Support for Harris as Biden's potential replacement has increased significantly in recent days, according to a new poll.
The poll, which was conducted from July 7 to July 9, found that 73 percent of Democratic voters "somewhat" or "strongly" approve of Harris as Biden's replacement. In an earlier iteration of the same survey, conducted from July 3 to July 6, a 66 percent majority of Democrats approved of Harris as a replacement.
It would be amazing if Harris, a black woman, beat the shit out of Trump. But how probable is this? I thought Kamala Harris was universally disliked across the board?
It's less that she's universally disliked and more that she's not particularly liked. In her most prominent appearances in the past 4 years, she's lacked charisma and not taken stances notable enough to distinguish her from the administration. She's heavily disliked on the left-wing of the Democratic Party for being a DA who laughed about jailing people for drug crimes she herself had committed in the past (possession), and not particularly popular on the right-wing of the Democratic Party because they're still racist, just LESS racist than Republicans.
She may be the best choice to go with at this junction, but she wouldn't be my first pick if the field was open. But the field isn't open, so we make do with what we have.
I do very much like one thing about her. In a race where we need to be hitting Trump very hard on the campaign trail, a former prosecutor should be extremely well-practiced and good at that.
And to that end, I think Newsom would be the safest choice for a pivot by far.
white
male
heterosexual
somewhat corporate friendly
a bit religious, but not too much
charismatic + GREAT public speaker
Reasoning:
the first three are simply attributes that make it easier to min/max voter responsiveness in a country that still has a lot of prejudices
the fourth is so the mega donors don’t just dig in their heels
the fifth is so the religiouses don’t just dig in their heels
the sixth is generally a good attribute to have in a serious political contender
We're trying to stop the fascists from winning. Anything else is (unfortunately, but necessarily) secondary at this point. Pragmatic triage of the situation MUST be the mindset with which the party is evaluating their choices.
Of course, the DNC is neither triaging the situation, nor being pragmatic about the candidate who can actually fucking win and stop the fascists, because from where I’m standing, it looks like Biden hasn’t done a great job at any point in his term of slapping down the Nationalist Christians + MAGA crowd (and friends).
Yeah, as an anarchist I'm particularly unenthused by "Top Cop" Kamala. I'm also concerned that people haven't learned the lesson that Americans are extremely fucking racist and misogynistic. I'll sadly be "voting blue, no matter who" but when the DNC runs these deeply uninspiring candidates, they can't be surprised at how the low turnout costs them.
Biden can only use his quarter billion in campaign funds for his running mate Kamala. So the only choice is a Biden*/Harris ticket in November. And realistically no matter who anyone would prefer, you're not going to sell a new candidate before November.
We've all in this mess, so now it's time to grab the Go Joe, and clean it up.
This is simply untrue. He cannot give more than the maximum to another campaign, but he can give the balance to the DNC or a Super PAC to elect a new nominee.
It's the right sentiment phrased incorrectly. Harris can take over the campaign funds entirely, because it's the same campaign. Nobody else can do that, so anyone else would have to start campaign fundraising from scratch as the DNC or a PAC they can't coordinate with has all the money.
Campaigns get a discount on ad spend and there's a lot of perks with being able to send exactly the message you want to spend. It's a notable advantage.
I think the funds that the primary campaign got do actually go to Harris first. The DNC, PACs, and SPACs should be able to transfer like you said though.
Disclaimer: I'm not sure any of this shit is actually figured out. I doubt they thought about this situation when they wrote the FEC bill.
So it won’t matter if she replaces him, right? I mean, if it doesn’t matter who the candidate is with polling, then changing the candidate shouldn’t matter, right? Like, why are we keeping Biden if it doesn’t matter who the candidate is? Theoretically, if it doesn’t make a difference who the nominee is, and it won’t change anything, then changing the nominee shouldn’t be a problem, right?
It more has to with polls. If the electorate is more or less set, then the numbers game turns into a get out the vote campaign. There is no reason to think that the candidate will have an affect on that, unless of course if you've already voted for them once
We aren't "keeping" Biden, the primary process was when other people could run against him and we got to pick. Now that he has secured the nomination, only one person on Earth decides if Biden continues to run or not--Biden himself.
Unless he gets impeached and removed from office or something, which is not very likely.
Hell, he even gets immunity for all sorts of possible crimes now, thanks to the Supreme Court.
Yes but she's capable of actually campaigning. Expectations have been clear since the debate. If he got right out there and started campaigning immediately, he'd probably be doing fine. It's becoming clear however that he can't.
Jesus christ. Can we just stop? Biden's the nominee. Doesn't matter who else you could get to run because they'd get crushed. Yes, it's a terrible position the DNC has put us all in, but that's just the way it is now.
The problem is, you have one side whos worried their candidate might be too old and another who doesn't even care if their candidate raped a child and tried to overthrow their government.
However, for reasons no one can quite explain, only one of them is being called to drop out of the race.
I do wish everyone would stop pretending the Biden replacement would be anyone but Harris. Everyone being cagy about who the replacement is just hurts Democrats, because it gives false hope to people who want someone other than Harris and thus encourages those people to both push for Biden to leave the race while still not being happy with the end result.
It will be Harris, if it's anyone other than Biden. Period. Literally the only way Biden doesn't endorse her as his successor is if he dies, and if he dies she will be the incumbent president.
That's before even a day of campaigning with her at the top of the ticket, I don't think those numbers are as bad as you think. Trump has been campaigning nonstop for nearly a decade. Unfortunately Harris is not exactly energizing, but I bet she can pick up 2-3 points just by being normal for 4 months.
What’s switching to another low polling candidate going to do? I’m just suggesting they nominate someone that poll tests higher before repeatedly calling for him to step down.
If they try to change Biden at this point, republican states will invalidate the Democrats for failing to have their nominee by the deadline.
It doesn't matter if it would be tossed out on legal challenge previously, the SCOTUS will invent a reason to uphold it. Trump wins.
Biden is the candidate. Let him run. Make him win. He can step down and hand it off to Harris later if he needs to. But the process is too far along now to go with another.
Of course she is. What other choice do they have? DEI doesn't leave them much of a choice. And Republicans know they're running against her anyway because Bidens not going to make it another 4 years.