Why did Ms. Harris fail in the race to the White House?

Kamala Harris began her campaign in August after President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the race for the White House. The Democratic candidate's entire campaign lasted more than 100 days, the shortest in modern American political history. She was endorsed by a series of former presidents and influential entertainment stars.

However, the results of the vote count in the states after the election on November 5th showed that the race was not as close as the previous polls showed. With 45 states and Washington, DC, decided, Mr. Trump received 277 votes, winning the presidency, while Ms. Harris received 224 votes. She lost in 4 of the 7 battleground states. The remaining 3 states have not yet had final results but all turned red.

Experts say Ms. Harris had the "worst election campaign in history." The short campaign period, lack of specific proposals, and signs of voter dissatisfaction with the current administration are said to be the reasons why Ms. Harris could not become the first female US president.

"The proposals she has for the American people lack substance and amount to 'anyone but Trump,'" said Camilla Tominey, a political writer forTelegraphcomment. "She actively avoids the media, and when she does give interviews, she spends most of her time attacking Trump instead of specifically stating what she could do differently."

Ms. Harris ran for president in January 2019 but withdrew in December of the same year, citing a lack of resources. Mr. Biden chose Ms. Harris as his running mate in August 2020, defeating the Republican pair Trump and Pence.

This year's US Vice President has the opportunity to make history, but the chance of winning this election is closely related to Mr. Biden as well as the effectiveness of the White House owner's governance of the country over the past nearly 4 years.

Biden has consistently received low approval ratings, with about two-thirds of voters saying the US is headed in the wrong direction. US inflation peaked during Biden’s term, then cooled somewhat thanks to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. The world has seen two major conflicts, reminding many voters of the peace and economic prosperity before the Covid-19 pandemic under Trump.

For most of 2024, Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders remained confident that the President would easily win reelection, thanks to his legislative achievements. This is believed to be the reason Mr. Biden did not drop out of the race early, despite concerns about his age.

After inheriting the campaign from Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris quickly helped unite the Democratic Party, rally support from voters and help raise record amounts of money for the election effort.

But these motivations do not help Ms. Harris "escape" Mr. Biden, and it is difficult to convince voters that she will turn the page of the US. She has not shown how different she is when voters give her a chance, except "willing to put Republicans in the cabinet if elected".

The vice president's campaign, however, does not blame Harris. "We ran the best campaign we could while Joe Biden was president," a Harris aide told Reuters.Politico“Joe Biden is the only reason why Harris and the Democrats lost tonight,” another adviser said. Biden should have dropped out sooner.

From the start of her campaign, Harris has turned the race into a referendum on Trump, citing her past as a prosecutor and contrasting it with Trump’s numerous legal troubles. The former president faces four state and federal charges, including a conviction in New York for falsifying business records to conceal information during his 2016 campaign.

In the final weeks of the campaign, Ms. Harris has stepped up her attacks, calling the former president a “fascist” and warning of “instability and chaos.” She has framed the election as a fight for democracy, not unlike Mr. Biden’s earlier efforts.

Ms. Harris also spent much of her time attacking Mr. Trump in rare interviews with the media.

She did not articulate her position on the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, nor did she give any credible answers about her domestic efforts in the United States. She appealed mainly to women voters with messages of support for abortion rights, which Mr. Trump said should be left to the states.

"Kamala Harris lost because she shifted her focus to attacking Trump," said veteran pollster Frank Luntz. "Voters already know everything about Trump, and they want to know more about Harris's plans for the first hour, day, month and year if she wins."

“It was a terrible mistake for her campaign to shine the spotlight on Trump rather than Harris’s policy proposals,” Luntz toldUSA Today.

Ms Harris’s defeat marked the second time in three election cycles that Democrats had pinned their hopes on a woman candidate, believing she could make history. But both were defeated by Mr Trump.

Jason Miller, a Trump campaign adviser, identified a turning point in the race with less than a month to go until Election Day when Harris was interviewed by Sunny Hostin, a co-host of the show.The Viewon October 8.

Hostin asked Harris an easy question: What would the Democratic candidate do differently if elected than in a Biden administration? “Nothing comes to mind,” Harris replied. The answer immediately alarmed the vice president’s team and became a point of attack for Trump’s camp.

In the weeks that followed, Harris tried to make amends, but the negative impact of the comment was hard to reverse. “Who would have thought that Sunny Hostin of The View would end Harris’s efforts?” Miller said.