Underestimate Kamala Harris at Your Peril

Mark McKinnon: “In politics, as in sports (and life), there is enormous power in being underestimated. It can be a kind of superpower. And I have a strong feeling that Donald Trump and the Republican Party have only begun to experience the potentially fatal consequences of underestimating Kamala Harris.”

“Many in the GOP leadership believed that they were on the verge of crushing what little political life remained in Joe Biden. Then, as the president dropped out of the race, Trump’s campaign strategists appeared to jump to the conclusion that Harris was the second-best thing. In their fever dreams, Harris was seen as a weak candidate who’d had everything in life handed to her on a DEI plate. Who reflected the most liberal dreams of San Francisco ‘radicals.’ Who was kind of ‘out there.’ (Note to Republicans: Check out Exhibit A, one J.D. Vance.)”

“But in politics, preconceptions can bite you pretty quickly. Harris has come out of the box roaring like a lion and is already blowing away expectations in terms of her personality, her performance, her discipline, her poll numbers, and her fundraising. And while observers have raised doubts about her management skills—and contend that she can be thin-skinned and overly defensive at times—I can assure you of one thing: Weak, she is not. And that’s key.”