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Kamala Harris Launches Presidential Bid: ‘My Intention Is to Earn and Win This Nomination’

Kamala Harris has launched her campaign for the White House, after President Joe Biden stepped aside Sunday under pressure from party leaders.

The vice president has Biden’s endorsement, and is unchallenged as yet for the Democratic nomination, which will be formally decided at the Aug. 19 convention in Chicago.

“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a statement. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda. We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”

In her statement, the vice president paid tribute to Biden’s “extraordinary leadership,” saying he had achieved more in one term than many presidents do in two.

rhacer ,

I don’t think she stands a chance running as a VP. However, if President Biden were to invoke Article 25, and abdicate in favor of his VP. I honestly think she’d be a lock to win.

perishthethought ,

Sorry but what do you see as the difference?

rhacer ,

I think she gets a huge bounce if she’s the President thrust into a role she did not ask for or seek. It’s a pretty typical human reaction to cheer for people forced by circumstance into an unexpected role. I think she also gets four months to show that she’s Presidential material.

So that’s the pragmatic part. I also believe that President Biden has shown he’s incapable of governing, and that we have rules regarding that situation. In fact that’s why we have the position of VP.

solrize ,

a role she did not ask for or seek.

She sought it in 2019 (ran for the office) but dropped out early in the primaries.

rhacer ,

Literally you’re are correct, figuratively, I think I’m in pretty solid ground.

ShepherdPie ,

And she’s seeking it again right now. Wtf is this person even talking about?

zabadoh ,

I understand your idea with your first paragraph, but it also ties Harris down to the White House instead of freeing her to campaign, and get her own name out there. If there are any events beyond her control, while she’s President, she would also be on the hook for those.

Biden’s actually pretty good and he is, or at least his staff is, getting a lot of positive things done, as long as he’s off camera. That’s been true throughout his career.

mosiacmango ,

Lol, im sure its just a coicidence that you are parroting the GOP by calling on Biden to resign the presidency right now.

No, it would not strengthen her campaign if her running mate made the entirely unprecedented move of resigning in office for no stated reason. The procedural shitshow a GOP house would make the process would become the whole news cycle until the election.

She is a much, much stronger canidate in her current role, being able to brag about every Biden/Harris accomplishment and not have any baggage of an active presidency, especially one that would be assumed in a ginned up shit show by her politcal opponents.

solrize ,

No, it would not strengthen her campaign if her running mate made the entirely unprecedented move of resigning in office for no stated reason

“Health reasons”. Maybe he checks into a hospital announces it from there.

rhacer ,

Absolutely correct.

mosiacmango ,

Okay, so now you have an excuse. So this kicks off a living shitshow in the Republican controlled house as article 25 is invoked. You have a circus that lets Republicans go on and on and on, stalling as best they can, starting hearing, etc. The GOP gets endless media attention when they would otherwise be on the backfoot to all the energizing postive press the dems are about to get. The GOP gets to grandstand, they get to sue, maybe the supreme court weighs in, making it look like Democrats can’t handle the presidency.

In what way is that a positive for the Harris campaign?

protist ,

She can also campaign full time, unlike Biden who was also doing the job of president while he was campaigning

JimmyBigSausage ,

Harris/Kelly ‘24!

VanillaBean ,

Who is Kelly?

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/7f2e70e3-596d-48c9-a858-b1633c55ad9f.png

Deceptichum ,
@Deceptichum@quokk.au avatar

Damnit, he’s a doctor not a VP!

Zerlyna ,
@Zerlyna@lemmy.world avatar

My heart fluttered seeing that. 🥰

teft ,
@teft@lemmy.world avatar

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kelly

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I would not be surprised if John Glenn’s failed presidential bid poisoned the idea of a former astronaut as VP candidate in the eyes of the DNC. They’re all old.

SpaceCowboy ,
@SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

Yeah, Democrats famously talk all the time about how much worse the election would have gone had it been John Glenn running against Reagan instead of Walter Mondale.

JimmyBigSausage ,

Senator Mark Kelly, AZ

HomerianSymphony ,

Senator, astronaut, navy captain, identical twin, and straight white man.

And his wife is Gabby Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived being shot in the head in an assassination attempt (and I mean actually shot in the head, not just a grazed ear).

MeekerThanBeaker ,

Charlie Kelly

Zachariah ,
@Zachariah@lemmy.world avatar

Now we just need to get Trump to step down. Then we can have a less insane election.

