 "The impact of the storms has become a major focus of campaign activities for both candidates. AP")
Two destructive forces, named Helene and Milton, have made an unwelcome entry into the US presidential election. The back-to-back hurricanes have disrupted campaign plans for Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump since both spent part of Thursday addressing questions about recovery efforts.
With less than a month until the November election, Harris and Trump are locked in a tight race to succeed President Biden. Two of the states hardest hit by Helene - North Carolina and Georgia - are among seven crucial battlegrounds likely to decide the outcome, bringing the politics of federal disaster response to the forefront.
Harris vs Trump: Who can handle natural disasters better?
As the hurricanes raise concerns about how each candidate would handle major natural disasters, they have also disrupted the voting process in key counties.
Vice President Harris is positioning herself as a leader during the crisis, appearing with President Biden at briefings and calling for bipartisan collaboration.
Meanwhile, former President Trump is seizing the moment to criticise the administration’s response and question whether aid is being withheld from Republican-leaning areas, although no evidence supports such claims.
For nearly two weeks, Trump has repeatedly criticised Biden and Harris, accusing them of incompetence in managing the federal response to the back-to-back deadly hurricanes. Taking direct aim at Kamala Harris, the former US President said, “She just led the worst rescue operation in history in North Carolina…the worst ever, they say.”
Harris, who took over as the lead candidate for the Democrats in July, also targeted Trump during an interview with the Weather Channel on Wednesday. She stated that now is not the time to “point fingers” and called for a focus on cooperation instead.
She said, “This is not a time for us to just point fingers at each other as Americans.”
“Anybody who considers themselves to be a leader should really be in the business right now of giving people a sense of confidence that we’re all working together and that we have the resources and the ability to work together on their behalf.”
Adding to the urgency is the need for increased funding for the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This would require House Republicans to work with the Democratic administration. On Thursday, Biden requested lawmakers to address the situation without delay.
Timothy Kneeland, a professor at Nazareth University in Rochester, New York, who has researched the issue, said, “Dealing with back-to-back crises will put FEMA under more scrutiny and, therefore, the Biden administration will be under a microscope in the days leading up to the election.”
“Vice President Harris must empathise with the victims without altering the campaign schedule and provide consistent messaging on the widespread devastation that makes FEMA’s work even more challenging than normal,” he added.
Both Trump and Harris have individually travelled to Georgia to evaluate hurricane damage and offer support, with Harris also visiting North Carolina. These trips have forced the candidates to cancel campaign events in other areas, consuming valuable time in the critical final weeks leading up to the election. Given that both Georgia and North Carolina are key political battlegrounds, the stakes are high.
How hurricanes became a major focus of campaign events
The impact of the hurricanes is clearly reflected in the candidates’ campaign activities.
On Thursday, during a Univision town hall in Las Vegas, Harris faced her first question from Ramiro Gonzalez, a construction worker and undecided voter from Tampa, Florida. He asked about concerns that the administration has not provided adequate support following Hurricane Helene and whether those affected by Hurricane Milton would have access to aid - a sign that Trump’s messaging is resonating with some potential voters.
While Harris addressed the misinformation being spread by Republicans, her response revealed dynamics at play just weeks before the election. “I have to stress that this is not a time for people to play politics,” she said.
On the same day, Trump began his address at the Detroit Economic Club by praising Republican governors in the impacted states while criticising the Biden-Harris administration. “They’ve let those people suffer unjustly,” he said about those affected by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.
The storms have also complicated the voting process in several areas. North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has passed a resolution to help the residents in affected counties with voting, while Florida has granted certain counties more flexibility in distributing mail-in ballots and adjusting polling locations. However, a federal judge in Georgia ruled on Thursday that the state does not need to reopen voter registration despite the disruptions caused by Hurricane Helene.
Tensions have begun to overshadow disaster response efforts, with Biden stating on Wednesday and Thursday that Trump has propagated falsehoods that are “un-American.”
Harris takes on a bigger role
As the Democratic nominee, Harris has unexpectedly taken on a major role in responding to the hurricanes, a responsibility that has not typically involved vice presidents in previous administrations.
On Thursday, while in Nevada for campaign activities, she participated virtually in a Situation Room briefing on Hurricane Milton. She has been involved in meetings focused on response strategies and even called into CNN live on Wednesday to discuss the administration’s efforts.
During a joint appearance with Biden on Wednesday to address Hurricane Milton before it made landfall, Harris subtly linked the issues at hand to her campaign policies aimed at preventing price gouging on food and other essential items.
She said, “To any company that — or individual that might use this crisis to exploit people who are desperate for help through illegal fraud or price gouging — whether it be at the gas pump, the airport, or the hotel counter — know that we are monitoring these behaviors and the situation on the ground very closely and anyone taking advantage of consumers will be held accountable.”
Harris warned that Milton “poses extreme danger.”
The hurricane made landfall in Florida late Wednesday, resulting in over 3 million people losing power. However, the storm surge did not reach the same heights as Helene, which caused around 230 deaths and left mountainous regions of North Carolina without electricity, cell service, or accessible roadways for an extended period.
Misinformation regarding the administration’s response
Trump and his allies have capitalised on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to spread misinformation regarding the administration’s response. Among their debunked claims are statements that victims are limited to receiving only $750 in aid and false allegations that emergency response funds were redirected to immigrants.
The former president has gone so far as to compare the administration’s handling of Helene unfavourably to the George W Bush administration’s widely criticised response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which resulted in nearly 1,400 deaths.
“This hurricane has been a bad one, Kamala Harris has left them stranded,” Trump said at a rally in Juneau, Wisconsin. “This is the worst response to a storm or a catastrophe or a hurricane that we’ve ever seen ever. Probably worse than Katrina, and that’s hard to beat, right?”
When asked about the Trump campaign’s strategy of focusing on the hurricane response, campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that it reflects a pattern of “failed leadership” by the Biden-Harris administration, which also includes issues like the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and border security concerns.
“Kamala has left Americans behind and proven she is not equipped to solve crisos at the highest level,” Leavitt said.
John Gasper, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied government responses to natural disasters, noted that victims primarily want to ensure foremost that they get the aid they need.
“These disasters essentially end up being good tests of leadership for local, state and federal officials in how they respond,” he said.
However, Gasper pointed out that US politics has become polarised and other pressing issues, such as the economy, are shaping the election landscape. As a result, the current debate heating up between Trump and the Biden-Harris administration might not matter that much on Election Day.
“On the margin, it will matter,” he said. “Will it define the election? Probably not. There’s so many other things out there.”
With inputs from AP