In an interview with CNN, Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party candidate against Donald Trump for the 2024 US presidential election, unveiled her platform on Thursday, August 29. She is narrowly ahead of her Republican opponent in the polls.
Kamala Harris officially became the Democratic candidate for the US presidential election at the Chicago convention on Thursday, August 22, where she was supported by more than 50,000 activists. The current vice president was chosen to replace Joe Biden after the latter’s withdrawal. Faced with Donald Trump, her candidacy has reshuffled the cards in the presidential race. “When we fight, we win!” she hammered home in front of her supporters.
On Thursday, August 29, exactly one week after her inauguration as a candidate, Kamala Harris engaged in a new exercise by giving her first major oral on CNN. During this interview of more than thirty minutes, the Democratic candidate considered that America was “ready to turn the page” Donald Trump. She clarified her position on several issues and detailed her program. Her next media appointment will take place on September 10, for her first debate against Donald Trump.
- Defense of purchasing power: Kamala Harris had already outlined several economic measures in her program. She had assured that she wanted to “give money back to middle- and working-class families,” accusing Donald Trump of wanting to fight “for billionaires and big business. During her interview with CNN, the candidate spoke briefly about her projects, such as the tax credit for first-time home buyers at the birth of a child, reducing inflation to 3% or even job creation in industry, reports The World. Saying she wants to defend purchasing power, which she makes a priority, she promises to control the prices of basic necessities, as well as medicines.
- Ecological measures : To distinguish herself from Donald Trump, Kamala Harris is investing in issues such as the environment with ecological measures, unlike her rival who broke with the Paris agreements during his term. During her interview for CNN, the candidate recalled that “her values have not changed” regarding the climate. However, she explained that she would not ban hydraulic fracturing, a technique that allows rocks to be cracked to extract hydrocarbons, contrary to what she had said previously.
- Social measures : the Democratic candidate has mainly placed social issues at the heart of her campaign, starting with the right to abortion in the face of a Republican camp at the origin of the tightening of access to IVG in several States. The defense of minorities is also a central point of the campaign.
- International : While Kamala Harris has said little about her foreign policy, she has reiterated her commitment to defending the Hebrew state and has specified that she would not suspend American arms deliveries to Israel in the event of a victory, according to franceinfo. But while she would like to appear less pro-Israel than Joe Biden, she condemned the violence perpetrated against Palestinian civilians. She said that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed” and called for “a ceasefire.”
Attacks on Donald Trump
During her interview, the candidate insisted on what she considers to be Joe Biden’s good record at the head of the country and accused former president Donald Trump of having “divided our nation”. She assured that “the economy had collapsed” before Joe Biden arrived at the White House and shifted the responsibility to Donald Trump regarding the migrant crisis. While her opponent had judged that she was “not really black”, the candidate did not wish to respond to this personal attack. “Always the same old story. Next question, please”, she said, thus dispatching the subject. She also shared a message of political reconciliation by estimating that “it would be a good thing for the Americans to have a Republican minister in [son] government,” reports franceinfo.
Kamala Harris’ candidacy to replace Joe Biden has put the vice president at the top of voting intentions, while the White House tenant was struggling to assert himself against Donald Trump. According to the latest studies compiled by Race to the White Houseas of Thursday, August 29, Kamala Harris would come out on top in voting intentions with 48% of voting intentions, against 44.4% for Donald Trump. The poll aggregation site 538 from ABC Newsalso places Kamala Harris in the lead with 47.2% of voting intentions at the national level, against 43.7% for Donald Trump.
However, the results of the state polls are what focus the attention. Each state won guarantees a certain number of votes in the more than 500 electoral votes that vote to elect the American president. Most of the 50 states are won by a political party, but the “swing states” swing to the right or left depending on the polls. The latter must be won to ensure access to the White House.
Kamala Harris appears to be in a good position in several of them according to the latest polls: she is ahead of Donald Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Wisconsin. She is slightly ahead in Arizona and Georgia. Donald Trump maintains a large advantage in Florida and Texas. He is slightly ahead of Kamala Harris in North Carolina. These trends may still change before the presidential election on November 5.
Kamala Harris’ personal journey is impressive and the vice president knows how to remind people of it. “I am the empirical proof of the promise of America,” she regularly explains. An African-American from an academic background, she became the first woman to be elected district attorney of San Francisco, before becoming attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017. As a woman, Kamala Harris is likely to obtain a better score than Joe Biden, but especially than Donald Trump, among American female voters. The Democrats historically record good scores with this electorate and hope to capitalize further on these votes with their candidate.
If Kamala Harris is a pure Democrat from California who convinces in historically Democratic states, she may have more difficulty convincing in the Midwestern states that lean towards the Republican side or swing from one camp to the other depending on the polls. To seduce this electorate, her running mate Tim Walz could be a good asset. Governor of Minnesota, the politician is popular in the Midwest to the point that he was appointed instead of Josh Shapiro, another popular Democrat in this region of the United States. The vice-presidential candidate also helps to balance and reassure the male electorate as a white man alongside a female and black candidate.