- Vice President Kamala Harris is only about a week into her presidential campaign.
- Her team has been able to generate much-needed energy for the Democratic base.
- Harris can attack Trump better than Biden, who has more political baggage, a campaign expert said.
In the days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and his running mate Kamala Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, the vice president immediately began running a notably different campaign, generating a level of energy that was sorely missing among her base.
She received the blessing of business leaders and pop stars alike, put up record fundraising numbers through grassroots donors, and has shifted the tides of national polls that were slumping under Biden.
The people running her campaign haven't changed, but the method and style have — and in ways that a Biden campaign couldn't execute due to the president's political baggage, campaign experts told Business Insider.
"You just started to see, not just in public, but in private, a ruthlessly efficient campaign operation take over and really change on the message, on the candidate, and everything," Evan Siegfried, a Republican strategist, said.
One of the most notable shifts with Harris is in tone and how the campaign has chosen to contrast the vice president from her opponent's camp.
With Biden, the comparison has often focused on the president's record versus Trump's dangerous impact on democracy, Seigfried said. If Biden resorted to punchlines, they often sounded like outdated metaphors, like ascribing Trump with the "morals of an alleycat."
Some of that messaging remains the same with Harris. But voters are also seeing the campaign hurl more direct insults against Trump and his team, calling them "old," "weird," and "creepy."
Blunt attacks on Trump
"Trump is old and quite weird?" one memo from the Harris campaign read.
JD Vance, Trump's running mate from Ohio, is also "weird" but also "creepy," other press releases from the Harris campaign have said, rebutting Vance on his anti-abortion views and his comments from 2021 about single "childless cat ladies" dragging down America.
Christian Grose, a professor of political science and public policy at the University of Southern California, said that, with Harris, Democrats are able to go after Trumpworld in ways that Biden couldn't have due to his age and popularity.
"I think she just has more flexibility because she's not stuck with Biden's messaging entirely," Grose said.
Siegfried, the GOP strategist, said he sees two more immediate opportunities to attack Trump while energizing her base: goading Trump to the debate stage and picking the right running mate.
As Trump waffles on debating his new challenger, Seigfried said Harris has an opportunity to "psychologically torment" her opponent until he agrees to get on the stage.
The Harris campaign has already sent out fundraising emails with the subject line, "What happened to: 'Any time, any place?'"
'Weird' could work
Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University, told BI in an email that Harris' attacks on Trump are "sharper and more focused and the Trump campaign is scrambling to figure out how best to respond."
"A major advantage Harris has is that Trump has not spent the past 8 years demonizing and attacking her as he has Joe Biden," Panagopoulos wrote. "The Trump campaign's need to pivot at this late stage is a challenge."
Democratic strategist Tim Hogan told Politico that Harris' messaging is effective because "it's simple" and reflects "how you might talk to your neighbor about the crazy political climate we're living in."
Campaign experts who spoke with BI said that the attacks so far appear to be working but also recognized that voters are still seeing the early formations of Harris' campaign. With just a hundred days before the election, the messaging could quickly change.
"They're going to be experimenting," Grose said. "We might see more of this from Harris, but she might change her tone. It's kind of crazy, right — to see a campaign go from zero to 60 in one day."
Harris' VP pick, which Siegfried said he expects to come out in the next week or so, will also be an opportunity to boost the campaign by picking someone with broad appeal.
Bloomberg reported that Harris' campaign has narrowed her list to three names, citing sources familiar with the matter, to Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
"You have to do things to really keep the momentum going and to keep the energy," Siegfried said. "It's really about a war that dominates the headlines — in a good way."
A Harris campaign spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider.