Vice President Kamala Harris completed her latest political reboot at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night, expressing her freedom and joy in campaigning while abandoning her more radical policy proposals.
With the enthusiastic support of every living Democratic president and celebrities like Oprah, Democrats cheered wildly as she launched her new campaign.
“We are charting a new path forward,” she told the cheering crowd. “Forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class.”
The substantive campaign is a stark departure from the one Harris ran for president on in 2020, when she embraced a far-left political agenda in an effort to appeal to the party’s most radical voters.
Harris was already a senator from California, but moved further and further to the left on issues she had previously opposed.
Harris supported marijuana use and co-sponsored a bill to legalize it federally, even though she spent her life prosecuting marijuana users.
She has supported bills that would provide Americans with free college tuition, free health care, student loan forgiveness and monthly payments to couples earning less than $100,000 a year. Harris also sponsored a bill to end cash bail and voiced support for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s $93 trillion Green New Deal.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is joining her House and Senate Democrats to introduce new legislation to end excessive use of force by police.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris speaks to California Democrats in 2015
As her presidential campaign progressed, Harris moved even further to the left, supporting the idea of banning fracking, the extraction of oil from the ground, and limiting red meat consumption to reduce methane emissions from cow farts.
Harris also supported the idea of banning plastic straws and decriminalizing prostitution.
She floated the idea of expanding executive power to allow the Justice Department to block state abortion laws, creating a mandatory buyback program for some semi-automatic rifles, and restricting gun sales through executive action.
Harris also supported the idea of defunding police departments, abolishing private prisons and mandatory minimum sentences and cash bail, as well as the death penalty. She even supported the idea of restoring voting rights to felons.
On immigration, Harris supported the idea of decriminalizing illegal border crossings and taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants. On the subject of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, Harris said she was ready to “start from scratch” to reshape the agency.
While the Trump campaign tries to bury Harris over her far-left views, the vice president has scaled back her political positions and embraced the idea of being a “merry warrior.”
Harris presented herself in early 2018 as a “happy warrior,” seeking to distance herself from the image of an angry anti-Trump prosecutor she had cultivated.
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris poses for a portrait in San Francisco in 2004
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks during the National Urban League Conference in Indianapolis, July 26, 2019.
During her first year in the Senate, Harris had energized Democrats by challenging President Trump’s administration and trying to block his Supreme Court nominations.
But in an article in Vogue, Harris made it clear that she wanted to move on with her life.
“At the end of the year, I was thinking back on 2017 and I was like, ‘Bye, Felisha,'” Harris laughed. “This year, I’m just going to be a happy warrior.”
Speaking to talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in April, Harris explained why she decided to change her political identity.
“We need to be joyful warriors,” Harris said. “I decided at the end of last year, there was so much that was causing depression and anger and anxiety, I said I’m done with it. I don’t like that feeling, I don’t think any of us do. So let’s just go into 2018 and be joyful warriors.”
Harris also spoke of her joyful fighting spirit at an event with Jonathan Capehart in January 2019, just before her presidential bid.
“We need to make time to sing, dance, laugh and have fun,” she said.
Harris’ policies and her “merry warrior” campaign never appealed to Democratic voters in the primary, who fell in love with her opponents: Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders and, ultimately, Vice President Joe Biden, who won the nomination in 2020.
US President Joe Biden hands Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris the microphone during a rally in Maryland
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on stage during a Pride celebration hosted by the Vice President of the United States
Harris ended her presidential campaign in December 2019, before the primaries even began.
Vice President Joe Biden selected Harris as his running mate in August 2020, allowing Harris to re-establish herself as someone with the same more moderate agenda. Harris embarked on a three-month campaign sprint that culminated in the duo’s presidential election victory.
As vice president, Harris struggled in her role, finding it difficult to effectively communicate the administration’s agenda and defend President Joe Biden. Attempts to portray her “joy” and enthusiasm often fell flat.
Now that she has taken over Biden’s leadership role, Harris has returned to her familiar “merry warrior” campaign, but this time without the more radical government policies.
The campaign refuses to give interviews about its ideas for the country, saying it is quietly working behind the scenes on the tone and tenor of its new brand.
The campaign is all about vibes as it moves away from traditional media and focuses on stadium-filling celebrity events and viral content on social media.