WASHINGTON — As Kamala Harris begins her campaign as the Democratic presidential nominee, she will be tested on her strengths and weaknesses on key issues, as well as her political acumen and groundbreaking role as a Black and Asian female candidate, political analysts and experts say.
Harris has served as President Joe Biden's vice president for more than three years, but with just over 100 days until the Nov. 5 election, she will find herself in a brighter spotlight — and facing a barrage of attacks from Republicans.
“Her national status is largely unknown, and while she has consistently defended Biden, she has yet to develop a clear profile for herself,” said David Zalewski, who teaches the history and critique of American public discourse at Northwestern University.
“It's going to be a race to see if she can define herself before the Trump campaign does it for her,” he said.
What you need to know
- Kamala Harris As she campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, she will be tested not only on her political skills but also on her strengths and weaknesses on key issues.
- Harris is After more than three years as President Joe Biden's vice president, she will find herself in a brighter spotlight — and facing a barrage of attacks from Republicans — with just over 100 days until the Nov. 5 election.
- Democrats and Republicans Strategists outlined Harris' strengths and weaknesses to Newsday.
Newsday asked Democratic and Republican political consultants and academic experts to assess Harris' main strengths and weaknesses.
Here's what they said:
Strengths: Women's reproductive rights
This could be Harris' biggest issue since the conservative Supreme Court overturned the nationwide legalization of abortion in Roe v. Wade.
“Women's reproductive health is a strong suit for Harris,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “We know that women care very deeply about this issue.”
Weaknesses: Biden administration policies, especially immigration
Whit Ayers, a Republican political consultant, said one of the biggest challenges Harris faces is how to defend the Biden administration's policies.
“She's going to inherit a lot of the administration's negative views on inflation, the economy, taxes, Gaza,” Ayers said, “and she's going to inherit her previous issues on illegal immigration, which is the biggest negative issue for this administration.”
Early in the Biden administration, he directed Harris to address the root causes of migration to the United States from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Some media outlets have called her the “border czar,” an inaccurate title that Republicans are now using to pin the blame on her for the historic influx of illegal immigrants into the United States.
Strength: Harris' age
Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic political consultant, said Harris, 59, represents a generational shift in the Democratic Party and would pose a challenge to Trump, 78.
“There's a new generation that is looking for an opportunity to do this business,” he said, referring to politics and government.
“Age is an absolute plus,” said Lawrence Levy, dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University and a longtime political analyst.
“She's young and energetic enough to appeal to younger voters,” he said, “and old enough to be taken seriously.”
He added: “She makes Donald Trump look old compared to how young he looked next to Joe Biden.”
Weakness: Whisper
Rutgers' Walsh said some Republicans have publicly called Harris a “DEI hire,” an acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Republican leaders countered that the campaigning is about policy, not personal issues, but said whisper campaigning can happen even if people don't say it out loud. “She's going to be subjected to misogynistic and racist things,” Walsh said.
Ayers said race and gender may no longer matter as much — Barack Obama won the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, and Hillary Clinton won 3 million more votes than Trump in the 2016 presidential election — but they will matter in some battleground states.
Strengths: Revitalizing the Democratic Party's support base
Before Biden announced his own candidacy, many Democrats had little interest in the presidential race. “In this climate of disinterest and even the thought of supporting the Republican Party among Black people, Biden's races are an immediate advantage,” Levy said.
Her record also gives Democrats a chance to solidify support from Asian Americans, the fastest-growing voting bloc in suburban America that is drifting toward Republicans, he said.
“It's important to recognize that she's been campaigning since January to shore up Biden's base,” said Republican strategist Susan Del Percio. “Whether it's appealing to Hispanics, people of color, young people, she's really worked hard to reach out to those communities.”
Weakness: White men in battleground states
While either candidate could win the presidency by securing the support of relatively small numbers of voters in battleground states who could make a big difference in the election outcome, some worry that Harris could lose out to white men in those states.
“She may not have as much appeal to some of the white, blue-collar voters in the upper Midwest where Joe Biden has maintained a relatively strong position,” Ayers said.
“The question now is, will people look to her as an alternative to Trump?” asked Mike Dawidziak, a Long Island political consultant who works primarily with Republican candidates, addressing voters turned off by both Biden and Trump.
He said white suburban voters don't like either Biden or Trump, adding: “The question is, can they like Kamala Harris?”
Strengths: Supporting lower ranking candidates
Sheinkoff said the shift in Democratic front-runners from Biden to Harris gives Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn a better chance of winning control of the Senate in November.
“She eases the immediate fears about Biden for incumbents in close House and Senate seats,” Sheinkopf said. “She helps Schumer and Hakim sleep better at night because they now think they have a chance to keep the Senate and take back the House.”
Weaknesses: Unscripted speeches and laughter
Ayers said Ms. Harris speaks best with a script or teleprompter, but is also known for what critics call “word salad,” a jumble of words that barely make sense. “Nothing she says makes any sense at all,” he said.
He added: “When she laughs, she laughs like crazy. It drives you crazy.”
But in recent appearances she has eschewed gibberish and has used her laugh to appeal to younger audiences on social media.
Strengths: Funding
“Harris has had an incredible fundraising cycle in the last 24 hours,” Del Percio said. Harris' campaign said she raised $81 million in the first 24 hours after receiving Biden's endorsement on Sunday.
“What's even more interesting is that she's getting tens of thousands of new donors. I think she's really broadening her base of support,” she added.
The Harris campaign announced Tuesday that it had raised $100 million between Sunday afternoon and Monday night, from 1.1 million individual donors, 62 percent of whom were first-time donors.
Weakness: First time running for president
Levy said Harris is likely to embark on her first presidential campaign as a national party candidate.
In 2019, Harris ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination, but ran successfully as Biden's running mate in the 2020 election.
“She's been on the national stage and has far more experience than anybody who could potentially replace Biden, but she's never competed for the top spot as a candidate,” Levy said, “and she'll be going up against someone who's run and won at least one out of two times.”
