Newsom rejects underdog label for Harris

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) rejected calling Vice President Harris an underdog in the 2024 presidential election, arguing that Democrats should be “standing tall” for their policy accomplishments and showing more “pride.” 

“She’s not, I don’t like hearing about that,” Newsom said during a Tuesday appearance on “CBS Mornings” ahead of the ABC News debate between Harris and former President Trump.

“There’s something about, I think your own lives, your own success, we manifest. And there’s some, I don’t know what it is about Democrats, there’s a timidity. The stock market hits record-breaking, but we are like ‘well, not everyone’s in the stock market.’ There’s a timidity, how about some pride, how about standing tall for your accomplishments.”

Newsom’s remarks come as Harris and her campaign have leaned into the image of her being an underdog against Trump.

“Since she became the nominee, Vice President Harris has considered herself the underdog in this race. She continues to campaign with that mentality. A lot of work to do in these last 50+ days,” Harris spokesperson Brian Fallon said Sunday on the social platform X.

A former Harris aide told The Hill the campaign is not taking anything for granted, highlighted by the vice president’s busy travel schedule.

“The polls continue to show the point they’ve been making from the outset: She is the underdog and it’s going to be a close election,” the former aide said.

National polls, as well as polls in key swing states, have consistently showed Trump and Harris neck-and-neck, with little change in recent weeks. That’s a drastic improvement on where President Biden stood against Trump, but most oddsmakers still have Trump as a slight favorite.

“What Kamala Harris has done in last eight weeks is unprecedented in U.S. history,” Newsom said. “She’s closed the gap. We are not just winning on the margin of error, we’ve expanded the map in the United States. You saw new polls this morning, states that were not even in the conversation. Now Donald Trump has to either defend or he has to go out and invest millions, millions of dollars [that] were never imagined a few weeks ago.” 

The California governor said the 2024 White House race is “the easiest election of my lifetime. I love where we are.”

Newsom said that Trump is “less interesting” than Harris.  “I mean listen to these rambling speeches for hours and hours, the audience is even losing him. People are walking out.” 

Since replacing Biden at the top of the ticket, Harris has broken fundraising records, drawn massive crowds at rallies and injected new confidence into the party’s members who had doubts about Biden’s chances of winning in November.

However, the vice president has been criticized for her lack of media appearances, particularly by Republicans. Newsom argued that she should interact more with the media, but said its ultimately ther call to make. 

“That’s up to the campaign,” he said. “You know what I mean, I’m not here to advise in that respect. I think absolutely she should do that, but that’s up to her. Whatever, look you got to flood the zone. You got to dominate the conversation. However you can do that, is that rallies, is that one-on-one conversations, town halls, that’s up to the campaign.”