It’s hard for the party that holds the White House to run as the party of change. But Kamala Harris and the Democrats are trying.
Running on change is often smart politics. Voters are perennially unhappy with the country’s trajectory, and the pandemic made it worse. According to Gallup, it has been two decades since a majority of Americans said they were satisfied with the direction of the nation. No wonder politicians cater to them with promises of new beginnings.
When Donald Trump was still facing President Biden — just a month ago — the former president could make a clearer case. Trump was out of power. He was the insurgent running against an incumbent. He promised to alter the country’s course.
Now Harris has jostled that dynamic after her party’s midsummer candidate switch. At its convention in Chicago this week, the Democratic Party has embraced the 59-year-old as the face of a new generation in a presidential contest that had previously featured two men seeking to set the record as the oldest person ever to serve. Inside the convention hall, chants of “We’re not going back” have rung out. And a fresh campaign slogan, “A New Way Forward,” is on banners and in speeches.
In today’s newsletter, I’ll look at that battle over who best represents change.
What polling shows
Embodying change has mattered for many years. Long before Barack Obama promised “change you can believe in,” Bill Clinton pitched “change versus more of the same.” Trump, of course, captured the change vote in 2016 when he promised a clean break from the Obama years.