Former President Trump and Republicans are facing a time crunch in their effort to define Vice President Harris to the electorate and nail down their message for the three-month sprint to November.
Republicans are already showing signs of scattershot messaging in the early attacks on Harris, including for being a “DEI hire,” a talking point using the acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion that GOP leaders have tried to shoot down.
But they also have lost precious time and key opportunities, including the Republican National Convention, where speakers focused their energy on a Democratic candidate who is no longer in the race.
That’s led some party operatives to complain the party was caught flat-footed by President Biden’s decision to step aside from the ticket.
“It didn’t feel like we were singing from the same song sheet initially,” one Republican operative said.
“The complaint, if I have one, is we knew this was coming guys. Why didn’t we have this all done? Why weren’t we ready on Day 1 with the full book ready to go?” the operative fumed. “We all know some of the hits [against her] and maybe those are the best ones. It just feels like we were like, ‘Oh it actually happened? Now we have to do something.’”
Now, Republicans are testing out lines attacking her to reporters and in TV interviews. The Senate GOP campaign arm blasted out a list of talking points, urging lawmakers to tie her to an “extreme agenda,” including focusing on the border, energy and crime. They used many of the same lines against Biden.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), labeled Harris as a “San Francisco liberal” and name-checked multiple items on the NRSC’s list
“The Democrats have a big problem. Joe Biden was too old, but Kamala Harris is too liberal,” Daines told reporters. “She’s not an Irish Catholic kid who grew up in Scranton. She’s a California liberal, and this country is not gonna elect a far-left California, San Francisco liberal to serve as president of the United States.”
“She defines herself pretty well,” Daines added.
GOP senators, especially ardent Trump supporters, remain confident in the former president’s chances in November. They say many of the attacks that were lobbed against Biden for months will also stick to Harris.
But Harris’s introduction at the top of the ticket in the seventh inning is shaking the snow globe for Republicans who concede time is short to make the case.
“It’ll be a sprint,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said. “It’ll be an unusually short campaign, I think, but she’s not an unknown quantity. She has a record — a very robust record — from her time in the Senate and as vice president … and it’s not a great one.”
“What she’s said she wants to do is nuts,” Hawley said, pointing to past comments about fracking and oil production. “These are nutty ideas.”
Harris taking over atop the ticket might also alter GOP Senate and House campaign ad buys and spends. Some that were slated to take place in the closing months of the race could get bumped up to August to get the Republican message settled earlier.
One early messaging disagreement is over some Republicans’ argument that Harris was a DEI hire who was chosen only because she is a woman of color. Comments to that effect by multiple House Republicans left party leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), pleading with their members to focus on policy.
“I think that was dumb. It was just dumb,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). “She was elected by the American people. She got into office because they convinced more people than we did to vote for them. Let’s win on the merits of policies that the American people want, not those sort of garbage comments.”
Senate GOP candidates have already attempted to tether Democratic incumbents to Harris, who they think will be a drag on the ticket in Midwestern and blue wall states.
Multiple Republican staffers and operatives also singled out praise for a 90-second ad released on Tuesday that features Harris in various interviews and settings talking about immigration, health care, guns, policing and voting rights for violent criminals. Those are bookended by comments by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) lauding her.
“The more people get to know her, they’re going to be particularly impressed by her ability,” Casey says.
The Republican operative pointed to that as “the best piece of content produced so far” since Biden’s exit and Harris became the presumptive nominee.
Harris still could change the race even further depending on whom she selects as her running mate. Among those thought to be under consideration are Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and Treasury Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
But Republicans doubt any choice will make a meaningful change to the political landscape.
“The running mate can take some of the edge off of some of those criticisms, but last time I checked, it’s the president that ratifies bills,” Tillis said. “And she’s got a liberal track record that comes from her time of condoning what I think are fatal policies California has implemented and trying to actually scale that to the U.S.”
Writ large, Republicans are still confident they can make the case against Harris in a truncated span and that they have all the tools at their disposal to make the argument she does not deserve a promotion.
“I liken it to a baseball game,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), a top Trump supporter, said about Harris. “There’s a pinch hitter that has a couple of good at-bats, and you think, ‘Why don’t you play that guy more?’”
“Once you get that person more exposed to the curveball and the slider,” he said, “you realize there’s a lot of deficiencies.”