The News
Kamala Harris will accept the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night, marking only the second time a woman has led a major party into a national election.
Her 2020 campaign failed to invigorate voters after a hot start, but she’s surged in the polls since taking over for US President Joe Biden just one month ago this week. Her speech at the Democratic National Convention will be her biggest platform yet to pitch herself to millions of American voters, many of whom are still filling in the blanks on the party’s new nominee.
SIGNALS
Harris lost chance to shine at prior conventions
Before Biden officially suspended his campaign, “very few people thought [Harris] could actually do well,” The Hill wrote. It’s partly because she hasn’t had this kind of high-profile introduction at previous Democratic conventions, Politico wrote: She delivered a “listless” 2012 speech; she lost the opportunity to showcase her political chops during her 2016 Senate campaign; and she delivered her 2020 convention speech to a nearly empty room at the height of COVID-19. But she has spent the last four years “honing the craft” of becoming more relatable, said Markos Moulitsas, founder of the liberal Daily Kos and a Harris delegate. “The Harris that we’re seeing now is not the Harris that we saw in 2019.”
Harris’ ‘freedom’ theme invokes historic activism by women
Harris’ central campaign theme of fighting for “freedom,” goes beyond the current war over abortion rights, historian Stacie Taranto wrote for TIME Magazine. She’s channeling a historic tradition of American women of color pushing for “far-reaching agendas unlikely to be achieved in their time,” Taranto argued. Their “future-focused” campaigns were broadly centered on expanding freedom for American women. While most of those activists died before getting to enjoy those freedoms themselves, Taranto wrote, “Harris… is well positioned to change that historical trend.”
Housing has become key theme of Harris’ policy
Harris will likely touch on her affordable housing plan in her speech Thursday, a theme that has been invoked consistently by other primetime convention speakers including Biden and former US President Barack Obama. Housing policy’s financial complexities make it a challenging issue to campaign on, Politico noted, and it’s more crucial to low-income Americans, who may be less likely to vote. But polls have shown the issue is important to many voters: A recent survey found that 83% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans believe the lack of affordable housing is a significant problem, Business Insider reported.