Kamala Harris needs to be more than the anti-Trump candidate if she wants to be elected president

US Vice-President Kamala Harris at a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, last week. Picture: Getty Images

Donald Trump remains the frontrunner but the Democrats have injected much-needed hope into their campaign. They were right to force Joe Biden to cancel his candidature. Their expected successor, Kamala Harris, will create a new political dynamic but her task is beyond daunting.

If Harris is the Democratic replacement, she cannot win simply by being the anti-Trump candidate. That’s tempting, but won’t work. Harris needs to introduce herself to Americans in an entirely new role – as a presidential candidate – and persuade them to accept her in a little over 100 days.

Harris can only pull that off by revealing a strength and charisma she has never so far displayed. Beating Trump from this point would be one of the epic achievements in US presidential history. Yet the cage of history is being shaken up. Might further unpredictable twists lie ahead in this extraordinary saga?

Some senior Democrats don’t believe Harris is their best prospect. Yet there is no outstanding alternative. While opening up the contest to other candidates might appeal, overlooking Harris at this stage would risk more division when the party desperately needs to unite behind a successor. The Democrats are gambling from weakness and Harris may become a gamble by necessity.

Their calculation is simple. Biden was going to lose to Trump – both sides knew this. Harris might also lose to Trump but first Trump has to beat her. Harris is a new contender and that means a different contest. If Harris is the candidate Trump will face a black woman, a generation younger, with the potential to appeal to women, the youth vote and multicultural America.

Any Trump-Harris contest will become a sharper generational and cultural battle. It will be nasty, with dangers for both contenders. Harris must display the mettle to stand up to Trump and damage him politically. Trump, at 78, now becomes the ageing contender, nearly 20 years older than Harris, aged 59. Might Trump lack the insight to campaign effectively against a younger black woman?

Former president Donald Trump. Picture: Getty Images

He resents the loss of Biden. In the last few days Trump has mocked Harris, mispronounced her name, abused her as “crazy” and “nuts” – confirming he is a mean, loathsome, morally compromised person.

Despite Trump’s talk of unity, he can’t change. He seems incapable of any graciousness to mobilise sentiment from the assassination attempt. His long, abusive, undisciplined campaign stump rants might yet prove dangerous.

This election is Trump’s to lose. Will he prove a successful frontrunner now Biden is gone?

President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris with First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on the White House balcony on July 4. Picture: Getty Images

Harris, of course, comes with stacks of political baggage. She is inexperienced as a political campaigner. She has made too many gaffes in public comments. She is tied into every flaw of the Biden administration, most notably the failures at the southern border.

Her campaign four years ago was an embarrassing flop. She is untested across a range of areas, notably the economy. The learning curve she needs to climb is immense.

“Harris has been the Enabler in Chief for Crooked Joe this entire time,” Trump’s campaign aides have said, signalling their attack line. Their follow-up is that Harris was dishonest, part of the cover-up about Biden’s health, another poll-tested attack theme. When Biden selected Harris as vice-president, he wasn’t picking a successor, he was seeking an identity politics balance for his ticket.

If Harris is the candidate she will project energy and generate momentum among despairing Democrats. Whether she can appeal to independent voters might be doubtful. There is one certainty – she will elevate the abortion issue, a point of vulnerability for Trump.

Harris has her own life story. She became a prosecutor because of her high school experience learning her best friend was being molested by her stepfather. She chose a career to protect “women and children from violence”.

Harris brands as “immoral” the stance of two Republican men – Trump and JD Vance – saying women have no right to decide what happens to their body.

Biden’s resignation so late in the contest is without precedent. But it reflects a self-interested historic failure – Biden has condemned himself and his misjudgment in seeking to run again rather than standing down months ago and giving the Democrats more time to sort the succession.