By Dave Andrusko
And so it begins. Abortion Czar, Border Czar Kamela Harris is already the beneficiary of media coverage so over the top the biggest “problem” her campaign will face is saturation.
Of course, the real Harris will be ignored in the flush of stories that paint her as the savior of the Democrat party. The truth will compete with a protective media that is bound and determined to defeat pro-life former President Donald Trump at all costs.
Part of the truth—a huge part of the truth—is that Vice President Harris is not liked by the American people. For example, FiveThirtyEight.com asks the question, as of July 22, “Do Americans approve for Disapprove of Kamala Harris?”
Just 38.3% approve while 51.4% disapprove. As we’ll see, this is a constant theme: the numbers say she is barely more popular than pro-abortion President Joe Biden.
Under the headline “Democrats Swapped Out One Unpopular Candidate for Another,” Rich Lowry of National Review Online writes
We’ll have to see how things shake out after the Democratic convention, but a new Quinnipiac poll has Biden’s favorability at 38–57 and Kamala’s at 37–51. Meanwhile, Trump is as close to being popular as he’s ever been in this poll, 46–49. He leads Harris 49–47, and Biden 48–45.
What about the “swing states,” the highly competitive states that will determine the outcome on November 5? Here’s what Democrat-leaning Interactive Polls shows.
It’s just four states: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin.’
But the most discouraging news for Democrats comes from NBC elections analyst Steve Kornacki. (Thanks to Tim Hains who transcribed his remarks.) Kornacki was asked, compared to Biden, how does Harris look in the polls against Trump?
Under the headline “Idea That Kamala Harris Will Do Better Than Biden Is ‘Based More On Hope’ Than Any Numbers”
KORNACKI: The short answer is not really any better.
Take a look at this. This is the average of all the polls you’re talking about since the debate that tested Kamala Harris against Donald Trump.
Trump 47%, Harris 46%.
In the same set of polls, when it was Joe Biden, 47% for Trump and 45% for Biden.
The Democratic number on average goes up from 45 to 46. I think it underscores for Democrats, they view this move as something that’s going to improve their chances in the general election. That is based more on hope than it is on the numbers right now.
You go another level deep in this and you’ve got the favorable, unfavorable. The basic impression people have of these candidates here. For Joe Biden, these numbers have looked like this for a long time. Very, very bad numbers. 36% favorable, 57% unfavorable. Again, in an average of polls over the last month.
What’s the difference with Kamala Harris? Again, not much of a difference. From 36% favorable to 38%, 57% unfavorable down to 52%. That’s still a majority of voters saying they have an unfavorable impression of Kamala Harris.
Throw up Donald Trump’s numbers for comparison, he’s at 41% favorable, 55% unfavorable. All three of these figures with a majority of voters saying that are unfavorably impressed by them.
So, again, from the Democratic standpoint here, they think Harris being reintroduced as a presidential candidate, getting a different look, they think these numbers can improve for her, both in the favorables and in the horse race against Trump. But we don’t know. As you say, she has not really been tested. Her name never actually got to a primary ballot in 2020. She dropped out a couple of months before that.
So, see how it goes over. Democrats hope these numbers will improve. There’s also a possibility they don’t. There’s also a possibility this rollout does not go well.
One other very important consideration. Democrats in competitive races do not rush to support the choice of Harris. According to POLITICO
“Some key battleground Dems conspicuously quiet about Kamala Harris on Sunday: While many Democratic incumbents backed Harris immediately, other congressional hopefuls were waiting to endorse.”
Most of the Democratic challengers running for competitive seats across the country had glaring omissions in their statements Sunday about President Joe Biden bowing out of the race.
They didn’t mention Vice President Kamala Harris.
It was an eyebrow-raising contrast to the dozens of House and Senate Democratic incumbents who immediately came out in support of Harris as their party’s nominee. And it was even more noticeable in the blue states of New York and California, which hold a slew of districts where voters chose Biden in 2020 but have supported GOP candidates down the ballot since.
A flood of support for Harris could still come, and few Democrats called for a contested convention or backed any other candidate.
More tomorrow