CHICAGO: Vice President Kamala Harris should feel on top of the world. Sheโs leading in the polls and has galvanized and excited her base, but the next few months will not easy as the Obamas have already warned.
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FiveThirtyEight, a polling aggregator, has Harris leading by 3.6 percentage points while Real Clear Politics Average says sheโs polling just ahead of Trump by less than two points and Trump is leading in a number of battleground states.
Political strategist James Carville, who is known for helping Bill Clinton win his presidential bid in 1992, warned Democrats that promising polls should not lead the party into feeling themselves.
Speaking recently on โReal Time With Bill Maher,โ Carville said โI challenge Democrats with some caution here. First of all, most want to say we have to win by three in the popular vote to win the Electoral College. So when you see a poll that says we two up. Well, thatโs actually, youโre one down if the poll is correct,โ Carville explained, adding. โThe other thing is Trump traditionally, when heโs on the ballot, chronically under-polls.โ
Regardless, the DNC convention was a spectacular bash which rooted the VPโs support and united a party whoโd loss confidence in President Joe Biden after a worrisome debate with Trump.
Shortly after the convention ended in Chicago, The Root spoke with Black attendees on how to turn the excitement into action. The Obamas warned during their convention speeches that beating Trump will be tough and supporters at the Democratic National Convention agreed, but also said the work is just beginning.
Margerie Martin, a 53-year old Chicago native, attended all four days of the DNC. Still, in her opinion, the excitement is not enough. She told The Root that springing into immediate action is the only way Harris will win this November.
โMy mother is out there now...the seniors in my neighborhood are taking over Cermak [road] to enroll people to vote. Iโm going to the school board to teach people how to vote from dog catcher to Kamala Harris.โ
Though Martin hoped to make change happen on a local level for Harris to become president, Cristian Rice, 28, said Harris needs to take a more practical and national approach if she wants to be victorious.
โHarris is going to have to travel to a lot more states than just the Sunbelts and the blue walls,โ Rice, a Miami native, stated. โI think she has to make some bets in places that are unexpected: Florida, Texas, Virginia, even New York where she can really affect the momentum on a ground level because we know she canโt enact any of these policies without a Congress to really be there.
She also said Harris needs to start visiting strongholds that are held by Republicans to keep the support going for โthe state and local houses up for election as well.โ
Geno Jones, a 59-year-old radio host from South Carolina, acknowledged that getting Harris to become the first Black woman president will be difficult, however the decision, he said, to put her in the White House is a straightforward one.
โWeโre choosing between our freedom and our oppression. I canโt put it any simpler than that. And for those who may not believe that, if you have any doubtโjust read Project 2025 โcause the oppression is spelled out in all 922 pages.โ
While Jonesโ words suggest maintaining our freedom is what should motivate Black people to ensure a win for Harris, Martine St-victor, who works in a communications and hails from Canada, said Harrisโ campaign has differed from anything sheโs ever seen before. That excitement, she experienced in Chicago, she believes could be enough to beat Trump.
โAs someone from Canada...itโs refreshing and Iโm hoping this energy trickles down,โ adding, โWhen you look at elections around the world, thereโs a lot of apathy...including Franceโs recent election and the rest of Europe. Iโm hoping that we can learn from the United States about Harrisโ engagement, participation and civic responsibility.โ
Perhaps Chicago resident Leo Maxey, 78, summed it up best when he said that even though the DNC was promising and exciting, there is still much work to do.
โWhat we have to do is remember itโs gonna be a fight. We canโt say โall we have to do is vote,โ Maxey said. โWe have to keep fighting and make sure that the undecided voters and those who donโt vote at all get out there and vote. Or at least put it on their minds so theyโll understand how important this is.โ
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