Opinion | Don’t Listen to the Right. The Kamalanomenon Is Real.

Tracy Nailor, a 56-year-old Atlanta pediatrician, wasn’t particularly impressed with Kamala Harris when she first ran for president. “I think I succumbed to the narrative about her,” she said. She thought Harris wasn’t experienced or accomplished enough to merit the Democratic nomination. “I just didn’t know enough,” she said. “I didn’t do my homework.” Instead of Harris, she supported the trusted, familiar Joe Biden in the last election.

But as Biden’s most recent presidential campaign ground on, her faith wavered. She knew it was going to be hard for the aging president to win again. “I was not hopeless, but I was definitely concerned,” she said. Amid all that worry, the sudden ascension of Harris felt like deliverance. “I’m a person that believes in spirit, and I’m a person who believes that but God. And I say that a lot: But God.” She meant that no matter how desperate the situation and improbable the possibility of rescue, God can always turn things around. “I feel like that’s what’s happened,” she said. “This is not only a political movement. This is a social movement. This is an inflection point. And this is, to me, a spiritual movement.”

I met Nailor in a hallway of the Georgia State Convocation Center, where around 10,000 people had gathered on Tuesday for a raucous and ebullient Harris rally. She was dressed in the pink and green of the A.K.A.s, the Black sorority that both she and Harris belong to, and was reveling in the event’s electricity. “I’ve lived in Atlanta for almost thirty years,” she said. “I’ve seen people that I haven’t seen in decades. It’s just so hopeful and so much happiness.”

Nearly two weeks ago, Democrats and Republicans alike felt as if Donald Trump was going to coast back to the White House. Many thought Democrats were in a trap, caught between a declining president who couldn’t properly campaign and a probable successor whose reputation was lackluster at best. The vibe shift since Harris became the nominee has been whiplash-inducing, leaving some conservatives suspecting a plot. “Her sudden Taylor Swift–level stardom is as faked as intelligence-agency assessments of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” wrote Michael Brendan Dougherty of The National Review in a column titled “The Kamala Harris Psyop.” But having just seen Harris’s fandom up close, I can attest that it is very real.

I don’t really blame conservatives for being confused by the sudden explosion of excitement for Harris, who didn’t come close to igniting Barack Obama-level enthusiasm when she ran for president in 2019. Plenty of Democrats are surprised by it as well. Part of the outpouring of joy is the result of the weight suddenly removed from Democrats’ collective shoulders, now that they no longer need to prop up an increasingly weak candidacy. But part of Democrats’ new exuberance is rooted in who Harris is.