He really should. He has no business running.

FenrirIII ,
@FenrirIII@lemmy.world avatar

Even if the assassin had finished the job, his cult would prop his corpse up and wait for him to come back to life.

snooggums ,
@snooggums@midwest.social avatar

That would have been fine.

Pacattack57 ,

I think I would shit my pants from happiness if that happened

Blumpkinhead ,

I think we’d all shit your pants.

scarabine ,

I know I sure would.

ZoopZeZoop ,

I’m next after this person!

solrize ,

Now we just need to get Trump to step down. Then we can have a less insane election.

If that hands the GOP nomination to Vance, then Vance would completely destroy any of the Democrats who the Dem establishment could possibly let run. This was obvious on watching about a minute of Vance’s VP acceptance speech on the news. Dems should be careful what they ask for.

TrickDacy ,

Oh I thought he was a huge liability being absolutely full of baggage. Insane things he’s said, including that trump is America’s Hitler (mind you that’s only insane to cultists)

ShepherdPie ,

And also the fact that he’s an obvious ivy league elite who pretends to be a “common man.”

Zachariah , (edited )
@Zachariah@lemmy.world avatar

No one in GOP has a cult following like Donald.

Sanguine ,

lol 🤣 no one gives a shit about Vance, get real.

TSG_Asmodeus ,
@TSG_Asmodeus@lemmy.world avatar

then Vance would completely destroy any of the Democrats who the Dem establishment could possibly let run.

Well…

In February, during an episode of Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Vance said that he cared more about the security of the US southern border than the Russian troop build-up near Ukraine. “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another,” Vance said.

““Indigenous Peoples’ Day” is a fake holiday created to sow division. Of course Joe Biden is the first president to pay it any attention.”

“I am as pro life as anyone, and I want to save as many babies as possible. This is not about moral legitimacy but political reality.”

“There are dozens of people who protested on J6 who haven’t even been charged with a crime yet are being mistreated in DC prisons. A friend suggested the below link if you’re able to support them.”

Vance said that Trump should “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat” in the US government and “replace them with our people.” If the courts attempt to stop this, Vance says, Trump should simply ignore the law. “You stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it,” he declares. The President Jackson quote is likely apocryphal, but the history is real. Vance is referring to an 1832 case, Worcester v. Georgia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the US government needed to respect Native legal rights to land ownership. Jackson ignored the ruling, and continued a policy of allowing whites to take what belonged to Natives. The end result was the ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Natives — an event we now call the Trail of Tears.

Yeah, Democrats will sure have a tough time with him…

solrize ,

Well, maybe you’re right, I had basically never heard of Vance until Trump picked him. But his acceptance speech was written to eat the Democrats’ lunch, since they weren’t willing to eat it themselves. And that stuff you quoted will delight Trump supporters, and maybe not bother too many Democrats.

SpaceCowboy ,
@SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

“I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler” - JD Vance

He’s no different from Ted Cruz. Was against Trump, then later supported him. Both of these guys grew a beard after flipping to be huge Trump supporters too.

Sc00ter ,

As an ohioian, I can assure you no one gives a shit about vance and he stands for nothing. He’s a Muppet who says what he’s told to say

Guy_Fieris_Hair ,

I don’t think we can have a president with one fucking ear anyway.

ForensicFart ,

I’m giggling at this and I don’t know why but I’m going to start making this statement as straight faced as possible when I’m told that he should be reelected

madcaesar ,

Just use Trump’s words. “I prefer presidents that don’t get shot 🤷‍♂️”

SirDerpy , (edited )

AOC rationalizes selling out her principles to unite the big tent and become part of the dynastic club as VP.

Newsom ensures neoliberal outcomes with appeal to neoliberals and fence Republicans as Pres.

The big tent unites. Democrats win.

qooqie , (edited )

We don’t stand a chance with her as the pick. Whitmer would’ve been a much better president pick

You can downvote all you want the polls show dems still losing with her as the pick

Wiz ,

She hasn’t even started campaigning yet, and she was even to Joe or even better.

qooqie ,

She literally has been campaigning? She is the VP she campaigns with Joe. She’s in the public eye, people know her and she still trails trump

finestnothing ,

She has been campaigning… For Biden. That’s the difference between being the backup singer and the lead singer at a concert. Sure the backup singer is still on stage and singing, but it’s just to support the lead singer, not to show off their own talent

TrickDacy ,

How can you possibly think that makes sense?

