Kamala Harris Deserved Better—and There’s No Easy Explanation for Why She Didn’t Get It
Consider how resoundingly she succeeded in her 107-day campaign—and what that means about how deep the problems are that we need to solve.
Vice President Kamala Harris concedes the presidential election at Howard University in Washington, DC.
(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
She deserved better.
Kamala Harris lost by such a large margin, it doesn’t make sense to me, right now, to look for reasons. Certainly not for the one obvious mistake made by her campaign that would have been a magic bullet in the race. We will find explanations, over time. But they will probably not be the reasons that are our priors. Except for my priors. She is a Black woman—and no, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Trump’s two victories have come against female candidates.
Yes, there are other reasons, and we will find them. But watching Harris concede Wednesday at her Howard University alma mater, where the party for her expected victory had been staged last night, I just couldn’t blame her for anything. On social media last night, I called her flawless, but that’s silly; nobody is flawless. Yet consider how resoundingly she succeeded in her 107-day campaign: in eroding the polling gap between her and Trump once she became nominee; in wiping the floor with Trump in her one debate against him; at the convention; in raising more money, much more of it from small donors, than the Trump campaign did; in her ground game. As Glenn Thrush put it, “Democrats have thoroughly mastered/dominated the forms and conventions of big, normal American politics…. One problem: There is no such thing as normal American politics anymore.”
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She advanced big arguments about the future of democracy at the same time as investing millions in reaching voters with ads about the cost of groceries and prescription drugs, and a truly transformative proposal to extend Medicare to cover in-home care. Should she have put more distance between herself and Joe Biden? Biden was hailed throughout his term as being the most labor-friendly president since FDR, for nominating agency heads that aggressively protected workers and consumers, and for passing legislation that would invest billions of dollars into on-shoring jobs. There are no easy answers here, and I think this week is for mourning, fury, and pulling ourselves together for the long struggle ahead. The people who elected Trump may not think of themselves as OK with fascism, but that’s what’s in store if we’re not ready to fight back.
I had to make a round trip from Harris’s non-victory party Tuesday night to her concession speech Wednesday afternoon. It was pretty devastating. There were many people crying. I might have been among them. It was a large enough crowd that I couldn’t find my daughter and her friend, yet there was a large empty space in the center of the courtyard that seemed to symbolize all the people who told pollsters they’d vote for Harris but in the end did not.
But Harris held her head up, so we must, too.
She gave no threat of insurrection, obviously: “A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results,” she said. “That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny. And anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it.”
But she went on: “At the same time, in our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and loyalty to our conscience and to our God. My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign—the fight: the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation, the ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up.”
I found this next rumination stirring and yet a little sad too.
“The adage is, only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But here’s the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars.”
I don’t actually know how we do that. There is no way to sugarcoat these results; no way to pick out silver linings in an environment in which the work to be done against fascism, and for rights, equality, and dignity for all, is so monumental. I could only take solace in one small moment of human connection at Howard, one that made me glad I’d done the round trip. An adorable Black toddler ran and threw herself into my arms. Her mom said her name was Joan (without knowing my name). As I stood there holding this bundle of happiness, her mom told me that her Joan is very shy and never does anything like that. Maybe this Joan will make the world a better place. We did not do that for her in this election, but we can’t stop trying.
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