Harris is talking about immigration more and her allies think it could be a political advantage

WASHINGTON — All of a sudden, Kamala Harris is talking about the border — and relishing it.

As she prepares to barnstorm battleground states this week along with her soon-to-be-announced running mate, the Harris campaign is banking on an issue that until recently, Democrats had ceded to Republicans and Donald Trump: immigration.

“The vice president has a compelling story to tell about prosecuting transnational gangs and drug traffickers as the attorney general of a border state,” a campaign official said. “That record will make it harder for the Trump camp’s attacks on her to stick.”

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a party that until this year had largely avoided the subject — and as Republicans have tried to make it a vulnerability for Harris, arguing she is responsible for the ongoing flow of migrants at the southern border.

But in front of a cheering crowd in Atlanta last week, Harris was all smiles as she seemed to enjoy touting her border bonafides as California’s attorney general.

“In that job, I walked underground tunnels between the United States and Mexico,” she said. “I went after transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers that came into our country illegally. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won.”

The turning point

For Democrats, the shift in messaging began earlier this year when Trump urged House Republicans to kill a bipartisan border funding bill negotiated in the Senate. At the time, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he preferred different legislation introduced in the House and he argued that the Senate bill didn’t go far enough.

One of those negotiators, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was furious. It wasn’t just that Republicans had tanked the Senate bill; it was that they’d been