Draedron ,

No change this late would have been the best pick. Now the Dems just hand Trump the presidency. Maybe because they are scared of what Trump will do to them so they try to ally with him?

LucidNightmare ,

Polls, polls, polls.

First, it’s Biden is too old. Now, it is polls, which have time and time been proven to not mean shit.

Since you apparently forgot the last time polls were discussed so much

www.rutgers.edu/news/what-happened-red-wave

Cheers.

qooqie ,

For me it’s always polls, I don’t care about Bidens ages I want someone who can for sure beat this shit stain (trump) and keep him out for good

kromem ,

I agree Whitmer would be the best chance at beating Trump in general.

But I do think that Harris can still do that job and that there’s logistical reasons why it’s going to be that.

I wish we’d have Whitmer, but I’m not terrified of it being Harris the way I was if Biden stayed in the race.

And if she picks a good VP that helps round out the ticket with the middle of the country, I could see the new ticket getting momentum.

Kroxx ,

I don’t like Harris, mainly because of her time as a prosecutor. I’m also not going to lie, I was having a really really hard time grappling with voting for Biden, I was begrudgingly willing to before the debate but when I watched it I was so outraged. I genuinely feel like his administration has been deceitful with his condition for a while. I’m not saying I wasn’t going to vote for Biden, I understand the stakes, but I kept watching his interviews trying to get any genuine motivation for Biden. All I saw was a stubborn old man who refused to even acknowledge reality.

I’ve been following Biden news and this week I was convinced that he would drop out and so I wondered who would replace him. Harris immediately came to mind. Now as I said I don’t care for Harris but before Biden announced this today I personally decided I would be willing to support Harris.

She isn’t ancient, I believe she’s more progressive, and I think she will be good in the debates. She isn’t my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th pick, but I have far fewer hangups voting for Harris compared to Biden, and of course over Trump.

She isn’t the best candidate in terms of absolute popularity, but when you factor in funding logistics and the fact that I think many good Dems picks would want to run in '28 when the timing isn’t fucked, I think Harris is the most realistic pick. I’ll happily take her compared to Biden.

Cuttlefish1111 ,

Back to the lesser of 2 evils. It never ends

LustyArgonianMana ,
@LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world avatar

The only way you’ll get a candidate that aligns with 100% of your personal beliefs, is if you run for office yourself

That being said, I’d love a real leftwing candidate

ZoopZeZoop ,

And sometimes you have to run on or embrace the ideals of someone else just to get elected. Unfortunate.

TrickDacy ,

BOtH sIdEs

ShepherdPie ,

Both candidates are right wing so it’s not really “BOtH sIdEs.” People on the left would like some representation for once.

TrickDacy ,

Not surprised you’d say that

PunnyName ,

What policies have the right and left regularly agreed upon? What bills put forth have unanimous votes?

TrickDacy ,

Don’t worry they will totally respond with facts here…

LMAO

DragonTypeWyvern ,

Fighting universal healthcare. Refusing to revoke Citizens United. Refusing the Right to Repair.

The Patriot Act. The Iraq War. Enabling The Genocide of Palestine. The continuous decline into corporatocracy.

All bipartisan efforts.

You shitlibs genuinely do not understand the conversation happening in front of you. We know you don’t, or you wouldn’t be a shitlib, you’d be a social democrat at worst.

TrickDacy ,

Using the term sHiTliB renders you exempt from discourse. It’s like screaming that you’re unreachable and a huge waste of time

ShepherdPie ,

What an embarrassing response after your own “BOtH SiDEs” and “yeah they’ll totally respond with facts” comments. You can’t even address the numerous examples they listed?

TrickDacy ,

I don’t argue with people who tell me it’s hopeless to. I will say though, you’re living up to the tag I gave you in the past.

ShepherdPie ,

Seems you had no issue arguing up until getting your bluff called a few comments ago even though you ‘tagged me’ long ago. Now you suddenly don’t want to discuss facts and instead deflect to talking crap in typical blue MAGA fashion.

DragonTypeWyvern ,

👍

Steve , (edited )

I think your conflating Right and Left with Republican and Democrat.
They aren’t the same thing.

Both parties have been pro-corporate oligopoly. The Republicans, just more so.
Both parties have been catering to the same class of big corporate donors. The Republicans, just more so.
Both parties have been pro-military-industrial-complex. The Republicans, just more so.
Both parties have been pro-Israli genocide. The Republicans, just more so.
Both parties have shown a little movement toward economic populism. The Democrats, just more so.

