How the JD Vance nomination makes Kamala Harris even more indispensable
Biden campaign officials and allies believe his record and rhetoric will allow the vice president to further clarify its message to women, voters of color and Gen Z.
First Things First
JD Vance, the 39-year-old first-term Republican senator from Ohio who former President Donald Trump tapped to be his running mate on Monday, will formally accept the nomination later this evening in a speech that will introduce him to the nation.
But top Biden officials have spent the past three days defining Vance as a replica of Trump whose record and rhetoric will allow Vice President Kamala Harris to amplify and clarify the campaign’s message to women, voters of color and Gen Z—all indispensable blocs within the Biden coalition.
“I’m prepared to make a wild prediction that tonight will be more of the same as Republicans come together to coronate their second in command: JD Vance,” Biden Deputy Campaign Director Quentin Fulks said at the top of a press conference this morning in Milwaukee, the site of the Republican National Convention. “Trump picked JD Vance because he would bend over backwards, enable Trump to do whatever he wants with his MAGA agenda, no matter the harm to the American people.”
Fulks described Harris as a powerful global voice who represents the American dream and has spent her life serving people as a prosecutor, a district attorney, an attorney general, a United States senator, and now as vice president.
“She’s fought for our rights and stood strongly with President Biden to deliver for our families,” he said. “President Biden picked her because she is qualified for the job.”
There’s no issue on which Harris has demonstrated her value than reproductive freedom. Former President Trump appointed half of the conservative Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Vance has said he supports nationwide restrictions on abortion care despite Trump and congressional Republicans claiming the issue is now up to the states to decide.
Ally Boghun, communications director for Reproductive Freedom for All, told me that Harris has been an essential ally to the movement even before her election as President Biden’s governing partner.
“Throughout her career, she has been a vocal advocate for reproductive freedom. We know that the Biden-Harris administration has worked super steadfastly to protect reproductive freedom with the vice president really leading the charge on this issue. She is the champion that we need in this moment.”
Boghun said Vance’s nomination ensures abortion rights will remain a top issue in the election and offers voters another opportunity to head to the ballot box and make clear that their reproductive rights and their reproductive freedom are non-negotiable.
Harris traveled to southwestern Michigan this afternoon to speak about reproductive freedom and participate in a moderated conversation with former Trump national security official Olivia Troye and Amanda Stratton, a Michigan mother and former Republican voter who shared her personal reproductive health story.
“This is a fellow who, in the United States Senate, participated in blocking protections for IVF. This is an individual who has made every indication that he is for a national abortion ban,” Harris said. “And so again, this is where the power is with the people. We have an election coming up.”
Before she left Washington this morning, the Biden campaign released a video ahead of Vance’s acceptance speech in which the vice president called Vance a rubber stamp for Trump’s agenda. The vice president highlighted the senator’s stance against certifying the 2020 election results, support for a national abortion ban, and opposition to protections for IVF. Harris also warned that Trump and Vance would implement the extreme Project 2025 plan, affecting programs like Head Start and Medicare.
“Make no mistake,” Harris said in the 45-second video. “JD Vance will be loyal only to Trump, not to our country.”
The Trump campaign has made peeling away President Biden’s support from the Black and Latino communities a top priority. President Biden is concluding a two-day swing through Las Vegas, where he spoke directly to those communities, touting his first-term accomplishments and outlining his agenda for the first 100 days of a second if reelected.
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright said that Biden’s message is bolstered by Harris’s ability to address the issues that matter to communities of color broadly and Black Americans specifically and bring their shared values and experiences to the table.
“The existential threat that comes along with Donald Trump, JD Vance and Trumpism continues to unfold by the day,” he added. “The vice president’s role in giving clarity to what this administration has done and what they will do in the next four years is probably more important now than it’s ever been before.”
The vice president has repeatedly praised Gen Z, the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha.
“By the way, I love Gen Z,” she said in Michigan earlier today. “If you have Gen Z in your life, maybe it’s complicated for you, but they’re really great.”
And Jack Lobel, a spokesperson for the Gen-Z advocacy group Voters of Tomorrow, told me that the contrast between Harris and Vance on Gen Z’s top issues couldn’t be more apparent.
“JD Vance denies climate change, while Vice President Harris has been a leader in promoting climate action in our country. JD Vance denies that the gun epidemic is real. Vice President Harris has overseen the first Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the White House,” Lobel said.” JD Vance denies the 2020 election results. Vice President Harris has stood up for democracy and for the future that Gen Z wants for their country.”
