Kamala Harris: Polls, program… Encouraging but sufficient results ?

Less than a month before the American presidential election, American Rep. Kamala Harris still leads nationally in polls, but victory is far from assured. A Democrat victory depends on her score in the swing states.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are facing off in an election campaign that promises to be tight until the American presidential election scheduled for November 5, 2024. The Democratic candidate, officially sworn in in August after Joe Biden's withdrawal, is in a good position in the race for the White House but victory is far from assured. According to the compilation of the latest polls carried out by 270towin, the current vice-president of the United States is leading by 2.6 points ahead of Donald Trump.

The candidate and the Democratic camp must resist the various attacks from the Republican billionaire, which are more or less well-founded. The former American president combines personal attacks – he has several times called his rival “crazy” -, political criticism and manipulation of current events to discredit the Democratic vice-president. “This is someone who is going to steal your fortune and leave you and your family when the waters rise,” he said after two hurricanes, Helen and Milton, hit the southeastern United States, including several swing states like North Carolina and Georgia. The Republican candidate responds to each attack and hits back at Donald Trump by questioning his mental health, after publishing a review of his proposed neurological results, or by attacking his economic and social policies. In the game of verbal jousting, Kamala Harris proved to be formidable and even won the only debate between the two candidates for the White House.

Since entering the race for the American presidency, Kamala Harris has come out on top in most national polls. A trend that is still visible in mid-October, less than a month before the election, with a lead of between 1 and 3 points over Donald Trump. But the results are much closer in the polls conducted in each state, particularly in the seven “swing states” which are expected to be decisive for the election. According to the American voting system, each state won guarantees a certain number of votes in the 538 electors who vote to elect the American president and the "swing states" capable of switching from one camp to the other over the course of the elections will play a key role. Leading in the majority of swing states with 0.5 to 4 points ahead, Kamala Harris tends to fall back in the voting intentions of certain states. Here are the ten states to follow: Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, but also to a lesser extent Florida, New Mexico and Minnesota.

Kamala Harris is basing part of her campaign on selected points from her program. The Democratic candidate has made the defense of purchasing power for the middle classes her hobby horse along with abortion rights, always taking care to distinguish herself from Donald Trump's policy. But several political commentators criticize her for remaining on the surface by citing flagship measures without tackling the substance of certain issues.

• Economy: Kamala Harris promises to defend the purchasing power of Americans who are suffering from inflation and tensions in the employment and real estate sectors. She claims to want to “give money back to middle- and working-class families” while Donald Trump is fighting “for billionaires and big business”. Among her strong measures: a birth tax credit, assistance for first-time buyers to housing, assistance for business creation, price controls on basic necessities and medicines. It sets the target of reducing inflation by 3%.
• Immigration: the Democrat is playing a balancing act by being firm to attract the moderate right, but not too hard to scare off the left, but she has announced a hardening of migration policy involving “consequences” for illegal migrants and investments in physical barriers at the border with Mexico.
• International: Kamala Harris reaffirms US support for Ukraine after the Russian invasion. As for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she reiterates her commitment to the defense of the Hebrew state and does not plan to suspend American arms deliveries, but she wants to appear less pro-Israeli than Joe Biden, has condemned the violence against Palestinian civilians and advocates for a "ceasefire".
• Social policy: Kamala Harris has mainly placed social issues at the heart of her campaign, starting with the right to abortion in the face of a Republican camp at the origin of the tightening of access to abortion in several states. The defense of minorities is also a central point of the campaign. The Democrat also mentions ecology to distance herself from Donald Trump without specifying specific measures to protect the environment. In the wake of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris says she is in favor of the inflation reduction act (IRA), a set of ecological, economic and social measures.

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“A second Trump term would be a huge risk for America,” Harris warns

Tuesday October 15. The presidential campaign continues and the mutual attacks continue to be exchanged between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. At a rally in Pennsylvania, one of the key swing states, on Monday, October 14, Kamala Harris warned her audience against a re-election of Donald Trump to the head of the United States. “I firmly believe that a second term for Trump would be a huge risk for America, and it would be dangerous,” she declared, estimating that the candidate of the Republican camp “is increasingly unstable and unbalanced.” and “the search for unchecked power.” The vice president relied on the billionaire's comments, which said: on Fox News that he would send the army against the “enemy within” in the United States if he was re-elected, who are “crazy people, far-left lunatics.”

“You heard his words, coming from him. He talks about the enemy within (…).”He says he considers anyone who doesn't support him, or bend to his will, an enemy of our country,” Harris insisted in an argument endorsed by the Democratic electorate. And the candidate continued: “He says he would use the military to go after them (…) and we know who he would target, because he has attacked them before: journalists whose articles he doesn't like, election officials who refuse to cheat by finding him extra votes during the polls, judges who insist on following the law instead of bending to his willé". Kamala Harris has on her side some memories of Trump's term and of the last few years during which he has multiplied criticisms and sometimes threats against the press or the justice system, particularly at on the occasion of the various cases in which he is involved and must be judged. 

Harris traps Trump on the ground of mental health

Monday, October 14.While Donald Trump has not stopped attacking Joe Biden on his health, and his mental health, this strategy could backfire on the Republican. The American billionaire used the same technique against Kamala Harris, calling her “crazy” and even “mentally disabled” in recent weeks. But the vice president is not leaving the critics unanswered and has authorized the release of a medical report concluding that at age 59 she has “the physical and mental stamina necessary to fulfill the duties of the presidency” of the United States. Kamala Harris' doctor emphasizes that the last examination in April did not report anything “out of the ordinary” but proves the vice president's “excellent health.”

Kamala Harris has not approved the publication of the report without a single idea in mind: to fuel the debate on the mental faculties of Donald Trump, who, at 78, is now the oldest candidate to aspire to the White House. The Democratic candidate and her camp have already played with this string by emphasizing the ease and vitality of their candidate during the debate in the face of the rumbling and sullen air of Donald Trump sometimes looking absent.

$1 Billion Raised by Kamala Harris Campaign

Monday October 14.< /strong> This is a record according to the New York Times: Kamala Harris has managed to raise $1 billion (around €910 million) since she entered the campaign for the presidential election, replacing Joe Biden, at the end of July. An unprecedented level helped by the vice-president's spectacular entry into the campaign and the $500 million raised in the space of just one month, between the end of July and the end of August. It took less than three months for the Democratic camp and Kamala Harris to raise $1 billion, while it took Joe Biden's team an entire campaign spanning nearly a year to raise that much money in 2020, recalls NBC News. Kamala Harris has managed to raise more funds than Donald Trump in all of 2024 with her $850 million.

The Democratic camp remains discreet about this impressive fundraising “partly out of fear that boasting about the abundance of donations will diminish donor interest in the final weeks of the race,” explains Kamala Harris' team. These funds are mainly used to: to fund Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, including advertising, rallies and other promotions. However, the Democrat's campaign teams have decided not to spend all of it on this campaign and are giving some of the funds to help the party's candidates “for the House of Representatives, the Senate, the governorships, and even local chambers.”