James Antle of the Washington Examiner analyzes Kamala Harris’ electoral defeat.
Vice President Kamala Harris sought to end her presidential campaign on a high note Wednesday while signaling to supporters she was not done fighting.
The question is whether Democrats are done with her after she failed to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from returning to the White House.
Trump just completed one of the great political comebacks in history. That won’t be easy for Harris.
“On the campaign trail, I would often say, ‘When we fight, we win,’ but here’s the thing, sometimes the fight takes a while,” Harris said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t win. The important thing is don’t ever give up. Don’t ever give up.”
This suggests both that Harris’s defeat is temporary and that she is still the right person to lead “the fight that fueled this campaign.”
Harris is still only 60. She was not given the normal 18 or so months to build out a presidential campaign. She relied heavily on a team assembled by President Joe Biden, augmented by Obama alumni and some of her own aides, that was headquartered in Wilmington, where she has no ties.
But Democrats have little appreciation for Trump’s political talents, despite the fact he is nearing a decade as titular head of the Republican Party and has now beaten them in two presidential elections. Less than 43,000 votes in three states prevented him from winning four years ago.
That means many Democrats will view Harris as a bad candidate precisely because she lost to Trump, a fate that befell Hillary Clinton in some circles after her shock defeat in 2016. Moreover, there are multiple Democratic governors, including several who either were passed over for a place on this year’s ticket or professed to be uninterested, who would like to run in 2028 themselves.