They might not vote together on many bills. Because it would look bad to their respective bases if they did.
But they’ve both been pushing in similar directions on a number of topics for decades.

Angry_Autist ,

Yes, that’s what rational people do, pick the less damaging choice.

What the FUCK is wrong with you people who actively choose the more damaging choice for lulz?

Cuttlefish1111 ,

I never endorsed anyone

Sc00ter ,

History has shown what that impact is. Get out and fucking vote

Cuttlefish1111 ,

No shit I’m going to vote, when did I say I wasn’t? Everyone here so quick to forget we had two shit choices, now we still have two shit choices.

Angry_Autist ,

One is rusty shitbox.

The other is radioactive rusty shitbox that is also on fire.

If you have a problem choosing, the problem isn’t with the candidates. Even hesitating a moment is a form of mental illness.

Cuttlefish1111 ,

And that’s how we get pulled further to the right. When did I say I had chosen anyone for the lulz. What the fuck is wrong with you jumping to conclusions?

Angry_Autist ,

I have yet to meet a forum poster who unironically used the phrase ‘and that’s how we get pulled further to the right’ in response to a reply about not voting for a fucking convicted felon pedophile fascist that wasn’t a fucking fascist themselves.

samus12345 ,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

Yes, that’s how first past the post voting works.

elbucho ,
@elbucho@lemmy.world avatar

You know what? I felt the same way before today. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot since the announcement, and the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that Harris is the best possible presidential candidate.

Like you, I don’t think she’d make the best president. Hell, she wasn’t even in my top 10. I’d have vastly preferred someone like Hakeem Jeffries. But here’s the thing: the person best suited for the office of president isn’t necessarily the best person to run for president.

Harris has all of the advantages Biden had: she can run on this administration’s record, since it was her administration too. Every positive talking point about the stuff that Biden’s done for the country can equally apply to Harris. Additionally, she gets his entire war chest, and with the president’s blessing today, she’s likely going to have 100% party support as well. To make matters even better, she doesn’t have any of the flaws he sported: she’s young, she’s sharp, she’s great in debates, and because she’s the antithesis of Biden in all of these respects, all of the criticisms pointed at Biden (which could also 100% be applied to Trump) will now all be applied to Trump and Trump alone.

Lastly, I think that now is the most favorable moment in our country’s history for a non-white, non-male person to become president. She’s got the built-in support of everybody who dreads another Trump presidency. A significant number of people who would vote for Biden but not Harris due to sexism or racism will be rethinking that position when the opposition is Donald Trump. Also, something like 40% of people in the US just simply don’t vote. Biden would never appeal to those people, but a black / asian woman who has succeeded in a mostly male dominated field could be very inspirational to a large number of otherwise apathetic non-voters.

I honestly think that Harris being endorsed for President is just an unalloyed good. I don’t see any realistic downsides, and an incredible number of upsides. It actually has me excited, which is a feeling I haven’t felt since 2008.

Olhonestjim ,

Don’t forget that the fascists will push away moderates everywhere because they have no idea how racist and sexist they are, nor how to hide it, because it’s their entire platform.

shalafi ,

Agreed with all that! But I have one caveat.

the most favorable moment in our country’s history for a non-white, non-male person to become president

Look, I cried tears of joy when Obama won. I mean that literally. But guess when the conservative hate machine got dialed to 11?

Some will say it started earlier, but I disagree. Back then I occasionally listened to Limbaugh and Hannity on the radio while running errands at work. They actually had some sane takes now and again. Wasn’t very political, but I had my ear to the ground. The entire machine, especially Fox News, went so far off the rails in response to a black President, I simply couldn’t listen to any of them, not for a second.

Conservative brains take time to assimilate new social conditions, gotta chip away at 'em. I’m already hearing the, “Fuck them!” replies, but that doesn’t change the fact that these people exist and vote. And they’re going to get more and more violent.

Look at LGBT rights. We got them to begrudgingly accept gay marriage. Fresh off that victory, liberals asked for more and more acceptance. Too much, too fast, they went full-on berserk. Now I feel gay rights are perhaps worse than before.

