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The First Shot Missed
The GOP should have been prepared for Kamala Harris. They weren’t.
From the beginning days of the meandering veepstakes, Kamala Harris was the consensus frontrunner. As a woman, a person of color, and a politician who has held the Trump administration accountable, her appointment was as groundbreaking as it was logical. If the Biden — Harris ticket is successful, her vacant Senate seat would be safe in deep blue California.
She was no dark horse. Behind the scenes, Harris was actively working to boost the Biden campaign. It would appear her efforts were noted and appreciated.
Republicans should have expected a Harris vice presidential announcement and been ready. In the crucial anabolic window immediately following the breaking news, Republican efforts to label or attack her could have been magnified. The seeds of her political framing could have been planted.
Instead, the GOP botched the prologue to The Story of Kamala Harris. There was no unified portrayal of her, no consensus line of attack, no comms strategy. What ensued immediately after the Harris announcement instead resembled a haphazard, throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach. Frankly, even calling such a poor effort an “approach” would be unwarrantably rewarding.
