Can Kamala Harris win over unsure voters in time for the US election?

What’s happened in the United States this week has turned the 2024 election into something of a snap election. A 100-day campaign might sound very long compared to British ones but by American standards, it’s not.

Now with little more than three months until polling day, the Democrats are starting afresh.

Without a doubt, the change in candidate, likely to be confirmed at the Democratic National Convention in August, has engaged the Democratic base.

In Pennsylvania, this week we spoke with a cross-section of voters and what was clear is how much work will have to be done in that time.

Somehow, Kamala Harris is going to have to build a profile and a message that resonates with America’s 24 million undecided voters, because that relatively small group has the power to change the future direction of this country.

What’s more, she cannot lose any votes. That is potentially a problem. 

In our conversations, the most re-energised were without question female, predominantly black, Democrat supporters. Even if Biden had stayed, their votes would have been secure, but they would have felt less optimistic about the future.

However, in other discussions, there was less positivity and a sense that she is part of America’s problem and not necessarily its solution.

So many people we spoke with defined this election as being about the economy. A “pocket-book election” where who could bring greater prosperity individually and collectively would edge the vote.

As the current vice president, Harris is seen to have joint responsibility for the actions of the Biden administration, and in reality more the failures than the successes.

Somehow she will have to convince voters that what she brings is not just more of the same whether that is on the economy, inflation, jobs, crime or foreign policy.

It will be a difficult path against an opponent who is happy to claim previous successes whether that is based in reality or not.

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