language filled with terminologies that are inconsistent with how people speak and communicate. For example, using terms and labels, such as Latin x to describe Latinos and BIPOC( Black Indigenous People of Colour) to describe African Americans is a put-off and alienates many Americans who say‘ that’ s not the way we speak, it’ s unnatural’.
To make it worse, her agenda supporting sex change seemingly went too far as she implied she would fund gender-affirming surgery for prisoners and immigrants. The issue of transgender males competing against women, especially in schools was a concern for parents with daughters who felt it was not only unfair but could be unsafe as their strengths would be unmatched. Figuring that this was worth exploiting the Trump campaign ran a very graphic advert on this thorny and divisive issue. The advert proved very effective in painting Harris as imposing anti-Christian values on the Nation. Though Harris was urged to offer a response to the advert, she declined. By making her campaign strategy lean heavily on gender, woke politics, and diversity she appealed to a very narrow base which did not move the needle in the direction she had hoped at all. As exit polls revealed the only demographic that turned out for her, in large numbers, as predicted, was educated urban and suburban women, not enough to tip the scales in her favour.
As a carrier of the message Harris had disadvantages. To begin, her awareness among the electorate was low for she had been a quiet-in-the-background VP, like most are, until her‘ coronation’. She had a short time to reintroduce herself to the majority of voters. Though she had presidential ambitions back in 2020 and put her hat in the Democrat’ s party ring, her bid on a Democratic ticket floundered as she withdrew before the race officially began when polls showed she was the least popular candidate. When one has a short time to create a positive image, they must have a razor focused strategy and a watertight plan that will deliver. One of the short comings she had was not being clear on issues a good example being franking. An example is franking where she changed her mind that she would not ban it after indicating she would earlier before her campaign, coming out as a flip flopper. She was always measured, probably due to her background as a prosecutor, coming across as vague and ambiguous and therefore unqualified for the job.
The Democratic Party, its policies, and top leadership, also hurt Kamala’ s shot at the Presidency big time. Many believe the party has lost its DNA, its very soul. Analysts point out that the Party is beset with hubris held captive by their donors and blinded by greedy consultants.
In terms of her ability to deliver the message she was very confident in front of crowds, especially when aided by the teleprompter, but declined to give oneon-one interviews despite being urged to do so, probably acknowledging it was her Achilles heel. This was proved right as one of the defining moments of the Campaign was when she appeared on‘ The View’ on MSNBC Kamala was asked what she would do differently from Biden and after a blank pause she uttered,‘ I can’ t think of anything.’
She was unable to articulate clearly what her administration had achieved painting her as clueless and in her own world. Yet there were some bright spots by Biden such as the passing of the Infrastructure Bill, American Rescue Plan, the first Major Gun Safety bill, the CHIPS & Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act which he did within a short time. However, these accomplishments did not seem to register with the public, either because they were never talked about enough or with emphasis and clarity by Kamala. Secondly most of them would take time to take effect and be felt by the people they are meant to impact.
Moreover, her failure to disentangle herself from President Biden whose ratings were low was one of the mistakes that cost her dearly. She placed loyalty to her boss over her objective of winning the Presidency. This underbelly was exploited by Trump to the hilt.
Her choice of media was also wanting and another big mistake. Being awash with money, her campaign prioritised television, door-to-door visits and rallies which is a sufficient but limited strategy. She missed a big opportunity to reach the young voters who get their information from social media, especially podcasts. For example, when Trump appeared on the Joe Rogan show he pulled 55 million viewers a show which Harris declined to attend. One voter, who voted for Trump, when interviewed on CNN as he was entering the UFC championship, which the President-elect also attended, said,‘ a long conversation, say on Joe Rogan, is better
than a debate on TV.’ This could indicate that Trump ' s refusal to have a second debate was not an act of cowardice but a well-calculated move probably based on research, given the limited reach among the young voters he was targeting TV has.
Take Home Four: Those in Your Corner Cut Both Ways: Choose Carefully
A candidate in any election has three key assets; money, a team including volunteers and time. How one leverages this, is critical. For Kamala, time was not on her side as she only had 107 days to introduce herself, define what she stood for on the issues that mattered, and still play her part as Vice President. That, as it is now apparent, was too much to ask. When it came to funding, she blew Trump out of the water. She raised a total of about USD 1.2 Billion with USD 200 million within a week of her endorsement, a record. Trump’ s chest pales in comparison as it had about USD 382 Million. What is important though is not the size of the wallet but how it is used to add value. According to Adimpact, a company that provides advertising intelligence and data solutions, about USD 654M was used for advertising mostly on television and USD 20M in concerts and celebrity endorsements. This proved to be one of her pitfalls. As they say, you cannot buy your way to victory.
When it comes to volunteers, she had many who enthused her side and to an extent she leveraged them well especially manning the call centres and knocking on doors. However, by having less money Trump used it prudently well especially by spending in the right media.
If former President Obama and Hilary could be considered volunteers then we must say they failed her. Let me start with Obama who, in my opinion, added little value, and may actually have hurt her campaign. Why do I say this? While addressing a group of young African-