Kamala Harris: a Democrat Candidate for the Next-Generation Senate, or Does The GOP Stand on Abortion?
Shortly after news broke that Biden had endorsed Harris, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America issued a statement calling out Harris’ record and offering evidence of what is to come. Marjorie Dannenfelser said that while Joe Biden has trouble saying the word abortion, Kamala Harris says it.
Ms. Harris could give the “double haters” what they wanted. A quarter of voters are “double haters” — those who were seemingly begging the two major parties to give them choices other than Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden. One question remains: if Ms. Harris is a continuation of the much-maligned Biden candidacy, or if she is an alternative to it? Early indications are that she gets a two-point bump relative to Mr. Biden among these voters.
Harris offers a contrast to the GOP because of her stance on abortion, as well as her knowledge of health policy. As a child, Harris often accompanied her mother to work on the weekends, visiting the lab where she was studying breast cancer.
She has talked about them on the campaign trail. I don’t see any change there in the priorities on what Democrats want to do on health care if she becomes the nominee,” said Debbie Curtis, vice president at McDermott + Consulting.
An intensified focus on women’s health and abortion could help galvanize Democratic voters in the final sprint to the election. Since the three Supreme Court justices named by Trump helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, public opinion has turned against Republicans on abortion, contributing to an unexpectedly poor showing in the 2022 midterm elections.
Thirty-two percent of voters said they would vote only for a candidate for a major office who shares their views on abortion, according to a Gallup Poll conducted in May. That’s a record high since Gallup first asked the question in 1992. Nearly twice as many voters who support abortion, compared with those who oppose abortion, hold that view.
Republicans, in turn, have been eager to distance themselves from their own victory on the issue. Trump angered some members of his base by saying he would leave decisions on abortion to the states.
Regardless, advocates caution that the GOP’s new moderation-by-omission on the issue masks their actual, more extreme stance. When he was campaigning for the Senate, he stated his support for a national abortion ban and now supports the position of Trump to let the states decide. The GOP platform adopted at their convention last week does not call for a ban on abortion, but does state thatfetal personhood can be attained if an egg is fertilized. It’s a legal theory that could end the practice of abortion.
“It’s been one of, if not the main, issue she’s emphasized in the last year or two,” said Matthew Baum, Marvin Kalb professor of global communications at Harvard University. There is clearly an effort by the Republicans to downplay the issue. It has been a disaster for them.
Some pollsters have said Harris would have to do more than just campaign against Republican efforts to roll back abortion access to truly motivate voters because so many issues, such as inflation, the economy, and immigration, are competing for attention.
“She has to say she is running for a federal law that will bring back Roe v. Wade,” said Robert Blendon, an emeritus public health professor at Harvard University. “She needs something very specific and clear.”
In one case, challenging the FDA’s 2000 approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, the justices ruled that the group of anti-abortion medical professionals who challenged the drug lacked standing to sue because they failed to show they were personally injured by its availability.
The other abortion-related case pitted a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care against Idaho’s strict ban, which allows abortions when a pregnant patient’s life is in danger — but not in cases in which it is necessary to protect her health, including future fertility.
In that case, the justices apparently failed to reach any majority agreement, declaring instead that they were premature in accepting the case and sending it back to the lower court for further consideration. That case, too, could return in relatively short order.
The biden-Harris administration: cost and access to treatment, and what she could tell us about cost of insulin and the cost of expensive drugs
Harris would also have substantial leeway to talk about what are considered to be the Biden administration’s core health policy accomplishments. These include enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits aimed at helping consumers get health insurance coverage, which were extended through the Inflation Reduction Act into 2025, the $35 monthly cap on copays some patients pay for insulin, and drug price negotiation in Medicare.
She is well positioned. She is the core to the administration and will be able to get credit for things, says Dan Mendelson CEO of Morgan Health.
The administration has taken some important actions, but new expensive drugs continue to come out. “So if you look at the perception of consumers, they do not believe the cost of drugs is going down.”
The Biden-Harris administration was likely to say that it was already saving people money on insulin, according to Joseph Antos. But she will have to go beyond these accomplishments and double down on drug pricing and other cost issues — not talk solely about reproductive rights.
“She’s got to concentrate, if she wants to win, on issues that have a broad appeal,” Antos said. There are two big issues; cost and access to treatments.
Source: Harris, who is Biden’s voice on abortion rights, is likely to raise the volume
What do you learn about Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee? How did you hear her? What did you see last night? I asked her, but didn’t know what she had to say
The KFF Health News produces in-depth journalism about health issues. A health policy research organization, KFF has a core operating program.
On Sunday, as my latest national survey of voters was finishing, Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed Harris, making it certain that he would stay in the race.
I’m sure I’m not the only pollster who was in the field, trying to measure the impact of the events of just the previous several days: the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the selection of JD Vance as Mr. Trump’s running mate, the president coming down with Covid, the entire Republican National Convention.
Suddenly, the 2024 race has been turned on its head. We need two things in order to get a full read on the effect of change at the top of the Democratic ticket.
It will take a couple of days for the idea of Harris as the Democratic nominee to show up in the public consciousness. Even then, it will take a few days for pollsters to go back out, ask people their views and then crunch the numbers.
Against Ms. Harris, Republicans could fall into the “very online” trap. It’s difficult to overstate how much Republicans view Ms. Harris as unattractive. If you only learn about her from conservative media, you’re most likely steeped in “unburdened by what has been” video montages and criticism of her laugh. It is possible that voters think of her in a different way, or that they will care about it.
Source: Opinion | What Polling Tells Us About a Kamala Harris Candidacy
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