Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) downplayed concerns that changes in Vice President Harris’s positions could influence voters in November.
Harris’s policy platform has changed somewhat since her 2020 presidential campaign, including now backing fracking, more strict border regulation and abandoning a proposal for a single-payer health care system.
“A position may be so central to the campaign that it makes a significant difference, but I think the bottom line is the voters judge these candidates in their entirety,” Durbin said in a CNN interview Tuesday. “They have an image of Donald Trump, they have an image of Kamala Harris, and that propels them to make a decision on how to vote.”
“Take a look at what’s happened since Joe Biden stepped out of the race and Kamala Harris stepped in,” he continued. “There’s been a dramatic shift of young people, for example. So it’s the entirety of the career of these individual candidates, as well as all of the positions they take. It’s seldom that one position is going to decide to race.”
Republicans have labeled Harris “too liberal” to be president, attacking her 2020 campaign platform, which was to the left of then-candidate Biden’s. When Harris joined Biden as his vice president, she moderated her positions to fit his administration.
Durbin said that line of attack won’t go far with most voters.
“They’re going to beat her with that as long as they can possibly do and try to make an impression,” he said. “I think they’re going to find that a former prosecutor, state attorney general in California, who served on the Senate Judiciary Committee with me, has a lot more to her background than just simple labeling.”
Harris and former President Trump are neck and neck in polling of the presidential race. The vice president has gained ground over Biden, and taken a lead in some key swing states since entering the race.