Kamala Harris’ big tent strategy — and its success — has thrown Trump for a loop

She took a shot for president in 2019 and had a bad primary run, but she’s hardly the first presidential aspirant to flame out in their first run. Joe Biden ran twice before he finally got the nomination. Even the sainted John McCain and Ronald Reagan failed in their first attempts. But even though she ended up being chosen as Joe Biden’s vice president it seemed as though her failure in the Democratic primary was seen as possibly fatal and that dark cloud followed her through her first couple of years in the job.

Needless to say, a lot of this was fed by the right which went to great lengths to demean and demonize her. It is something they do to all Democratic women, particularly the Black ones. As vice president they knew she would run when Biden’s term was over and their crusade to degrade her eventually seeped into the beltway ether.

The last two years were quite a bit better as she was featured more in roles that got a lot of attention and it was clear that she was an effective communicator and advocate, most especially on abortion rights about which the president was notoriously uncomfortable. But even with that, when it became obvious that Joe Biden’s re-election campaign was in trouble many Democrats and members of the media were convinced that she was not up to the job. That frenzy to create a “mini-primary” or some kind of Rube Goldberg mechanism to pick a candidate was largely based on that knee-jerk opinion.

Luckily, Joe Biden knew better and he immediately endorsed her as many of us desperately hoped he would do. And the Democratic establishment fell in line relatively quickly, thank goodness.

The campaign rollout was simply exceptional, one of the best I’ve ever seen. Harris personally worked the phones to get the party lined up behind her. They figured out a process to secure the nomination without any hiccups and with almost no time to prepare. They smoothly transitioned the Biden campaign apparatus (which was obviously very good itself) into the Harris campaign and immediately went to work.

Those first few days with her appearance at campaign headquarters taking a call from Joe Biden on camera were perfectly choreographed. The hurried search for a running mate and final choice of Gov. Tim Walz was pitch perfect and their first rally appearances together were raucous, exciting events that radiated optimism and confidence, something we haven’t seen for quite some time in this country. I don’t know where the “joy” meme originated but it felt real and was a breath of fresh air.

And then there was the convention, which was hastily retooled from a Joe Biden re-election celebration to a “change” candidate introduction. It was a love fest, with ecstatic receptions for every faction of the sprawling coalition Harris was bringing together. And when the nominee took the stage on the final night she looked and sounded like a president which is no mean feat for a woman in American politics.

Since then she has gracefully and graciously accepted the endorsement from some of the most conservative Republicans in the country, including none other than former Vice President Dick Cheney. So far she’s doing something that is very difficult to pull off, but if she does it will be legendary — she’s trying to excite the base while also expanding the coalition from Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney. (Trump, on the other hand, seems determined to shrink his coalition to the most extreme MAGA fanatics. )

Harris didn’t do it all herself, of course. As NY Magazine’s Rebecca Traister chronicles in this fascinating feature about Harris and her campaign, grassroots organizations, many of them having evolved and matured over the past few years from the women-focused Resistance groups that formed in reaction to Trump’s upset victory in 2016, lurched into gear immediately to help jump start fundraising and organizing on the ground. It started with Black Women for Kamala which has inspired dozens of others. Just this week there was “Paisans for Kamala” featuring Nancy Pelosi and Robert De Niro.

The campaign itself has a kick-ass social media team that’s churning out memes, TikToks, tweets and Instagram stories that are clever, pointed and tuned in. The outreach to younger voters using these platforms is revolutionary in a presidential campaign. The campaign is wisely allowing them to run unfettered and if the youngs come home to the Democrats and vote in large numbers, this team will deserve a lot of the credit.

And what about this fundraising? The unprecedented massive war chest that’s been assembled by the campaign in such a short time is simply mind-boggling. The campaign raised more than $310 million in July, driven by a record-breaking $200 million in the first week. In August they raised another $361 million, tripling Trump’s haul. They took in another $47 million in the 24 hours after the debate this week. Most of it has come from small donors which reflects the enthusiasm that’s palpable at the Harris and Walz events.

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She absolutely dominated Trump in the debate this week and the campaign (which always stays on offense) immediately challenged him to another one. Trump is refusing, lamely insisting that he won, to which Harris adviser David Plouffe tweeted that we’d finally discovered Trump’s spirit animal: the chicken.

They’re not resting on their laurels. They’re hitting the ground running:

According to Traister, some of the Democratic “professionals” have descended (Plouffe being one of them) and she worries that they will quash the creativity and spontaneity that’s characterized the campaign so far. I’m actually fairly confident that it won’t happen largely because the candidate herself has already demonstrated that she’s not going to blindly follow their advice. Early on when a pollster suggested that they not use the phrase “we’re not going back” or the term “weird,” Harris said no. I have a sneaking suspicion that’s not the last time she decided to trust her own instincts instead of the stale, beltway, risk-averse habits that take all the life out of a campaign.

It’s a big team with many moving parts, obviously. If things are going well because they are all moving in the same direction without a lot of internal strife, you have to look at the person at the top. Harris was slammed pretty hard for her primary campaign’s dysfunction but it appears that she learns from her mistakes. This one is working as well as any we’ve seen and under very unusual circumstances.

The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell held one of her famous focus groups on the morning after the debate. When asked how they would describe Harris’s performance, the most common response was “presidential.”