Kamala Harris tries to rebrand the Democratic party

Kamala Harris closed the Democratic convention on Thursday by setting her supporters a patriotic mission: defeat Donald Trump.

“It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done,” she said to a packed crowd of flag-waving Democrats in Chicago. “Guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love.” 

The US vice-president, propelled into a truncated race for the White House just a month ago, was speaking to a party that had undergone a rebranding, in front of a live national audience, in just a few days of partying in Chicago.

After the deepening gloom of President Joe Biden’s final weeks as their candidate, the Democrats now have a new message they think will put Harris in the White House: that she, not Trump, is now the candidate of change.

Biden had relentlessly cast Trump as all powerful — a threat to US democracy and America’s standing in the world.

But the Trump depicted at the Democratic National Convention in recent days was a weak, narrow-minded and selfish old man. The neighbour, as former president Barack Obama said in his speech, who would keep the leaf-blower on all day outside your window. A small man obsessed with crowd sizes. A man, said Michelle Obama, who could not understand how two Black people could be successful.

Instead of the lofty Biden rhetoric about Trump’s threat to the republic, Harris and her allies homed in on their theme that personal freedoms — including reproductive rights — were at stake.

Meanwhile, the speeches to a packed hall were punctuated repeatedly by chants of “U-S-A” from beneath a sea of American flags. Several speakers also tried to blame Trump, not Democrats, for the rise of immigration across the border under Biden.

It was another message to US voters used to the flag-waving of Trump and his Maga movement: Democrats can be tough and patriotic too.

“Let me be clear to my Republican friends at home watching,” Georgia’s former lieutenant-governor Geoff Duncan, one of many Republicans who turned up at the DNC, said in a speech. “If you vote for Kamala Harris In 2024, you’re not a Democrat. You’re a patriot.” 

After the crash course rebrand, Harris might think she has met her other political goals too, uniting a notoriously fractious party, honing her pitch to moderate and independent voters, and putting Trump on the defensive. 

Democrats suddenly feel like they have a winning candidate again — a reversal from the grim mood while Biden was still running.

“She rose to the occasion,” Rufus Gifford, the Harris campaign’s finance chair, told the Financial Times. “Every once in a while you have one of those special moments, special candidates. That’s what we’re seeing here.”

Eric Schultz, a Democratic strategist and former Obama adviser, said the party was now “rowing in the same direction” after a bruising period of self-doubt. 

“Our party can certainly be rowdy and even messy at times, but at this moment we are all singularly focused on one mission.”  

Biden’s presence at the DNC was brief, underscoring how quickly the party has changed tack.

“America, I gave my best to you”, he said in a speech on Monday where he spent more time defending his legacy than talking up Harris. He left Chicago for California that night.

There was plenty of discussion in the DNC halls about Biden’s exit from the race last month under pressure from party grandees including Nancy Pelosi, the former US House Speaker — a continuing source of bitterness for some of the president’s allies.

At one point Pelosi was asked about reports that Biden was upset at her for her manoeuvring. “What bothers me would have been the re-election of Donald Trump,” she responded bluntly. 

Some Democrats had sought someone other than Harris to replace Biden, doubting her political acumen. At the DNC, those arguments appeared settled.

“She is the vice-president, she knows what the presidential job is . . . she is an eminently qualified woman,” Abigail Spanberger, a moderate Democratic congresswoman from Virginia, told the FT. “We have all worked with her, and we think she’s great.” 

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer — a rising Democratic star some hoped would replace Biden on the ticket — called Harris a “total badass”. Elizabeth Warren, the progressive US senator from Massachusetts, said: “You know what I like about Kamala Harris? She can’t be bought and she can’t be bossed around.”

One concern for the Harris campaign had been whether pro-Palestinian protesters in Chicago would overshadow the big event in the heavily guarded arena hosting the DNC.

While protests were smaller and more contained than many expected, there were calls from some activists for DNC organisers to give more visibility to Palestinians, and for Harris to take a tougher stance on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“She has sent signals that she would be different, but the problem is that we don’t have a ceasefire,” said Andy Levin, a former Michigan congressman. “I know they are eager to endorse her and support if she can move a little way towards them.”

Divisions over economic policy were held at bay. Harris has sketched out some proposals to relieve high housing and grocery costs, but big debates about her stance on business and regulation remain to be had.

One progressive attendee said the party unity behind Biden’s industrial policy and tough antitrust stance could be at risk — after the election.

“People are holding their powder,” the person said.

Despite the euphoria for Harris inside the arena, seasoned party leaders warned that the race against Trump remained too close for any complacency.

The next big moment in the election will be the televised debate between Harris and Trump on September 10. It will be followed by a dash to win votes as some people begin casting early or mail-in ballots weeks ahead of November’s election.

Patrick Gaspard, the president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank, told the FT that if the election were held now, Harris would win the popular vote but might lose the Electoral College, which prioritises victories in a small number of swing states and determines the outcome — a fate that befell Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

“It has turned into a vibe election — and that’s a great thing,” he said. But “this vibe, as tremendous as it is, won’t get us over the hump”.

Still, after revamping Democrats’ election pitch, Harris will feel like she has neutralised some of Trump’s attacks, in particular that “comrade Kamala” is just a radical leftist who is weak on national security.

Freedom, relative youth, and what Harris described as “common sense” will be themes as she takes on the “unserious” Trump. But the prosecutor from California will also hope to capitalise on enthusiasm from a newly energised segment of her base.

“She happens to be a woman and that is icing on the cake,” Pelosi said.