The Difference Between This Kamala Harris and the One In 2020

Plus, another itemized lists of great news

I’ve been thinking a lot about why Kamala Harris’ campaign failed in 2020 and why 2024 might be different. The first T-shirt I bought in that campaign was for Harris, although I eventually pivoted to Elizabeth Warren, and I’ve been trying to remember exactly why.

As I recall, it was a weird campaign where initially the Democratic party had understandably taken a hard left turn in response to four years of Donald Trump. The big issues of that early campaign were, again, immigration, but also health care. It almost seems quaint now compared to the fight for democracy and the erosion of abortion rights and other civil liberties.

But within that space, Harris had a difficult time finding her lane. Everything seemed to be defined by the candidate’s position on single-payer healthcare — or Medicare for All — and there was Bernie Sanders on one side and Biden (who wanted to improve the Obamacare status quo) on the other. Everyone else fell in between. I remember Pete Buttigieg beginning his campaign almost to the left of Bernie. Realizing there was no room there, he pivoted hard to the middle, finding a lot of success right up until voters decided that the most important thing was to beat Trump. Everyone rallied behind the pragmatic choice at the time, Joe Biden.

But before that, Harris had lost her way because the person that I had initially supported — a career prosecutor turned attorney general who had ripped Jeff Sessions and Brett Kavanaugh new ones during their Senate hearings — was not the candidate the Democratic party wanted until it was too late. Harris was never herself and dropped out before New Hampshire, so we’ll never know how well she might have done in South Carolina. If she had held it together long enough for the party to pivot from Bernie to the center, she might have done very well in that state and gone on to compete with Biden.

We’ll never know, but the big difference between now and then is that Kamala Harris can be herself. She doesn’t have to find a lane within the Democratic Party. She is the lane. This election is not about single-payer health care or bussing or even identity; it’s about defeating Trump, and who better to take down a felon than a career prosecutor? Her 2020 weakness is her 2024 super power.

And the kids love her. How many of us olds have figured out who Charli XCX is in the last 24 hours and have since impressed our children with our newfound knowledge? Just me? World of advice: “Brat” is not a song; it’s the name of the album. The songs you’re looking for are “360” and “von Dutch.” And that bright lime green color that looks like it was made for ‘90s Nickolodeon with MS Paint? To the kids, it is bussin’. No cap.

@flextillersonkamala harris edit to 360 by charli xcx. brat presidency #kamalaharris #kamala #biden #harris2024 #charli #charlixcx #brat #360

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Here’s the fun news:

— It took less than 36 hours from the time Joe Biden dropped out until Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee after delegates from enough states threw their support behind Harris. There will be no open primary. It’s Kamala Harris’ gig. May God be with her.

— In that same amount of time, Kamala Harris has also raised over $100 million, making it the most successful first two days of any presidential campaign ever. There were 1.1 million unique donors, 60 percent of whom were making a political donation for the first time. That is huge in terms of enthusiasm and the possibility that Harris could bring a lot of new voters into the party.

— In fact, voters under 30 have never had an election in which either Biden or Trump were on the ticket, so a lot of young people are just excited to have someone from which to choose who is not an old white guy. (A lot of older voters are also excited about this).

— Stephen Colbert has joined the Brat party.

@colbertlateshowI guess the apple don’t fall far from the (coconut) tree. 🍏 #Colbert #bratsummer #CharliXCX

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— Polls are even more meaningless than usual, and probably won’t matter much until after the DNC, but it might be worth noting that a Morning Consult poll out yesterday still had Harris 2 points behind Trump (or statistically tied), but four points over where Biden was.

— Beyoncé has not officially endorsed Harris yet, but she has given her permission to use “Lemonade,” and Beyoncé is very protective of her music licensing rights, so this is a big deal.

— Two nights ago, 40,000 Black women raised $1.5 million on a Zoom call in support of Harris. Last night, 53,000 Black men reportedly registered for a #WinwithBlackMen Zoom and raised $1.3 million (and counting). I think Harris is going to do just fine with the Black vote.

— The GOP will probably figure out a successful line of attack, but it has been fun watching them fumble for anything that sticks, except when they resort to racism and misogyny, which has not been fun. The oppo research includes things like, “she laughs inappropriately” and “she loves Venn diagrams.” Hard-hitting stuff!

— It’s been more fun to keep the negative attention on JD Vance, who did his first solo rally yesterday and bombed. It was painful. The guy who repeatedly said that Donald Trump had committed sexual assault in 2016 blew some racist dog whistles and bombed so hard here that Kamala HQ posted the clip unedited. He has a DeSantis problem. Word is, Trump is already regretting the choice.

And that’s it for today! I hope we can continue writing positive posts right up until election day.