Nearly a month ago, Kamala Harris appeared on ABC’s The View for what was intended to be a cordial conversation in which she pitched herself to Americans interested in learning more about her.
However, the interview was swiftly overshadowed by her response to a question about what she would have done differently than incumbent President Joe Biden: “Not a thing comes to mind.”
Harris’s response, which became a Republican attack ad on loop, highlighted the political headwinds that her promising campaign failed to overcome in her decisive loss to Donald Trump on Tuesday.
She publicly conceded the election late Wednesday afternoon, asking supporters not to despair.
Harris campaign executives remained silent in the early hours of Wednesday, as some aides professed tears of surprise at what they believed to be a much closer contest. Here are factors responsible for her loss in the election considered to be the most-keenly contested in American history.
Biden’s baggage
After Biden stepped out of the campaign following a disastrous debate performance, Harris was elevated to the top of the ticket, skipping the scrutiny of a primary without a single vote cast.
She launched her 100-day campaign promising a “new generation of leadership,” mobilizing women around abortion rights, and claiming to re-engage working-class voters by concentrating on economic issues such as rising expenses and housing affordability.
With only three months until election day, she built a surge of early momentum, including a flurry of social media memes, a star-studded endorsement list that featured Taylor Swift, and a record-breaking fundraising bonanza. However, Harris was unable to overcome the anti-Biden mood that dominated majority of the electorate.
Struggle to expand Biden’s network of support.
The Harris team planned to rebuild the voting coalition that propelled Biden’s 2020 victory, winning over core Democratic demographics such as black, Latino, and young voters, as well as making additional gains among college-educated suburban voters.
However, she underperformed in these important voting blocs. According to exit polls, she dropped 13 points with Latino voters, two points with black voters, and six points with those under 30, all of which may alter once votes are counted but are deemed typical of trends.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who lost the 2016 Democratic presidential primary to Hillary Clinton and the 2020 primary to Biden, said it was “no great surprise” that working-class voters abandoned the party.
Making it about Donald Trump backfired.
Harris had attempted to frame the campaign as a referendum on Trump rather than Biden before being pushed to the top of the ticket.
The former California prosecutor used her law enforcement background to prosecute the former president’s case. However, her fledgling campaign chose to abandon Biden’s primary argument that Trump posed an existential threat to democracy in favor of a forward-thinking “joyful” message about defending personal liberties and sustaining the middle class.
In the last stretch, Harris made a tactical move to emphasize the perils of a second Trump presidency, branding the president a “fascist” and campaigned with disgruntled Republicans fired up with his comments.