Relief, Hope And Coconut Emojis: Democrats View Harris As A Second Chance To Beat Trump

Democrats, both elected and rank-and-file, exhaled sighs of relief on Sunday afternoon, believing their hopes of defeating former President Donald Trump’s political comeback had earned an improbable second life.

President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for a second term, combined with the party’s quick but not yet fully definite coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris, has injected new life into a campaign sapped of both financial and emotional energy by the 81-year-old incumbent’s disastrous debate performance last month in Atlanta.

Republicans’ apparent frustration at the coming candidate swap only added to Democrats’ excitement, convincing many that moving on from Biden to Harris was the right move for the party.

Trump had opened up significant leads over Biden in almost all major swing-state polling, as traditional Democratic constituencies expressed concerns over Biden’s ability to serve another four years in office. The likely switch to Harris, Democratic officials believe, gives the party a chance to reset the race, reframing it as a battle between a younger and more dynamic prosecutor and a 78-year-old man with dozens of felony convictions.

“We now have a great way to contrast between people who want to turn the door on the politics of the past,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), who signaled his ultra-fast endorsement of Harris by sending out a <a href=«https://x.com/jaredpolis/status/1815086635161424301?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet» target="_blank" role=«link» class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name=«social media message with coconut and palm tree emojis» data-vars-item-type=«text» data-vars-unit-name=«669da1c9e4b078bc2260a4a7»