Defining Harris Will Define the Race

It feels like shouting into a void these days to discuss policy issues, the records of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, or their positions on those issues. The national political press has closed ranks around Harris and Walz so uniformly that nothing but “vibes” seems to get through, and Harris has so far taken disappointingly little grief for avoiding all questions from the press. Republicans will have to drive home their own message on their own dime with advertising, because even Donald Trump’s gift for attracting free media isn’t doing very much — and is undermined when Trump abandons his famously lax discipline and does things such as attack Brian Kemp.

It remains true that Americans don’t tend to get serious about elections until after Labor Day. In some states, that’s an ingrained habit: Wisconsin hasn’t even held its Senate primaries yet, and voters in the state are used to waiting until as late as mid September just to find out who the candidates are. The Trump-Vance campaign and other Republican campaign arms appear to have plenty of money to dump on advertising in the battleground states, and Trump now says that he’s willing to debate Harris three times in September on three different networks, if she’ll agree.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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It feels like shouting into a void these days to discuss policy issues, the records of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, or their positions on those issues. The national political press has closed ranks around Harris and Walz so uniformly that nothing but “vibes” seems to get through, and Harris has so far taken disappointingly little grief for avoiding all questions from the press. Republicans will have to drive home their own message on their own dime with advertising, because even Donald Trump’s gift for attracting free media isn’t doing very much — and is undermined when Trump abandons his famously lax discipline and does things such as attack Brian Kemp.

It remains true that Americans don’t tend to get serious about elections until after Labor Day. In some states, that’s an ingrained habit: Wisconsin hasn’t even held its Senate primaries yet, and voters in the state are used to waiting until as late as mid September just to find out who the candidates are. The Trump-Vance campaign and other Republican campaign arms appear to have plenty of money to dump on advertising in the battleground states, and Trump now says that he’s willing to debate Harris three times in September on three different networks, if she’ll agree.