Scared to see what a double-whammy of a black woman does to their brains. I used to laugh about conservatives choking on their outrage, same with Christians. “Ha! Losing ain’t ya!” But now it isn’t so funny. They’re in a corner and lashing out. What next?

elbucho ,
@elbucho@lemmy.world avatar

All, or at least the vast majority, of those people you’re talking about are already Trump voters. They’re going to continue backing Trump no matter who the Democratic party picks. They saw a black guy get elected president, and that radicalized them. They aren’t coming back. Pandering to the imaginary demographic of racists who will surely see the light if we elect the right candidate is simply a losing proposition.

Will there be right wing violence in response to a Harris presidency? Of course there will be. Is there right wing violence now? Of course there is. I understand that you’re tired of hearing the “fuck them” replies, but seriously: fuck them. They are a cancer on this nation. Holding back on doing something good just because you’re afraid that the fucking awful people you share a country with will do something awful just means that you never make any progress.

brbposting ,

Too much, too fast, they went full-on berserk.

Raises a conundrum I struggle with:

No one should have to wait for rights, true.

yet

Idiots vote, true.

How should we act if we know fighting for certain rights means fascists have an easier time in elections?

Should we…:

A. Be publicly on the right side of history at risk of losing an election to the detriment of all.

B. Be publicly on the right side of a human rights issue in order to win, then try to privately backchannel to make up for the sin.

(Perhaps a false binary here, so ready to be corrected.)

Idealist in me says fight at all costs, maybe it’ll work out. Pragmatist in me says “win the damn election & backchannel the heck out of your term.” Feel guilty either way.

Eccitaze ,
@Eccitaze@yiffit.net avatar

I’m personally a little nervous about Harris–I remember the 2020 primary where her only notable accomplishments were accusing Biden of being racist over opposition to federal busing policies, and then flaming out shortly after and shuttering her campaign two months before the first caucus and polling single digits in California. Admittedly, she doesn’t have the same headwinds now that she had in 2020–she doesn’t have to differentiate herself from over a dozen other candidates and she won’t struggle to raise money–but she also made some unforced errors (e.g. coming out for total elimination of private insurance before revealing a plan that included private plans, or admitting her own policy on busing was essentially identical to Biden’s).

Hopefully, she’ll run a much tighter campaign now since she’ll inherit Biden’s staff and can focus solely on attacking Trump, but I do have some concerns.

Angry_Autist ,

It’s attitudes exactly like this why American Democrats are center right, and why we have had almost zero meaningful legislation to help the normal people for 40 years.

If your family survives this coming shitshow of a fasist coup, I hope you beg their forgiveness and tell them your small part in helping start it.

Kroxx ,

So the DNC gets to make this decision not me. This is a last minute situation that hasn’t happened since the 60s, every ounce of divisiveness will only embolden the “facist coup”. The time is up, whoever they pick we’ve got to unite behind and hopefully rally voters to the booths. Honestly the presidency needs to be D so it can’t veto/ can veto, the VP can tie break, and executive orders. She will hopefully be a beacon to encourage voters to get more D in the senate and house. The house/senate flips and your meaningful legislation point becomes moot. Lastly I have no clue what you are saying in the 2nd paragraph, somehow voting for Harris makes a facist coup? No clue what middle steps are included to achieve that outcome but you must know something I don’t. Regardless I have no worries about my family but I appreciate the concern!

Angry_Autist ,

You are a fascist propaganda account.

You will deny it.

Your sockpuppets will come mock and downvote me, flooding my inbox with harassment until I respond back then you will report that reply, getting me banned and giving you the opportunity to play the aggrieved victim for a while, then you will just go back to posting slightly disconcerting concern trolling to erode morale.

And the mods, of course, will support you. Because you have ‘the right to play’, and I am of course ‘a bad actor’ for ‘stirring up trouble’ and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief as I am banned and this place becomes more and more enshittified all in the name of ‘People can have their opinion, yo’.

I’m so fucking tired of this game, but it will never end, because fascists like you have been emboldened by the rising hard right tide and there will never be a normal election for the remainder of my life. If we have elections AT ALL after the next one.

Kroxx ,

okey dokey

machinin ,

Dude, take a breath. You’re coming off as unhinged. You’ll probably call me a shill or something, then continue to ignore people it. It isn’t all a grand conspiracy against you.

Angry_Autist ,

Right out of the fucking woodwork, just as predicted.

Soulg ,

As a normal person, I’ve been helped by legislation both by Biden and Obama. Just because it’s not perfect doesn’t mean it’s not good.

Angry_Autist ,

SCOTUS, Congress, and POTUS have all, regardless of party have catered to corporate interest over the citizenry an OVERWHELMING amount my entire life, and I remember life before the internet.

