Kamala Harris’s final pitch in Washington ‘an act of hope’

Kamala Harris’s supporters described her final pitch to voters as “an act of hope” – but not quite daring to believe, writes Tom Minear.

Hope. That’s what Barack Obama’s historic run to the White House was built on. He was such an irrepressible force, however, that it came to be about something more: belief.

When Kamala Harris rocketed into this year’s race three months ago, she brought the kind of energy that quickly drew comparisons to the former president. In what had loomed as a battle between two elderly men, the emergence of a bi-racial woman certainly was electric.

But that magic faded as Donald Trump clawed his way back into what is now a tied race. So with only a week until Americans choose their next president, Ms Harris tried to recapture it by manufacturing a memorable moment of political theatre in front of the White House.

Her closing argument to voters – delivered from the very spot Mr Trump urged his followers to “fight like hell” on January 6 – was her best speech of the campaign.

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks on The Ellipse just south of the White House in Washington, DC. Picture: AFP

Its intended audience, in truth, was not the epic crowd of 75,000 people who had queued for hours to catch a glimpse of the woman who could soon be America’s first female president.

“I know many of you are still getting to know who I am,” Ms Harris said, a nod to the people she really wanted to reach: the Americans watching on TV or on their phones in battleground states, wondering which candidate to support or if they would even bother voting at all.

So she peppered her half-hour address with relatable tales about her middle class upbringing, culminating in one of her sharpest lines: “I love our country with all my heart. And I believe in its promise because I’ve lived it.”

Stretched over hundreds of metres, her supporters roared. The great unknown is whether it will be enough to win over enough undecided voters in the final days of a nailbiting race.

Ms Harris is not perfect, as she deliberately acknowledged. She is certainly no Mr Obama.

Veteran Democratic campaigner Mitch Malasky made the same point while waiting for her speech to begin, as he said he had “extreme unease” about next week’s election.

Lisa Murphy, another of Ms Harris’s supporters, described the rally as “an act of hope”. That’s what it felt like. People hoping, hoping, hoping – but not quite daring to believe.