A new star has emerged on the US horizon; it is called Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris’s rapid elevation can be attributed not only to her competence and personality but also the good fortune of being at the right place at the right time. She was a little-known attorney general in California when a light-hearted comment by then President Barack Obama, at a fundraiser she was also attending in April 2013, catapulted her to national fame.

Recognising her presence Obama remarked, “She is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d want in anybody who is administering the law… She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country.”

The remarks kicked up a firestorm with many observers calling them ‘sexist’. Obama apologised to Harris, a long-standing friend, who waived it off with good grace, becoming a national celebrity in the process.

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In 2020, now a Senator, Harris jumped into Democratic presidential primaries race and did well briefly before pulling out early, due to fund constraints, but not before landing a few verbal punches at Biden during a debate. She happened to be the only Black woman candidate and was eventually picked up by Biden as his running mate. She became the nation’s first woman vice-president.

She dutifully played second-fiddle to President Biden and maintained a low profile with little to show by way of accomplishments. But when Biden decided to pull out of the race on July 21, 2024, she was waiting in the wings.

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Once nominated to the top of the ticket she underwent a dramatic transformation, surprising everyone by her exceptional energy, confidence and organisational skills. She consolidated her candidature with great speed, secured the support of a majority of the 4,000 Democratic delegates as well as party stalwarts, and united the party behind her.

Her electrified voter base lavished $310 million to her electoral coffers in a mere 10 days in July, a record for any party. She assembled an experienced campaign team that boasts of the very best in the game. Over 200,000 volunteers have already signed up to do the legwork.

With each passing day she is sounding and acting more presidential as if she had prepped for the role all these years. Her rallies are attracting fawning crowds the likes of which have not been witnessed since the Obama era. She has almost wiped out the lead that Donald Trump enjoyed over Biden in opinion polls till recently, including in some of the swing states.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that jubilation and despair have switched camps between the Republican and Democratic parties in a span of three weeks. Emerging from the Republican convention on July 18, Trump who had survived an assassination bid a week earlier, looked unbeatable.

But the advent of Harris has changed the dynamics. The Republicans, notwithstanding protestations to the contrary, have been caught flatfooted. They never believed that President Biden would quit the contest. Ironically while Biden has been all but forgotten by the Democratic campaign, Trump continues to rue his departure, even intoning that he was given a raw deal by the party.

Team Trump has been forced to go back to the drawing board to device an effective strategy to blunt Kamala Harris’s offensive. Trump has called her incompetent, ultra-liberal and a ‘border czar’ who allowed “millions” of illegal immigrants into the country. The barbs have fallen flat.

Rattled, he even questioned her identity as a Black politician. At a press conference he alleged, “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago, when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black. So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” It elicited a yawn.

Meanwhile JD Vance, the running mate of Trump, is struggling to explain his past intemperate remarks which are being gleefully dug-up by the media. In 2021, he had alleged that the US was being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs and a miserable “bunch of childless cat ladies who… want to make the rest of the country miserable, too”. He had pointedly named Kamala Harris.

Upon being asked to explain he recently retorted: “I’ve got nothing against cats.” He is expectedly facing a backlash particularly from unmarried or separated single women who head 52 per cent of the American households. A systematic campaign has been launched against him by Democrats and media that he is turning out to be a liability for Trump and could be shown the door.

When quizzed by the media Trump quipped that a vice-presidential pick “does not have any impact, virtually no impact” on the outcome, echoing President John F Kennedy’s viewpoint: “I don’t recall a single case where a vice-presidential candidate contributed an electoral vote.”

Kamala Harris in naming Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate is trying to prove the conventional wisdom wrong. A former schoolteacher, football coach, member of army national guard and Congressman, he is reputed for his ability to work across the aisle and disarm people with his folksy disposition.

She and Walz have taken to campaigning at a feverish pitch. Their message is simple and straightforward. Americans have a choice. Vote Trump and endanger democracy. Or vote Kamala, and secure the future. They are speaking out for the middle class, women’s reproductive rights and every child’s right to live without the fear of gun-violence. The contrast between the joyous tone of the Democrats and the dark one of the Republicans, could not be starker.

Harris is taking Trump heads-on. As a courtroom prosecutor and attorney general of California, she reiterates incessantly, she went after: “Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So, hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”

She has been repeating this message over and over again. And it is hitting home. As if on cue, the Democrats have taken to dubbing Trump and Vance as weird and creepy. These epithets seem to have found their mark. She has also challenged Trump to a debate, which the latter has accepted albeit reluctantly.

She calls herself an underdog in the race and not without justification. She still has to jump through several hoops. Harris would soon have to address full-fledged press conferences and to outline her stance on key domestic and international issues. The scrutiny would be intense. While she has the momentum at present, Trump remains a formidable opponent who cannot be underestimated. He’s capable of resorting to any means, fair or foul, to win the election.

And then there are several imponderables that she needs to reckon with. Is the momentum sustainable? Can the US economy avert a slowdown? Is the US ready for a Black woman president? Can Kamala Harris attract a sizeable chunk of uncommitted independent voters? Can the Democrats be mobilised in sufficient numbers to cast their ballot? How would she fare against Trump in the September 10 debate?

The road to the White House is steep and the D-day is still over 80 days away. Much can happen in the interregnum. However, there is no doubt that Harris has galvanised the race and turned it into a real contest.

The author is a foreign affairs specialist and an ex-envoy to Canada and South Korea. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.