Sure we get a few crumbs, cars for clunkers, a crippled ACA, a constant ‘will they, won’t they’ over college loans.

Meanwhile Citizens United gave corporations near unlimited influence, the repeal of Glass-Steagall led to the housing collapse in 2008 and the banks were bailed out. Even recently in COVID those most benefitted were the corporations and ultra wealthy who netted a 1.3 FUCKINGTRILLION dollar payday with almost no oversight or pressure to pay back, and we are STILL seeing fraud cases from that show up.

So was your little 3k ‘gift’ that was meant for relief during A FUCKING PANDEMIC in any way commesurate with the HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS the owner class (who was at no financial risk at any time) got to keep?

Do you feel all these little crumbs of social support they have doled out in meager and begrudging ways makes up for the fact that no matter what their party, NEARLY EVERY MEMBER of our top seats in government are more concerned about the interests of the wealthy than they are in normal people?

assassin_aragorn ,

why we have had almost zero meaningful legislation to help the normal people for 40 years.

The Affordable Care Act is why I was able to take a year off work to focus on my mental health after the pandemic crushed it. The Inflation Reduction Act is helping keep the renewable energy company I work for afloat and offering an optimistic future.

No one expects to end up on government assistance or using FMLA to take a few months off for an illness. We support it on the left because we know it’s the fucking right thing to do.

It’s all good and fine to criticize programs as useless theoretically when you don’t rely on them. But when you’ve actually experienced them and needed them, your perspective changes heavily.

Democrats have gotten good shit done for the average person, and I’ve personally benefited from it when I really needed it.

Angry_Autist ,

Do you think the ACA that passed was the ACA originally intended? Because it wasn’t, and there’s only one party to blame for why.

ColeSloth ,

As to that 2028 topic…If Harris wins, it pushes all of them all the way back to 2032. Many of those hopefulf may like their odds right now, as opposed to 8 years later, unless those same people are confident Harris will lose against Trump.

roguetrick ,

If Harris wins, this election is proof that a competitive primary that knocks out the incumbent isn’t a death knell for the general. I promise you, Harris will have opponents.

assassin_aragorn ,

when you factor in funding logistics

This is an incredibly important point. Unless rich donors said they’d fully make up the current campaign war chest for the new candidate, there would be a significant funding issue. Being able to use the existing funds is extremely important.

VanillaBean ,

mainly because of her time as a prosecutor.

What didn’t you like about it?

paddirn ,

Wow, so the DNC might actually be interesting to watch this year if another candidate gets any traction.

MyOpinion ,

Kamala Harris I look forward to you wiping the floor with the Orange Turd.

Draedron ,

She has less than 4 months and was completely invisible before. She is going to lose hard and this time we can really blame the Dems for betraying Biden this late in the race.

ShepherdPie ,

Biden was going to lose. Do you really think they’d go through all this if that wasn’t the reality of the situation?

DragonTypeWyvern ,

According to the same pollsters cold calling boomers and then acting surprised reality doesn’t match up

Xanis ,

About 30 seconds ago I felt a little smarter not knowing you exist, yet in so few words you’ve made yourself pretty thoroughly known.

Four months is plenty of time. Biden will be backing her. The DNC has voting wolves ready to kick their asses. Bernie and AOC both supported Biden and are wise enough to support Harris, and others will follow their example. Back to point #2, and to reaaaally highlight something obscenely important:

They listened.

Take that in for a meager second. Now ask yourself if we could get those prideful fucks to back down, and also get an old lifetime politician to step aside in a historical move, do you understand what we could potentially do if we complained half as hard as you do when so much shit isn’t on the line?

Oh, and give us an alternative that matches three things:

  1. Not invisible
  2. Likely to have larger support
  3. Not old asf

I think you’ll find 3 to be rather important for a LOT of people right now.

AlecSadler ,

I’m saving this to use later, because it’s amazing, thank you, “About 30 seconds ago I felt a little smarter not knowing you exist”

brbposting ,

I prolly agree with you, and you seem to have a good handle on the current political climate (thus an intelligent head on your shoulders), which is why I think it’s worth my time to suggest some introspection w/r/t your first sentence. Thanks for your consideration.

kent_eh ,

and was completely invisible before.

Only if you haven’t been paying attention.

TrickDacy ,

The next debate should be hilarious. Someone with facts and speaking ability vs a windbag lie machine

Guy_Fieris_Hair ,

Also, she is a cop/lawyer. She’s prolly pretty good at arguing as long as she can handle the big(ger) stage.

