Harris Needs to Capture the Center

Here’s some unsolicited advice for Kamala Harris from a center-left, moderate Democrat who wants to see her win — and most definitely wants to see Donald Trump defeated.

As the party gets closer to its Chicago convention the relief and elation caused by Joe Biden’s stepping aside and the quick rallying of the party behind Harris will give way to the party’s factions trying to corner her on their particular cause. Most of that will come from the hard-left which will try to pin her down on Israel, climate change, Medicare For All, and on and on. She should resist and persist in her resistance.

You can be sure about two things regarding the hard-left. First, they are never satisfied. And second, no matter what they say they will never miss a chance to vote against Donald Trump and for the first Black woman president.

If the Harris campaign can simply internalize those two truths they’ll realize that they have tremendous freedom to do what they need to do both to win in November and to govern come January, which is to capture the center.

As a centrist myself, here’s how I would do that:

Generalize, generalize, generalize. Bill Clinton was for “the courage to change.” Barack Obama was for “hope.” These concepts were so general that anybody could imagine that they meant what they wanted them to mean. The last thing Harris should want to do is to get into specifics about anything.

Don’t harp on race and gender. Obama figured this out early. He almost never made reference to his history-making identity. That was obvious. Every voter who is motivated by that doesn’t need to be told about it. And needlessly pointing it out will only alienate some moderates who believe in a color and gender blind society. (I’m in that group, though in all honesty I’ll vote for Harris no matter what.)

Pick Josh Shapiro and become fracking’s biggest friend. She must win Pennsylvania and she cannot win that state and continue to oppose fracking. Besides, nobody outside of PA cares besides the hard-left and, well, see the fundamental truths about those folks as noted above. And Pennsylvania’s governor has strong approval ratings, even in rural parts of the state. Sen. Mark Kelly would also be a good choice and it might put Arizona in play, but he wouldn’t help as much in Pennsylvania and it would also mean that Democrats would have to defend that Senate seat without him in 2028.

Go light on climate change. Related to fracking and fossil fuels, don’t preach about climate change. People know how serious it is, but they understandably get their backs up when you come off as morally superior or you challenge their lifestyles. Better to talk in positive terms about moving seamlessly to a cleaner environment — without anybody losing their jobs along the way. Talk about family budgets and how your ideas will result in lower costs to heat and cool homes and businesses.

Talk a lot about reproductive freedom. Slam dunk here. Harris has already been doing that for a couple of years. It’s the only issue on which Democrats have an advantage, so she should just keeping driving it home. Try to make the whole election a referendum on choice. However, a little caution is also in order. Support for choice drops off a cliff as you start talking about third trimester abortions. Given the realities of today’s Democratic Party, she can’t actually say, “safe, legal and rare.” as Bill Clinton did, but it’s essentially where she needs to be on that issue.

Be careful about Israel. About 80% of Americans support Israel in their war against Hamas. Harris has probably already gone too far in her statements condemning the Israeli response to the Hamas attack. Nobody votes on this issue, but if she’s perceived as too radical it will taint her image among otherwise reachable voters. She needs to toggle back to Biden’s position: scold Netanyahu, call for a two state solution, but don’t cut off aid. Again, the hard-left won’t like it but they’ll vote for her anyway.

Be against big government. For the love of God, don’t talk about the Green New Deal, Medicare For All or paying off everybody’s college debt. Bill Clinton was right about this too: the era of big government is over. Of course, this is not literally true. Americans actually love their benefits, but rhetorically that era has been over since Reagan. You have to talk like Calvin Coolidge and then you can win and govern like Lyndon Johnson.

Talk values. Don’t get lost in 12 point plans. Talk values and when you do, don’t talk about victimhood, don’t talk about what people are owed for sins against their fathers, don’t talk about all the stuff people should get just for breathing. If you have to talk about victims at all, talk about victims of crime — something she should find easy to do as a former prosecutor. Talk about the value of hard work and personal responsibility, talk about fairness — if you work hard and play by the rules nobody should be able to keep you from what you’ve earned (more Bill Clinton). Overall, portray America as a forward-looking land of opportunity. Don’t look backward to grievance or buy into the idea that our destinies are shaped as members of “privileged” or “oppressed” groups.

Watch your language. Here’s a helpful list of words and phrases Harris should never say: privileged, oppressed, marginalized groups, intersectionality (unless referring to infrastructure), people capable of giving birth (these are commonly referred to as “women”). Here’s a handy rule I like to live by: if you hear it on NPR, don’t say it.

Go where you’re not expected. Harris would be smart to askew big rallies in Madison and Milwaukee (she’s going to win there by huge margins anyway) and join Tammy Baldwin in rural parts of the state. For example, walking main streets in places like Viroqua or Kenosha (okay, so not rural, but unexpected). This would serve a double purpose as Democrats have a chance to pick up congressional seats in the Southeast and Southwest parts of the state.

Some elections are turnout contests while others are persuasion contests. I don’t think this one will be about turnout because both sides are plenty motivated to vote both for their candidate and against the other one. With the country — and Wisconsin — split right down the middle, the winner will have to persuade swing voters in the middle that it’s safe to move their way.

Harris doesn’t need to motivate her base. Even if she doesn’t say everything they want to hear, they will never abandon her or abandon the country to four more years of Donald Trump, This gives her room to move to the center, which she should start doing right away.