Conservatives Need More Than ‘Permission’ from the Harris Campaign to Vote for Her

You get the sense that Democratic partisans are almost embarrassed by the Harris campaign’s explicit overtures to disaffected Republicans and GOP-leaning independents. It’s fine, explain Kamala Harris’s allies in media and, indeed, the campaign itself to irascible left-wing partisans, who resent the tacit admission that their side lacks the raw numbers to secure victory in November. Harris isn’t ceding her progressive bona fides. Rather, the campaign is just giving Republicans the “permission” they need to vote Democratic.

In surrounding herself with erstwhile GOP lawmakers like Liz Cheney, the Harris campaign has “sought to build a permission structure for Republicans to vote for a Democrat as the Harris campaign focuses heavily on appeals to conservative women in the suburbs,” the New York Times reported. CNN agreed. As a “hardline conservative” nonetheless endorsing Harris, Cheney “created a permission structure of personal empowerment for suburban Republican and independent women to snub Donald Trump,” reporter Stephen Collinson posited. Channeling the sentiments of the Democratic base, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart rued the lamentable state in which the Left finds itself. “Do we have to do that?” he asked of the Harris campaign’s embrace of one of the Democratic Party’s onetime tormentors. “I think Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney give permission to those folks who want to find a reason to do the right thing,” Minnesota governor Tim Walz replied.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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You get the sense that Democratic partisans are almost embarrassed by the Harris campaign’s explicit overtures to disaffected Republicans and GOP-leaning independents. It’s fine, explain Kamala Harris’s allies in media and, indeed, the campaign itself to irascible left-wing partisans, who resent the tacit admission that their side lacks the raw numbers to secure victory in November. Harris isn’t ceding her progressive bona fides. Rather, the campaign is just giving Republicans the “permission” they need to vote Democratic.

In surrounding herself with erstwhile GOP lawmakers like Liz Cheney, the Harris campaign has “sought to build a permission structure for Republicans to vote for a Democrat as the Harris campaign focuses heavily on appeals to conservative women in the suburbs,” the New York Times reported. CNN agreed. As a “hardline conservative” nonetheless endorsing Harris, Cheney “created a permission structure of personal empowerment for suburban Republican and independent women to snub Donald Trump,” reporter Stephen Collinson posited. Channeling the sentiments of the Democratic base, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart rued the lamentable state in which the Left finds itself. “Do we have to do that?” he asked of the Harris campaign’s embrace of one of the Democratic Party’s onetime tormentors. “I think Liz Cheney and Dick Cheney give permission to those folks who want to find a reason to do the right thing,” Minnesota governor Tim Walz replied.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.