Harris has proven to be a skilled campaigner – and will stay on message now

[Christian Paz, Vox senior politics reporter, 7-21-24, Vox, “Does Kamala Harris give Democrats a better chance to win?,” https://www.vox.com/2024-elections/361750/biden-drop-out-harris-endorse-polls-against-trump-democrats-dnc, accessed: 7-21-24, ES]

Her 2016 Senate campaign, meanwhile, showed how she’s able to remain on message and be disciplined — winning support from the Democratic establishment, consistently holding a fundraising advantage, and showing that her Democrat opponent was not a serious candidate. There wasn’t much of a policy difference between Harris and her opponent, former Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, but she was still able to deliver a landslide win.

Even her 2020 campaign shows that she’s a pragmatic thinker — not necessarily tied to a specific ideology that influences the way she would approach issues. She fumbled on policy, and couldn’t make a distinctive, proactive case to the Democratic base in the primary, but she doesn’t have to do that now. Even during this cycle, she has shown moments of pragmatism, too — her position on the war in Gaza, for example, put her to the left of Biden on the issue — but she has found ways to speak to young progressives and voters critical of Israel’s approach while still representing the president.