Lobel also rejected the notion that Vance represents a forward-thinking vision for the country as the first millennial to run on a presidential ticket.
“JD Vance, despite being half Trump’s age, has an ideology that’s old as shit,” Lobel said. “He wants to take us back in time. JD Vance wants to restrict young people’s freedoms, especially those of women.”
Lobel said his organization stands with the Biden-Harris ticket because a candidate’s ideology matters more than their age.
“That’s why all the talk of Vance being a millennial doesn’t really have any credibility,” he said. “Vice President Harris, on the other hand; is energetic and she has the ideology that will help mobilize young people to vote. And, together with President Biden, she has delivered on Gen Z’s top issues.”
With questions surrounding whether the Democratic establishment will sidestep the will of the 14 million primary voters who elected Biden as their nominee and pressure him to withdraw his candidacy, Republicans have intensified their attacks on Harris in recent weeks since she would be a natural heir apparent to the president’s legacy.
From her oft-memed laugh to her political liabilities of a policy portfolio that includes immigration, voting rights and more to her sagging favorability numbers, conservatives have questioned her intelligence and characterized her as a “DEI hire,” the right’s dog whistle to diminish people of color in positions of power.
Seawright told me that racism and misogyny have no guardrails in American politics but that Harris has a track record of punching above her weight.
“We saw clips of this with [former] Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton when she ran in 2016 at the top of the ticket,” he added. “And now we’re seeing this played out even more with Kamala Harris not just being a woman but being a Black woman on the ticket at a very consequential time for our country.”
The contrast between Harris and Vance will be fully displayed within the next month when the two running mates take the debate stage to advocate for their boss’s vision in front of the American people. (Harris welcomed him to the race yesterday in what was described by the Biden campaign as a cordial call.)
Earlier today, CBS offered—and Harris accepted—August 12 as an additional potential date for the sole vice-presidential debate, which the network will host. Harris previously agreed to debate Vance on July 23 or August 13.
“Now that the Trump campaign has selected a running mate, we encourage them to agree to a debate between VP Harris and Senator Vance,” a Biden campaign official said.
The Trump team said it wouldn’t agree to a vice-presidential debate until Democrats formally nominate one.
“To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate,” Trump campaign Senior Advisor Brian Hughes said in a statement, referring to the Democratic governors of California, Illinois and Michigan who have been touted as the future of the party.
During a press call on Monday after Vance was selected, the Biden campaign said that Harris would be prepared to face off against Vance in what will likely be heightened stakes after President Biden’s poor showing in last month's first presidential debate.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told reporters she’s looking forward to the Harris-Vance matchup.
“She is strong,” Warren, a top Biden campaign surrogate, said. “She knows what she’s talking about, and she doesn’t give an inch. And she has the better end of the argument.”
Warren isn’t the only one of Harris’s former Senate colleagues who likes her chances.
“I can’t wait for her to debate JD Vance,” Debbie Stabenow, the outgoing number-three Senate Democrat from Michigan, said this afternoon before Harris’s remarks. “He should be shaking in his boots right now. The truth of the matter is that JD Vance, and certainly Donald Trump, are wrong for America.”
In the Know
President Biden tested positive for COVID-19. In a note from the White House, Biden’s doctor said the president experienced a runny nose, cough and general discomfort this afternoon. He was tested after he was not feeling better following a speech at the Unidos US national convention in Las Vegas. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden, who is vaccinated and boosted and experiencing mild symptoms, will self-isolate in Delaware, where he will continue to carry out his official duties. Biden had COVID twice in July 2022.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it raised a record $44 million in the second quarter, including $19.7 million in June. The House Democrats’ campaign arm outperformed its Republican counterpart by $7 million for the quarter and $5.4 million last month. For the entire cycle, DCCC has raised almost $211 million—nearly $50 million more than the National Republican Congressional Committee. It heads into the general election, where Democrats will seek to win back the House and make Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries the first Black Speaker in US history, with more than $87.9 million cash on hand.
The White House launched its fifth Investing in America tour. It will include 70 stops by cabinet officials in more than 30 states and introduce new tools for folks to see how President Biden’s economic agenda is helping them save money on basic needs and for Americans in rural communities to share their stories of how they’ve benefited from significant investments in US infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing. Read more about the tour.
Make me smarter. Did I miss something in this post? Is there something else I should know? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch.
Thursday Happenings
The House and Senate are out.
Vice President Harris will travel to Fayetteville, North Carolina, to speak at a campaign event.
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