Democrats brace for ‘extremely close’ contest
Harris views the march to November as a series of building blocks, advisers say, with a wave of momentum from the Chicago convention poised to carry her toward the September 10 debate.
The vice president has made clear in conversations with her campaign team and in meetings with donors and supporters that she is under no illusion that the remainder of the campaign will be as smooth or soaring as her ascent to the top of the ticket.
“Let’s know we’re underdogs and this is going to be rough and tough,” Harris told a small group of celebrating boosters she visited after her convention speech. “After tonight and a bit of partying, let’s get back to work and let’s see this through.”
The roadmap for the general election is coming into sharper view, with battlegrounds that Democrats all but written off during the Biden campaign now suddenly competitive. North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia offer a pathway — and a potential insurance policy — beyond the blue wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Harris is set to visit Georgia next week, aides said, along with a limited number of campaign stops as she urgently turns her focus to debate preparations for the next two weeks. She spends at least part of every day familiarizing herself with Trump’s record — and statements — as she approaches September 10 with the diligence of a trial lawyer she once was.
Additionally, practice sessions are already underway for next month’s debate, the first time she will be in the same room as Trump aside from his State of the Union addresses, when she was a California senator. Her team made a conscious decision not to wait until the week before to begin preparing, aware a mistake on the debate stage could shift the energy in the race in an instant.
Trump has also begun preparing for the debate. He enlisted one of Harris’ former 2020 Democratic primary rivals, former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The two had several notable exchanges during Democratic primary debates, where Harris criticized Gabbard for her foreign policy views while Gabbard challenged Harris’ record on criminal justice.
Friends who have known Harris for years say they see a new sense of confidence in her. But the excitement and energy surrounding the ticket doesn’t change the fact that the race with Trump is almost certainly heading toward a bruising chapter unlike many others in American history.
Harris is seeking to present herself as a change candidate, despite her incumbency as vice president and her record in the Biden administration. If the election can be seen as a choice between Harris and Trump, not a referendum on her, advisers believe she could be well positioned to try and win over independent voters and even some moderate Republicans, whom she referenced in her speech Thursday night.
Jen O’Malley Dillon, the Harris campaign chair, told CNN that complacency among Democratic voters is among the things that keeps her up at night. The long shadow of the 2016 campaign, which sent Trump to the Oval Office, continues to haunt many Democrats.
“This,” she said, “is going to be an extremely close race.”
