Republican strategists say they have become more optimistic about President Trump’s prospects after Joe Biden anointed Sen. Kamala Harris his running mate, claiming the liberal Californian would derail the presumptive Democratic nominee’s momentum in key Midwestern battlegrounds.
Biden has Trump on his heels from Iowa to Pennsylvania and is poised to rebuild the “blue wall” toppled by the Republican incumbent four years ago. The former vice president is an old-school labor Democrat whose blue-collar roots helped him forge a connection with working-class voters during his tenure as Barack Obama’s No. 2.
But GOP operatives in the Rust Belt on Wednesday told the Washington Examiner Harris would blunt Biden’s appeal with voters in exurban and rural communities across the Midwest, citing her occasional support for abolishing private health insurance and embrace of a federal ban on fracking, a major source of jobs in states such as Pennsylvania.
“I’m not sure Kamala Harris will be a great fit out here in flyover country,” said Brian Reisinger, a Republican operative in Wisconsin.
Some Republicans in Washington feel similarly.
Voters are dissatisfied by Trump’s management of the coronavirus outbreak and are growing impatient with his handling of an economy beset by a pandemic-induced recession. Nervous GOP insiders, worried time is short for the president to revive his political standing, argue Harris provides an opportunity to reaffirm support for his ailing reelection bid in swing states — Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — critical to his Electoral College victory four years ago.
“Kamala Harris cannot, and will not, help Joe Biden in red states,” said Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist and close adviser to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. “She’s no moderate, and that will be plain as day to people living in the middle of the country.”
In selecting Harris, 55, Biden elevated the first nonwhite woman to a major party’s national presidential ticket. During her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, the first-term senator and former California attorney general revealed an ability dissect political rivals. In the first debate of that contest, Harris dismantled Biden, skewering the former vice president for his opposition to public school busing decades ago.
In the immediate aftermath of that performance, some Republican insiders fretted that a Harris nomination would sink Trump — a concern expressed long before the pandemic and 10%-plus unemployment upended the president’s campaign.
Despite Harris’s eventual flameout in the Democratic primary and confidence among some Republicans that her liberalism creates fresh obstacles for Biden, some other GOP strategists believe she is an asset for the presumptive nominee who will cause their party fits up and down the ticket.
These Republicans, breaking with their colleagues, say the charismatic Harris will reinforce Biden’s appeal with suburban voters. “Unfortunately, she has a lot of crossover appeal,” a Republican consultant said. Sen. Roy Blunt, a McConnell leadership deputy, warned his party not to underestimate the Californian. “She’s smart, and she’s tough,” the Missouri Republican said.
Even Republicans who predict the senator will cause Biden heartburn in the heartland concede her strength in solidifying his advantage in the suburbs and acknowledge she is, overall, a choice that accomplishes a crucial goal for any presidential nominee: She does no harm. “It is a historic pick, and probably a wise one,” said a Republican insider in Iowa.
Running mates tend to matter less than political insiders claim. But Biden would be 78 upon inauguration next year, older than any of the 44 men who preceded him as commander in chief. For that reason, Republicans are convinced they can make Harris’s political career and positions on issues an unusually large factor in the race.
Sarah Longwell, a GOP operative who opposes Trump and has run focus groups testing which Democrats might most appeal to disaffected Republicans, said Harris begins her portion of the campaign as a blank slate with most voters. That offers Biden and Trump opportunities to define the senator in a manner beneficial to their campaigns.
“This is a neutral pick for most voters,” said Longwell, who runs Republican Voters Against Trump, a group that is running advertising encouraging GOP voters skeptical of the president to support Biden.
