With Joe Biden pulling out of the race for president, Kamala Harris offers the US election what it’s been missing: excitement, momentum and something different. We only need to look at how that worked out for Jacinda Ardern in 2017 to see what’s possible in the next three months.
OPINION
As Alice wrote exactly one week ago, the US election is feeling like the worst reality television show of all time, and she was hoping for a last-minute twist. Well, the campaign stuck to its one-bombshell-a-week schedule and this morning (NZ time), President Joe Biden pulled out of running for re-election, just over three months before the election is held in early November.
His vice president, Kamala Harris, is now looking like the front-runner for the Democrats, meaning that around the world today there was the fledging feeling of excitement that there would be a female running for US president.
This was swiftly followed by the cold, cruel memory of 2016, the last time a female ran for US president. When ‘where were you when Donald Trump became president?’ became a core trauma memory, like remembering where you were when Princess Diana died, or when the second plane hit the World Trade Centre. And if you think I’m exaggerating the severity of what that man has done to the world, well, enjoy catching up on Project 2025.
But let us not give in to despair yet, because a Kamala Harris win is possible. You only need to look to our own recent history, which holds some lessons on what can happen in a short amount of time.
On Monday 31 July, 2017, Labour leader Andrew Little stepped down suddenly, announcing Jacinda Ardern as the new party leader in the hope that she would have more momentum for the upcoming election just two months later. It worked – Jacinda, the rare combination of being both a work horse and a shining star, got voters invested for an election that otherwise had been missing any kind of excitement.
Within just seven weeks Labour had a huge increase in support and scored enough early votes to form a coalition government, after looking like they were going to be down and out for yet another term. Less than one week after she suddenly became leader, Jacinda and Labour announced a new campaign motto: ‘Let’s do this’, after Jacinda signed off her first social media post as party leader with the short, jazzy phrase.
Well, it’s the same phrase Joe Biden used this morning, in throwing his support behind Kamala Harris. It’s a hopeful phrase – and it speaks to the moment we are now in, where US voters (and, to a wider extent, the world) are so freaking downbeat by watching this trainwreck election cycle play out, they have become desperate for an alternative.
And yes, there’s a lot to be said about just how bad things had to get before Kamala Harris – a smart, competent woman – was able to be considered for the top job, but it is what it is. America is not a forward-thinking country; they seem doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Guns. Wars. Abortion rights. Every generation fighting the same fight, only each time with higher stakes.
But the possible nomination of Kamala offers the tiniest shred of hope that maybe things could be different? Maybe? As Jon Stewart said recently on The Daily Show, “Do you understand the opportunity here? Do you have any idea how thirsty Americans are for any hint of inspiration or leadership, and a release from this choice between a megalomaniac and a suffocating gerontocracy? [Because] it is crushing our f—king spirits.”
I’m not delusionally girl-boss enough to assume that women automatically make great or empathetic leaders, but there are some areas where a female viewpoint is invaluable. The abortion issue in America is huge; it’s been two years since the Roe vs Wade ruling, allowing abortions to be legal throughout the country, was overturned, making it a state-by-state issue.
The impact that it has had is massive – and it’s a huge part of the election. Despite whatever his personal opinions might be, Donald Trump is now resolutely anti-abortion – and his new vice president candidate, J.D Vance, has gone on record in the past saying he wants a total abortion ban – oh, plus, he also wants to women in abusive marriages to stay, for the sake of the children. The so-called ‘war on women’ could get much, much worse under another Trump presidency.
One of Biden’s most painful moments in the debate three weeks ago was when he fumbled an answer on abortion – a topic he has never felt strongly about, because why would he? He’s never been at risk of possibly needed one. Abortion is a visceral topic for most people with a uterus because it never, ever stops feeling like a precarious right. And it’s a topic that Kamala – for all her slightly batshit, ‘coconut tree’ answers – is very, very strong on.
With the 2016 election, it was said that white women won the election for Trump – they voted for him over Hillary Clinton, because she was ‘unlikeable’. But will they vote for Kamala? Well, the Democratic party has already had a record-breaking amount of donations since Biden stepped down, and it hasn’t even been 24 hours since the news broke.
As we saw in 2017 with Jacinda, you cannot underestimate the impact that comes with people feeling inspired, excited or even just interested in a candidate. And as we saw under a month ago in France, a lot can happen in a short amount of time – particularly when young voters get involved.
Maybe there’s reason to be hopeful, yet?
