In a little over 100 days, Vice President Kamala Harris needs to put together a campaign staff, develop her platform, decide on her strategy, approve advertising and prepare for a possible debate, among other things. It's a daunting set of tasks even when a nominee has months of preparation.
But as her former senior adviser and chief spokesperson, I believe she is well-prepared to pull it off. It will not be easy, but it is doable.
Look at what she's done so far. In the days since President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and endorsed her, the nonpartisan website Vote.org saw 35,000 people register to vote, 83% of them ages 18 to 34. The Harris campaign says it raised an earth-shattering $126 million in three days. The campaign also enlisted thousands of new volunteers, including in crucial swing states such as Nevada, Michigan and Georgia.
On Wednesday night, the president appeared on national television behind the Resolute Desk to elaborate on his decision to leave the race and reiterated his support for his governing partner of nearly four years, saying she “is experienced, she is tough, she is capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.”
The torch was passed, and now it is up to Harris to take it from here.
The torch was passed, and now it is up to Harris to take it from here. The first hurdle to clear is reintroducing herself to the American people. Who is she and what does she believe? The campaign has responded so far by reaching back to her start in politics as a prosecutor who took on criminals and rapists, drawing a contrast with Republican nominee Donald Trump.
She'll also most likely lean on her experience as vice president.
From Day One of the transition, even before we got to the White House, Biden set the tone that his vice president would be in every meeting and she would get all the same materials he received. His directive was there would not be any “silos." If for some reason we did not have something, all we had to do was ask.
Just as President Barack Obama did with him, as their schedules allowed, they would have a private lunch weekly. Every day they were both at the White House, they would receive the Presidential Daily Briefing together. Biden set that tone and, in doing so, laid the groundwork for the surge of possibility and enthusiasm Democrats are experiencing.
Once in office, she was sometimes out of the spotlight, due to the nature of the vice presidency. Frankly, it’s a job few people pay attention to and that the mainstream media apparatus has not covered extensively. So people may be unfamiliar with Harris’ work as the chair of the president’s labor council or her work with the Small Business Administration to increase access to capital for small businesses, especially ones owned by people of color. They may not know her extensive foreign policy engagements with the Indo-Pacific, Ukraine or Central America.
More of them may have heard about her political work.
It was the vice president’s emphasis on keeping the government from interfering with women’s bodily autonomy that helped lay the groundwork for the Democratic Party’s success in the 2022 midterms. Her laser focus on the root causes of migration — rather than focusing only on border enforcement, as Republicans tend to do — has helped envision a way to curb the crisis without obscuring the humanity of people braving untold peril in search of a better life.
Even from the White House she’s set a record in Congress. As a result of the closely divided Senate, Harris has cast more tiebreaking votes than any of her predecessors. These votes were vital in getting some of the White House’s defining legislation, such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan, over the finish line.
It is a matter of historical fact that she has been one of the most consequential vice presidents the nation has ever seen.
The second hurdle for her campaign is slightly more daunting. In order to win, Harris will have to claw back crucial base voters whom past Democratic nominees have been shedding in small but consequential numbers. Black women have been an indispensable voting bloc for the Democratic Party. While the vast majority still vote blue in every presidential election, their numbers have steadily waned since 2012. That year, Black women voted 96% for Obama, followed by 94% for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and 90% for Biden in 2020, according to NBC News exit polls. We have seen similar drops among other key voting blocs.
On paper, the percentage differences may seem small, but this is going to be a close race. Minor differences in these groups could make a difference in what will be a consequential election.
It is not a foregone conclusion that the diverse coalition of the Democratic Party will turn out simply because the candidate at the top of the ticket has been swapped out.
The Harris campaign should treat base voters as persuadable. It is not a foregone conclusion that the diverse coalition of the Democratic Party will turn out simply because the candidate at the top of the ticket has been swapped out.
When I worked for the vice president, she often stressed the importance of being straightforward and taking out the fluff. For example, instead of talking in general about the investments in small businesses, she would ask for specific numbers about how many small businesses in a particular state were affected and who they were. She was intentional about making sure people knew when they heard from her that she saw them and that the work spoke directly to them. That is one of Harris’ superpowers.
Beginning a successful presidential campaign roughly 100 days from the election is unheard of in modern American politics, but make no mistake, a lot of history can happen and a lot of odds can be beaten in that time. Allied troops in World War I began an offensive that would result in the end of the Great War 95 days later. In his first 100 days in office, Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the groundwork that would lift America out of the Great Depression.
And if Democrats mobilize and America’s electorate turns out, the end of this 100 days could see history made with the first Black woman and woman of South Asian descent elected to the presidency and our democracy preserved once again.
The clock starts now.
For more thought-provoking insights from Symone Sanders-Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez, watch “The Weekend” every Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. ET on MSNBC.