SpaceCowboy ,
@SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

I wonder if she convicted anyone of falsification of business records? It would be interesting if she mentioned that as one of her past accomplishments while on the stage with someone found guilty of 34 counts of that crime.

AlecSadler ,

Damn, this would be amazing to see.

JimSamtanko ,

Trump won’t debate her. He’s fucking stupid, but he’s not that fucking stupid.

Drunemeton ,
@Drunemeton@lemmy.world avatar

Oh I quite think that he’d love to debate her! However his handlers will absolutely go bonkers trying to get him to shut up about it to keep that from happening.

inclementimmigrant ,

Didn’t like her in the primaries, still don’t like her now but honestly she’s the best shot Democrats have now. I’m just so pissed off that Democrats and Biden waited this long and now have to scramble like this.

It’s absolutely infuriating at this level of incompetence.

Draedron ,

You win it for Trump. I swear it feels like Dems want Trump to win by backstabbing Biden this late in the game.

JCreazy ,

Fuck it, I’ll vote for her if not for the mere fact that I would get a lot of entertainment seeing people complain how our president is a black woman.

Birch ,

Thanks, Harris.

rimu ,
@rimu@piefed.social avatar

If anyone is concerned that there is only 4 months until the election, remember Jacinda Adern became opposition leader 3 months before the 2017 election and won - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41675801

tal , (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Does the New Zealand system have a restricted 3 month official campaign period the way the UK does? A lot of Kiwi government shares similar structure with the British system.

The US doesn’t, and normally campaigning spans a substantially longer period of time.

kagis

Yeah, this sounds like they do. Three months.

elections.nz/democracy-in-nz/…/key-dates/

Friday 14 July

Regulated period for election advertising expenses begins

Friday 13 October

Regulated period ends. All election advertising must end. Signs must be taken down by midnight.

Saturday 14 October

Election day.

newhampshirebulletin.com/…/how-did-the-us-preside…

Four hundred and forty-four days prior to the 2024 presidential election, millions of Americans tuned into the first Republican primary debate. If this seems like a long time to contemplate the candidates, it is.

By comparison, Canadian election campaigns average just 50 days. In France, candidates have just two weeks to campaign, while Japanese law restricts campaigns to a meager 12 days.

You can argue whether the US should or shouldn’t restrict the campaigning period (though I’m almost certain that doing so would violate the First Amendment and thus require a new constitutional amendment permitting it to put into force).

But the thing is, Trump doesn’t have that restriction, the American system doesn’t normally expect it, and Harris is going to be trying to run a British-length campaign with no lead time for prep in the American system when her opponent has no such restrictions. She is gonna have to hit the ground running.

Also, American presidential campaign spending and fundraising is very large compared to the European levels I’ve seen. Dunno what things are like in New Zealand, but I remember that when Hillary ran against Trump in 2016, each campaign spent about a billion dollars.

EDIT: I don’t know if this is directly comparable, because it sounds like Kiwi rules don’t have parties declare donations under $1,500 (and I don’t know if these aggregate figures include individual contributions that don’t have to be reported individually). I think so, because this is measuring spending, not donations. The Kiwi system is parliamentary rather than presidential and so the race for the executive is the same as the race for the legislature, whereas the spending above is only for the executive race in the US, excludes all legislative campaign spending. And I’m not clear on whether this includes donations to individuals, which apparently can differ from party donations, though the Westminster system is more party-centric than the American one, where candidates need to do a lot more of their fundraising and spending thenselves. But without my digging much more, some Kiwi numbers:

thepost.co.nz/…/labour-spent-1m-more-national-los…

Labour spent $1m more than National to lose the 2023 election

The ACT Party spent more than National, declaring $2.77m in expenses. NZ First spent $1.51m on a campaign which returned them to Government alongside National and ACT, whereas the Green Party spent $1.33m on a campaign that achieved wins in key electorate seats.

Also, those are Kiwibucks, not American dollars, so the USD numbers are only something like 60% of that. Accounting for that, if the numbers are comparable, that’d be the largest-spending Kiwi party doing $1.6 million USD across all of their seats compared to the US presidential campaigns alone doing about $1 billion.

Harris has got to raise some – or all, not sure whether she can get funds from the Biden-Harris campaign warchest – of that in the time remaining, which means that she’s gotta convince people that she is who they want to be president enough to pitch into the war chest so that she can spend that to sell herself to the public. She has to build a campaign, plan to spend the money, and do so to target voters. Not much time to iterate doing that.

