newsom said during an appearance on “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday ahead of the ABC News debate between Harris and former President Trump.
“I think we say something about our lives, about our successes. And there's a — I don't know what it is — timidity in the Democratic Party. The stock market is at record highs and we're like, 'Well, not everybody's in the stock market.' There's a timidity. Why not be proud and flaunt your accomplishments?”
Newsom's comments come as Harris and her campaign seek to shore up her image as an underdog against Trump.
“Vice President Harris has viewed herself as an underdog in this race since she became the candidate, and she has continued to campaign with that mindset. There is a lot of work to be done in the next 50-plus days,” Harris press secretary Brian Fallon said Sunday. Social Platform X.
A former aide to Harris told The Hill that the campaign was taking nothing for granted, with the vice president's busy travel schedule illustrating that.
“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.
National polls and key battleground state polls have consistently shown Trump and Harris neck-and-neck, with little change in recent weeks. That's a dramatic improvement from how Biden has presented himself against Trump, but most oddsmakers still see Trump as a slight favorite.
“What Kamala Harris has accomplished in the last eight weeks is unprecedented in the history of the United States,” Newsom said. “Not only has she closed the gap, we're winning within the margin of error, but she's expanded the map of the United States. I saw the new polls this morning, states that weren't even being talked about. Now Donald Trump has to choose between defending or spending millions of dollars.” [that] That would have been unimaginable just a few weeks ago.”
The California governor said the 2024 presidential election “is the easiest election of my lifetime. I love where I am right now.”
Newsom said Trump was “less entertaining” than Harris, adding: “After hours and hours of him rambling, people in the audience tend to forget about him and some walk out.”
Since replacing Biden as the top candidate, Harris has broken fundraising records, drawn huge crowds to rallies and given new confidence to party members who had doubts about Biden's chances of winning November's presidential election.
But the vice president has faced criticism, particularly from Republicans, for not making many media appearances, and Newsom has said he should do more to engage with the media, but said the decision was ultimately his own.
“That's up to the campaign,” he said. “You know what I mean, I'm not here to give advice on that. I think she should, but that's up to her. You've got to press in there. You've got to dominate the conversation. Whether that's rallies, whether that's one-on-one conversations, whether that's town halls, that's up to the campaign.”
