Can Democrats Take the Harris-Walz Momentum All the Way to November?

It is a testament to the fast-paced nature of political timelines that the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump happened not even a full month ago. In the days following, pundits and political commentators were of the opinion that the attempt on his life would elevate Trump to near-martyrdom status in the Republican Party and in the wider independent-leaning circles of voters. Democrats were desolate, stuck behind President Joe Biden, whose age and ability seemed set to doom his reelection campaign. It would be no exaggeration to say that Trump’s return to the White House felt like a foregone conclusion at that point.

The turnaround has been nothing short of staggering. In the past three weeks, the Democratic Party has received a much-needed injection of possibility and – dare we say it – hope. Biden announced his intention not to run again in November on 21 July. Vice President Kamala Harris received his full backing and enough state delegate endorsements to become the party’s official nominee on 23 July. Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on 6 August and suddenly we were off to the races.

As Harris and Walz kicked off their campaign tour last week, there are Gen-Z memes and uplifting songs in seemingly endless supply to buoy them from stop to stop. The deep exhalation of breath from Nancy Pelosi’s office and the upper echelons of Democratic Party offices could be heard from miles away. Harris-Walz 2024 feels like the right ticket at the right time to take on Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance; why had we not thought of this before? Harris is a mixed-race woman with a strong law and order background as a former attorney general, and Walz is a Midwestern former high school teacher turned politician who still answers when he is called “Coach” and has the most prized of political talents: the ability to reach across the aisle.

But Democrats don’t have much time to catch their breath and enjoy the moment. If all of this can happen in a matter of three weeks, it is a daunting thought to wonder what could happen in the next twelve weeks until the election. What might have stayed buried for the past few months of 2024 could be awakened in September or October, as has happened in the past (think Hillary Clinton’s emails debacle or Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood tape, both of which were brought to light just weeks before the 2016 election). Trump is already facing difficulty with Senator Vance as his vice-presidential selection; Vance’s past comments about Trump’s character in which he publicly called the former president “an idiot” and privately compared him to Adolf Hitler are coming back to bite him. There is already speculation that Trump could replace him before November.

Democrats are enjoying the moment for now, but come October, the Harris-Walz campaign will undoubtedly have faced a crisis or two of its own. How their team chooses to respond will set the stage for the first Tuesday in November. Is the Democratic Party capable of turning this excitement into substantiable, tangible support that will show up at the polls? Or will they squander the moment, as they have done in the past? Time is on their side for now, with the election just two months away, but two months is plenty of time for chaos to rear its head once more.