And keep in mind that the first Republican presidential debate mentioned above, 444 days before the election, isn’t when those people started campaigning, and certainly isn’t when they started planning their campaign. It’s just an early milestone in the campaign. Harris is gonna have to pull all of this off in about three and a half months.

The US presidential election is an awfully large and expensive marketing fight for voter minds.

EDIT2: One positive sign for her: this person says that she believes that Harris most likely can get access to the funds that the Biden-Harris campaign has, so that’ll help get her some of the way there:

cnbc.com/…/kamala-harris-fundraising-surge.html

Harris can likely get immediate access to the Biden campaign’s roughly $96 million donation pot, according to Anna Massoglia, an investigations manager at the campaign finance research center, OpenSecrets.

“The general consensus among most people that I’ve spoken with is that she can use the funding,” Massoglia told CNBC in an interview.

And she picked up a little more after announcing:

But it wasn’t just the big donors who responded to Biden’s announcement: The progressive donation platform ActBlue initially said it raised $27.5 million from small-dollar donors in the five hours after Biden endorsed Harris. Later, the company announced it raised over $45 million.

HappycamperNZ ,

Lucky for her she also has a significant national and international threat as her opponent. She isn’t an unknown going in to try take 50% - she’s already got all the votes for those who see what Trump is.

tal , (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

she isn’t an unknown

I mean, that’s true. But she’s a not-terribly-high-profile veep. The regular crowd has been campaigning for over a year. Hell, Trump served as President, and he’s got the visibility from that; he started campaigning for Trump-for-President like a decade ago.

Yeah, okay, Harris ran for Senate and California Attorney General, maybe they can draw some material from those campaigns or something, though running for President and targeting specially the Midwest isn’t quite running to be a senator for California in terms of what material will work best, but they’re gonna have to start getting people to put together a lot of content and to get it out there.

Harris has no campaign website, no volunteer network, no…like, I’m assuming that she has to be expecting to get at least a substantial chunk of the Biden-Harris campaign infrastructure, and hoping that Biden’s endorsement will result in his volunteers volunteering for her.

checks

It looks like Biden’s 2024 campaign website, joebiden.com, just redirects to ActBlue, a Democratic donations website, with a plain text message put up by him. They don’t even have a graphic, campaign logo, anything. Like, they didn’t have all this lined up and ready to go hot, or I expect that it would have redirected to a Harris campaign website.

looks further

They haven’t even taken down the old website’s content, just had the main page redirect.

Well, this is gonna be a historic campaign, win or lose.

HappycamperNZ ,

She was a kind, empathetic leader and was great at uniting the country in crisis… multiple times.

Unfortunately she was distinctly average as a stable environment politician. Wouldn’t want her as PM now but would be great if we could hire her out on call when everything does hit the fan again.

TastyWheat ,

I worked at a Sydney airport shop years ago and she would come through our area from time to time. She was approachable, easy to talk to and despite having big spooky security guys around, was happy to just go shopping and wait for her flight.

The Fijian PM at the time used to come through, crack jokes, run up a bill and then jokingly ask one of his security guys to buy all the stuff for him. He was a really funny bloke and he made our day.

groats_survivor ,

Who?

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Prime Minister of New Zealand. I have a comment on it in response.

Nomecks ,

Bernie 2024?

ColeSloth ,

I’d love for him to be the vp running mate, and I love Bernie, but he’s the exact same age as Biden. He’s still sharp and awesome, but you can’t expect one 81 year old to have to quit, while putting in another 81 year old and think there’s a chance of him winning.

Guy_Fieris_Hair ,

I would suck a dick for a Bernie presidency, but that would require the DNC to do some aggressive shit to appoint someone that they have blatantly fucked over multiple times.

MeekerThanBeaker ,

Bernie is actually 82.

I wish he won in 2016, but I agree his time has now passed despite him being still with it.

kent_eh ,

I thought everyone was in agreement that really old candidates were not wanted?

ChaoticEntropy ,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

If the dems don’t get their shit together soon the election will be over before they’ve even put someone on the ticket.

badbytes ,

Kamala, you have my attention. Now earn my vote.

NikkiDimes ,

She’s not Trump.

SpaceCowboy ,
@SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca avatar

I promise that if elected, I will not be Donald Trump.

ashok36 ,

Good enough for me.

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