The darling of most American media until November 5, Kamala Harris is suddenly off the headlines. But she will go down in history as the valiant fighter who came tantalisingly close to becoming the first woman US president.
Had she won against Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Harris would have also been the first Asian and Indian-American to occupy the White House.
Watch: Why Kamala Harris Lost The US Election?
One wonders why she lost the election.
While I wrote here earlier that she is unlikely to win (link below), the 226 electoral votes she got against Donald Trump’s 312 – the majority mark being 270 – is quite impressive for a late-start campaign.
Even some Democrtats must have felt that she leapfrogged proper process – the Democratic primaries – and was thrust into the limelight when incumbent president and Democratic nominee Joe Biden pulled out after days of inner-party squabbles.
How the Democrats ruined it for Kamala Harris
If she were in the Democratic primaries, could her fate have been different?
That’s a big if.
Suppose Harris was on the ballot for primaries. Even while being the incumbent vice president, she would have had to criticise Biden, and by extension, her own government.
As it happened, there were no serious contenders against Biden since he formally announced his re-election bid.
His Democratic primary opponents: author Marianne Williamson, Representative Dean Phillips and Robert F Kennedy Jr, exited the race one way or the other.
RJF Jr, from the hallowed and mostly Democratic Kennedy family, was the only temporary jolt for the party machine. Having started as a Demcoratic contender, RFK Jr switched to independent and eventally pulled out, only to support Trump, and is being rewarded with a role in the upcoming Trump administration.
Biden had impressive number of delegates going into the Democratic Party Convention in August.
But a lot happened in July.
It was a tight situation for Democrats when, having gone into election mode after Biden won the required delegates to be declared the presidential candidate at the convention, they realised the 81-year-old was not a good pick, after all.
Biden’s endless gaffes, slips and falls made many question his physical and mental capabilities to run the top office once again.
His fumbling and rambling answers during the presidential debate with Trump in June made him look weak.
And then, Democrats went into a tizzy, creating the unprecedented situation of pressurising a candidate, who had done one presidential debate with the opponent, to exit the race.
Media reports about Biden’s failing health followed, and Democrat donors threated to pull campaign cash if Biden doesn’t exit.
Despite issuing nice-looking health report cards and his own assurances that he’s fit to run for office again, many Democrat voters were still not convinced.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat dame and speaker emeritus, as well as other senior leaders including, reportedly, ex-president Barack Obama, tried to convince Biden to quit the race.
Eventually he relented, but in hindsight, that was too late, too little.
Harris campaign: A dash towards defeat
While there were reports of a ‘palace coup’ in which Harris was already putting in place a team in case Biden decides not to run, the time left for a robust campaign was too little.
In what raised many eyebrows, Biden ‘transferred’ all the delegates he had amassed to Kamala and her running mate Tim Walz and and the Democratic Convention named them the candates in a ‘roll-call nomination.’
The whole thing was mocked widely, particularly in the right-wing media, who painted Harris (it seems successfully) as an imposter.
Having a rather forgettable running mate in Waltz didn’t help matters either for Harris.
Her media blitzkreig of unusual appearances at TV and web shows were seen by many as ambushes.
The host of Call Her Daddy, a rather non-political show, was criticised for having invited her as guest.
Fox News ran a campaign on how Kamala didn’t address an open press conference, instead choosing to do one-one interviews seen as stage-managed affairs.
And then, there were the ‘word salads’.
Many of her answers to serious questions were rather convoluted, particularly America’s support to Israel in its war against Hamas, and to Ukraine against Russia.
On the Israel question, it emerged that CBS 60 Minutes edited out parts of her interview – or re-recorded it – to make the answer more palatable.
Trump and his surrogates went to town to expose her on these.
Trump, whose track record is anti-war – not because of any noble ideal, but because he doesn’t want to fight in or pay for wars where American interests are not directly under attack – criticised US funding to Ukraine’s war efforts.
He kept on saying in campaign speeches that he is the only one who could end the wars.
Many uncommitted voters, part of the silent majority, appear to have believed him.
Arab- and Muslim-Americans were particularly riled by the Biden administration’s failure to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which was invaded by Israel after the October 7 terror attack by Hamas.
The Harris campaign’s communication efforts were annoying at best, and outrageous at worst.
They couldn’t advice her not to laugh out loud so much.
That led to ‘cackling Kamala’ jokes and memes, which Trump and his supporters exploited to the hilt.
There were gems like the advert appearing to suggest women reject Black men if they are not voting Democrat.
In their speeches for Harris addressed to African Americans, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle appeared to come across as condescending.
It was like, here are some entitled African-American leaders telling the Blcaks how to live their lives, do their jobs, and vote.
That may have flipped many Blacks to vote Trump.
On the economy, she appeared out of touch with the cost of living reality of middle class and working class Americans, despite insisting on all possible occasions that she comes from a middle class background.
As practically the immigration tzar of the Biden administration, Harris had not much to boast of.
Many Latin American voters, it appears, may have voted for Trump because they also share the same worries and fears about migration from lawless lands in the continent as much as the white majority who Trump considers his base.
Trump succeeded in making Harris look weak on illegal migration from the southern border, as caravans of asylum seekers poured in.
That leaves us with women and young voters.
Quite stunningly, it emerged as per exit polls that less women voted for Harris than they did for Biden in 2020.
Abortion, the main issue Democrats thought would galvanise women towards Harris, did not work.
Neither did Harris’ efforts of painting Trump as dictator and anti-woman.
It might seem improbable, but Trump’s escape from an assassination attempt, and his non-commital stance on banning Chinese-owned TikTok may have drawn more youngsters to him.
TikTok ban move by the Biden administration was a risky move politically. The Democrats didn’t undertand how much American kids loved the short video sharing platform. For them, it was a form of communication and self-expression for a generation.
While these may not be the only reasons, it is clear that Trump was preferred over Harris by many in GenZ and millennials.
Also note that there was an effort ahead of Democratic primary to put ‘uncommitted’ as an option.
This means, many of the Democratic voters were not ready for Biden.
It is quite possible that some of them may have voted for Trump.
In summary, while much of the reasons for her defeat had to do with circumstances, Harris didn’t help her own campaign.
Now as per custom, the vice president faces the ignominy of signing the document that will declare Trump as the next president after the joint Congress session on January 6, right on the fourth anniversary of the Capitol riots instigated by Trump in rejection of the 2020 election outcome.
Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.