Republican strategists and donors said Sunday they believed she had the best chance ever of beating President Biden but were not worried about Vice President Harris becoming the new Democratic nominee.
Republicans, who for weeks have banked on Biden’s potential to undermine other Democratic candidates, acknowledged that Harris represents a different kind of challenger.
But they believe they can connect Harris to Biden’s policies and say other Democrats pose a bigger threat to Republican nominee former President Donald Trump.
“[Pennsylvania Gov. Josh] Shapiro, [Arizona Sen. Mark] “Kelly and the others would scare me, but she doesn’t scare me,” one Republican activist said of Harris.
Shapiro and Kelly, who endorsed Harris for president on Sunday, have a track record of winning in battleground states. A recent memo from Democratic polling group Blue Labs found that both Shapiro and Kelly outperformed Biden and Harris in battleground states in test matches against Trump, who formally accepted the Republican presidential nomination at last week’s Republican National Convention.
“But you would never replace a sitting black woman vice president with a white man,” the Republican activist added.
Harris is not yet the Democratic presidential nominee, but Biden has endorsed her as his top presidential candidate, and several potential rivals have already endorsed her.
Ms. Harris is two points behind Mr. Trump nationally, according to an average of The Hill/Decision Desk polls, and the gap is closer to six points if you include Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Ms. Harris also has an average favorability rating of 37.7%, well ahead of Mr. Biden’s 41.3%.
Republicans told The Hill they believe her image is sagging in key battleground states.
John Ullyot, a Republican activist who served as a senior adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign, said both Biden and Harris were “very weak candidates.”
“But it’s probably easier for Kamala to counter that, since she’s now being held accountable for her total failure on the flagship issue of immigration and for being dishonest with the American people about Biden’s mental health,” Ulliott said, noting that Kamala has been tasked by Biden to address the root causes of migration from Central American countries.
The Republican Party Rushing to tie up Harris She accused Biden of misrepresenting the 81-year-old’s mental capacity.
“This is even worse than an old man who’s losing his mental acuity, because you can’t blame him for doing that, but when you’re in his presence every day, as Kamala did, she’s clearly covered up his mental state,” Ulliott said.
Republican strategist Ford O’Connell said Republicans would run the election on the same platform whether Biden or Harris was the nominee.
“Simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic will not change the outcome,” O’Connell said, adding that the “same disastrous policies of the Harris/Biden Administration — runaway inflation, open borders, increased crime and global instability — are continuing.”
But even as Republicans have slammed Harris, they face new risks with Biden’s withdrawal.
Republicans who have been criticizing Biden’s age for months are now backing the 78-year-old candidate against the 59-year-old Harris.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) outlined the challenge for Republicans at a Politico-sponsored event at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week before Biden left office: “If they replace Biden, that changes everything. It’s going to be very close in a lot of the close states,” Sununu said, adding that independents disillusioned with the Trump-Biden race might reward Democrats for choosing a new candidate.
And Brian Sejczyk, a former Trump campaign official, said Harris was “a bit of an undervalued stock.”
“While everyone is talking about her [presidential] “Although he didn’t even get on the first ballot in Iowa in 2019, he had a couple of really good moments in the campaign, a really good announcement in Oakland and one of the most memorable debates in recent history,” Sejczyk said.
He was referring to Ms Harris’ confrontation with Mr Biden during the first primary debate in 2019, when she detailed her own experience in discussing Mr Biden’s previous positions on school busing desegregation, saying “that little girl was me.”
Harris has come into the spotlight since Biden’s disastrous performance in the June 27 debate, leading many Democrats to call on the president to step down as a candidate. Their wishes were granted on Sunday, when the president announced he would not seek the Democratic nomination in 2024.
Biden quickly endorsed Harris, widely seen as his successor, as his running mate, and other Democrats followed suit, although others, such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), have so far remained silent about who they want to top their list of nominees.
Democrats would need to tread carefully if they decide to back someone other than Harris, who could become the first Black and South Asian woman to be nominated for the Democratic presidential nomination, given the perception that they are choosing someone over the current vice president.
But there is an overwhelming consensus among Republicans that Harris is the most preferable of the other options if she cannot challenge Biden.
Asked who he would like to see Trump face off against, Trump donor Dan Eberhart said Harris.
“She’s inherited all of Biden’s flaws and doesn’t have a track record of winning battleground states,” Eberhart said. “I don’t think the Democratic Party is helping itself.”
Brett Samuels assisted.
