Why Kamala Harris Lost
Few realistic political observers expected a blowout for Kamala Harris. But Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election was far from guaranteed, either. For most of Harris’ relatively brief candidacy, she and Trump appeared to be locked in a very tight race. So Harris’ incredibly dismal showing was also somewhat unexpected. She came up short in both the Electoral College and the 
popular vote, lost all seven swing states, and lost ground with most demographic groups. Even in reliably Democratic strongholds such as New Jersey and New York, Harris underperformed.
Some people are chalking Harris’ loss up to sexism, misogyny, and racism. And no doubt some small segment of voters were motivated by such things, as some people always are. But one needn’t imagine a mass hate wave to explain Trump’s victory.
In the weeks leading up to the election, candidate Harris struggled to define herself as polls repeatedly showed little daylight between her and Trump. Often, Trump’s flaws seemed to be Harris’ main selling point: She was not Trump. But who was she? Even Harris herself seemed scared to say.
Throughout her brief campaign, Harris strenuously avoided laying out detailed plans or positions, outside of pledging to protect abortion access. Shehad an especially hard time articulating how her administration would be different from Biden’s not-terribly-popular presidency or how she would turn things like inflation around.
This struggle to differentiate herself from Biden makes sense in light of her career history. Harris is probably best understood as an ambitious vessel for whatever drives Democratic voters in a given era. She represents the Democratic Party establishment through and through.
If Harris has any personal political priorities or animating ideology at her core, they’ve been buried so deep as to basically be undetectable—entirely subsumed by skilled pandering to the progressive zeitgeist. That’s why Harris has a reputation as a flip-flopper. That’s why she spent so much of her short 2024 campaign walking back positions she took during the rather different days of 2019 and 2020. And it’s why she trie
Article from Reason.com
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