How Harris balances competing messages as VP and candidate

She’s also the presidential candidate of just five weeks promising a “new way forward.” Kamala Harris is having it both ways as she hits the campaign trail after the Democratic National Convention, taking credit for parts of President Joe Biden’s record in rallies staged in front of Air Force Two while casting herself as a new leader who rails against “the politics of the past.” In every presidential cycle candidates run on experience or freshness, but Harris so far appears to be successfully harmonizing two seemingly competing messages, much to the frustration of former President Donald Trump and his allies. “She has this powerful and unique and interesting advantage that we have never seen before in our politics,” said Patrick Gaspard, CEO of the Democratic-leaning think tank Center for American Progress Action Fund and a former executive director of the Democratic National Committee under President Barack Obama. “She is both an incumbent,” he said, and “she’s been able to seize the ‘change’ banner away from Donald Trump.” Harris’ vision for the country has leaned heavily on Biden plans, to the point of not rewriting those plans even after Biden dropped out. Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said Harris’ ability to embody change has “a lot more to do with her age, her race and her gender, than it has to do with any policy positions that she’s articulated.” He added, “That shouts change.” In the view of her aides, Harris is offering what voters seem to have been craving all year: a new messenger, but one thus far offering modest evolution of the Biden-Harris record. “She is her own leader, of course,” Brian Nelson, her senior campaign policy adviser, told reporters at a Bloomberg event at the DNC. “But she’s a leader who has been a partner to President Biden for these last three and a half years,” adding, they have “shared values and principles.” The Trump campaign has attacked her lack of policy specifics and tried to portray her as someone far more liberal than she’s letting on. Perhaps trying to set expectations before new polls emerge, the campaign predicted on Saturday that Harris would see a post-convention bump in her polling and blamed what it called the “Harris Honeymoon.” “We’ve certainly had a front row seat to the ‘honeymoon,’” wrote Trump pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Travis Tunis. “In fact, the Media decided to extend the honeymoon for over 4 weeks now.” What to know about the 2024 Election Today’s news: Follow live updates Ground Game: Sign up for AP’s weekly politics newsletter AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. In her convention address, she said she had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “to warn him about Russia’s plan to invade” five days before Russia launched its full-scale attack. Regardless of what maybe the political people tell him is in his best self-interest.” Implicit in Harris’ messaging now is the argument that Biden was also part of the politics of the past — even as she takes credit for his record and lauds him publicly. “Instead of being focused on the politics of the past, we need to be thinking about the future.” Voters, said former Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer, “are thirsting for a new, more hopeful politics.” “If she can prove to people that she can turn the page, then Kamala Harris will win,” she said. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://apnews.com/4e64f2b46287cb80c61f17a8d2efdf0f