Kamala Harris popular appeal ‘lost in the translation’

Muhammad Amin

Leading Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris is popular with Democratic Party donors, but her appeal loses something in the translation when it comes to ordinary people.

Just four of her original staffers from her first year as US vice president are still with her. That translates into a 91.5% turnover rate, transparency NGO OpenTheBooks revealed this week.

It based its findings on an analysis of the list of titles and names of the staff obtained from the Secretary of the Senate’s bi-annual report.

The Hill, a Washington-based publication, reported in 2022 13 high-profile personnel deserted Harris after less than a year.

“Burnout, better opportunities and concern about being permanently branded a ‘Harris person’,” drove most staff to the exit, Axios reports.

Working with the president has also been a fast-revolving door. Only 127 of president Joe Biden’s original staffers from 2021 are still there, amid reports many resigned over his steadfast support for genocide in Gaza. That’s a 77% turnover rate among the original 560 White House aides from 2021.

Harris  raised a record-breaking $81 million within 24 hours of announcing her candidacy on Monday night and has secured enough support from delegates at the Democratic National Convention to clinch the Democratic nomination.

But even if Harris becomes the Democratic nominee at the August convention, concerns remain about her ability to compete in an election against Donald Trump.

“Team Trump” was preparing a major effort to attack Harris even before Biden stepped aside, including a wave of ads focusing on her record in her current office and in California, the New York Times reported last week.

It had already prepared opposition research books on Harris, and has similar dossiers on other Democrats who could become the nominee.

But the bulk of the preparations were focused on Harris, including a recent poll testing her vulnerabilities in a general election contest.

“Trump allies have also begun examining the records of Democratic governors who are considered potential running mates for Ms. Harris. Advisers to the former president are paying especially close attention to Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania — the state the Trump campaign is most focused on winning to block the Democrats’ path to the White House,” the NYT reports.

Some Trump even admitted Harris might be a better candidate than Biden because of his decline into old age.

“They said she was better at delivering certain messages than Biden had been, particularly on abortion rights, an issue that galvanized Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections. And as a former prosecutor, she may be positioned make a sharp argument about Mr. Trump’s criminal indictments, including his conviction in Manhattan on charges that he falsified business records to conceal a hush-money payment to a porn star in 2016.

“But they also believe Ms. Harris will have to own every unpopular Biden-era policy, which will cancel out the gains she might make. In particular, the Trump team plans to attack her over the border crisis, one that the president tasked her with finding the “root causes” of. Aides to Ms. Harris have said that Mr. Trump has distorted her role, and have noted that regardless, border crossings have fallen since a Biden administration curtailing of asylum.”

Republicans will argue that the reasons Biden quit the race are the same reasons he’s unfit to remain as commander in chief. They will try to tie Harris to Biden by claiming there was a broad effort to prevent the public from seeing the president’s deterioration and suggest she was part of that effort, the NYT added.