CHICAGO — Doubts surrounded Vice President Harris two months ago when Democrats, stunned by President Biden’s shaky performance during a debate against former President Trump, started to panic about November.
Harris was clearly the most logical choice to replace an aging Biden at the top of the ticket. But her run as vice president had not always been sparkling, and many Democrats privately wondered if the party would be better off with an open competition at its convention to pick a successor to Biden.
“Let’s not forget, amid all the pomp and circumstance at the convention, that very few people thought she could actually do well,” said one Democratic bundler, recalling conversations just more than a month ago about the possibility of an open convention.
“No one I spoke to a month ago felt that way. People thought, well, at least she’s not old, and she’ll be able to put two sentences together,” the bundler said.
The doubts about Harris largely have been left in the trash can after a head spinning month that has seen her energize her party, narrow a polling gap with Trump — at times taking the lead— and renew hope in the party, as former first lady Michelle Obama put it from the convention stage this week.
What seems clear now was completely foggy in July, however.
Democrats then worried about Biden and running short on hope of defeating Trump.
Many Americans in poll after poll were signaling unhappiness with a rematch between two aging white men in Trump and Biden.
Harris is now riding that desire for change, building momentum day after day, even though she is actually the closest thing to an incumbent in the race against Trump.
Even those who worked for Harris say they could never have predicted the momentum surrounding the vice president today.
“I was not prepared for how rapidly the broader public would embrace her and turnout in these massive ways,” said Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, who served as Harris’s communications director until last year. “From the Black Women for Harris groups to the rallies. The pent-up excitement that was unleashed was more than I thought would exist so quickly.”
Some Democrats say part of the excitement revolves around a feeling of relief following Biden’s departure.
In the days following Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Democrats — from lawmakers to donors and operatives — were angry and dejected. They pointed fingers at Biden aides for a cover-up of the president’s condition. They had resigned themselves to the fact that Trump would win.
“The phenomenon of the Harris candidacy is something akin to someone surviving a near-death experience,” said Fernand Amandi, a Democratic consultant who helped former President Barack Obama win Florida in 2008 and 2012. “All of a sudden there’s a new appreciation for life.”
“She is the beneficiary of having this new lease on life,” he added.
Amandi said Harris has not only surpassed expectations, she has “performed flawlessly” on the stump the past four weeks.
“You cannot take away the fact that she has met the moment and fed the moment,” he said.
Republicans are trying to make Harris’s moment short-lived, and even Democrats caution that turbulence should be expected over the course of the next 75 days.
Trump and his aides have sought to tie her to Biden’s record, including on the economy and the border. And she is going to have to continue to walk a tightrope within her party when it comes to the conflict in Gaza and other delicate issues.
They have attacked her for dodging sit-down interviews and press conferences, saying doesn’t want to answer difficult questions on her record and pointing to her flubs as vice president.
Until now, Harris and her team haven’t felt any pressure to sit down for probing interviews. Some Democrats acknowledge that they are running out the clock. Harris, they say, is benefiting from what one major donor dubbed a “sprint election.”
“Most elections are a marathon and this one is a sprint,” the donor said. “Because Biden held off for almost a month, and the clock was ticking, everyone had to rally around her.”
In the minutes following Biden’s disastrous debate, Harris appeared on CNN’s program with Anderson Cooper, a moment Simmons and other Democrats say was soothing to a party in disbelief.
“She was reassuring and she presented the faith that everyone had been looking for,” Simmons said. “And then people said, There’s Kamala. There she is.”