I was shocked with how quickly my perspective on Kamala Harris began to shift after Joe Biden dropped out. In the first day I forgave Biden for endorsing Harris as I recognized and began to appreciate the magnitude of the compressed timeline remaining in the election. (First I grieved that he had waited so long to drop out.) Shortly after that as I began to listen to Harris articulate for herself instead of trying to promote Biden and as I started hearing more about her background I started to get excited that she was well suited to make the case against Trump and remind viewers what it was like to have a decent candidate who didn’t already belong in a senior center.
I was startled to realize that not only was willing to vote for Harris but I liked her and would be seriously considering her even if her opponent weren’t the least qualified person to ever receive a major party nomination.
What shocked me even more was when, not even 100 hours after Biden stepped out, a voter of my acquaintance proactively brought up how much Harris changed the race for the better. This was the exact kind of voter this race will hinge on—educated, suburban, Republican who votes consistently. She was not a fan of Trump but was concerned enough about Biden to be seriously considering RFK until after Harris became the presumptive nominee. What she said to me that day was, “I certainly don’t agree with her on many issues but it is SO NICE to have a fundamentally decent candidate that I don’t worry if they will be able to fulfill the duties of the office.”
When I heard that I realized that there was a real opening for this race to not only be won by Harris but potentially for Harris to make it a convincing win. I would LOVE to see that.
