Democrats warn Harris must get ready for Trump onslaught

Kamala Harris is exactly where she wants to be heading into the Democratic convention, key allies to the vice president say. 

Just a little more than three weeks after she entered the race, Harris has not only consolidated her base but is filling arenas. 

Polls show her winning back key battleground states where President Biden had trailed former President Trump, and there are also signs she may be expanding the map. 

Democrats say the consolidated time frame is working in Harris’s favor as she builds momentum and as Trump’s campaign struggles with how to define her.

Trump has sought to reverse the trajectory of the race with a series of high-profile media events, all of which have been designed to increase the pressure on Harris to take tough questions and better outline her own policies. 

But that hasn’t forced the vice president to change her game plan to this point. While she has committed to doing an interview by the end of August, strategists say she’s smarter to run the race as she wants right now. 

“As Democrats, we now have more of an opportunity to win than we did a month and a half ago,” Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau said. “Our chances of winning have increased but they are not locked by any stretch of the imagination.”

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm and momentum but you’ve got to turn enthusiasm and momentum into votes and there’s a lot of race to still be run,” Mollineau added. “I still think it’s an extremely close race and we have no idea what’s going to happen.” 

Mollineau pointed to the conflict in Gaza as well as the perception of a shaky economy, which could lead to larger economic repercussions.

“This is not a done deal,” he said. 

With nearly 80 days to go until Election Day, Harris has had a relatively quiet week in the lead up to the convention with little on her public schedule. 

On Thursday, Harris is expected to travel to Maryland with Biden where they’re expected to discuss the efforts they are undertaking to lower costs for Americans. 

Before the political turmoil that surrounded Biden earlier this summer, inflation was the No. 1 issue looming over the election. And both Democrats and Republicans say they expect it will reemerge as the dominant factor in the campaign in the fall. While Harris has gained on Trump on the economy, there’s a lingering fear among Democrats that Harris could stumble on the issue. 

“She needs to be ready for the onslaught of attacks from the Trump campaign,” one Democrat close to the campaign said. “Because that’s really where this race begins and ends.” 

With time running out, Democrats said there won’t be many opportunities for Harris to define herself after the Democratic National Convention. 

One remaining opportunity will come during the scheduled debate on ABC News in September. Democrats say they are excited to watch Harris, a former prosecutor, take on Trump, who was found guilty on all 34 counts during a criminal trial in May.

But Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons — who served as Harris’s communications director until last year — also warned Democrats to be “sober” about the upcoming debate. 

“While the vice president is a strong prosecutor and will do really well against Donald Trump, she hasn’t been on a debate stage in four years,” Simmons said. “While I’m sure she’ll do well, she won’t leave Trump crying in a puddle of tears.”

But for now, even Republicans acknowledge in private that Democrats are winning the race. 

“We have an undisciplined candidate who should be talking about three issues, the economy, the border and the wars overseas and he can’t stay on message to save his life,” one former Trump aide said. “She would win if the election were held today.” 

A New York Times/Siena College poll out this past weekend found Harris leading Trump in three battleground states she needs to win the race — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. 

And a USA Today/Suffolk University/WSVN-TV poll out Tuesday showed she is gaining on Trump in Florida — a state Trump won the last two cycles.

Still, Democrats warn that the race is close and Harris shouldn’t be looking to give Republicans a talking point on her lack of a news conference or interview with a journalist. 

“If I had my druthers, I’d probably say, ‘go do a couple of sit-downs,” one Democratic strategist said. “But I can’t quarrel with the strategy of the campaign. Clearly it hasn’t hurt her to this point. How many voters are saying, ‘Man, she hasn’t sat down the Jake Tapper yet?’”

Harris, Democrats say, has run a flawless campaign to date. And very few would change a thing, said Democratic strategist Joel Payne. 

“If you talked to Kamala Harris in the hours after Biden made his announcement and said what’s the best place you could be? You could not have scripted this better for her,” Payne said.