Shaaban Bilal (Cairo)
Jen O’Malley Dillon, campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, said Democrats are the “underdog” in the presidential race against Republican candidate Donald Trump, despite the advances in opinion polls after the party’s national convention in Chicago.
Yesterday, US President Joe Biden participated in an election conference held by Harris in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the most important states witnessing competition in these elections. This is the first time that Biden has appeared in Harris’ campaign since she obtained the Democratic Party’s nomination to run in the presidential race after Biden stepped down.
Top Democrats worry that the party’s enthusiasm could outpace electoral reality, with the vote still split 50-50 and both sides trying to lower expectations.
“Since Harris entered the race in late July, our campaign has seen record funding numbers and a surge in enthusiasm for the November election,” O’Malley said. “We are heading into the final stretch of this race, and we are the undisputed underdog. Donald Trump has a passionate base of support, with more support and endorsement than he has had at any point since 2020.”
“The bottom line is that the next 65 days are going to be very difficult,” she said. “This is going to be an incredibly close race, and it’s going to take a lot of convincing to the voters who are going to decide this election, but we have the candidate, the message, and the organization that is bringing Americans together to chart a new path forward so that we can once again defeat Trump.”
Dillon explained that the upcoming debate between Harris and Trump on September 10 will not be easy, describing Trump as a “strong opponent,” noting that the difference in the 2020 elections is about 40,000 votes in swing states, expecting the margins in the number of voters to be equally small next November.
The American street and those interested in the world are awaiting the debate scheduled between the candidates in the US presidential race next September, as experts considered it decisive and greatly influential on the opinion of the American voter, especially in the swing states.
Dr. Nabil Mikhail, a professor of political science at George Washington University, believes that this debate will not decide the presidential race, but it will be important because many will compare Harris’s performance to Biden’s, especially after Biden’s lackluster performance in his last debate with Trump.
Mikhail said in statements to Al-Ittihad, “There are many issues that are at the forefront of the debate, the most important of which are the economy, illegal immigration, and foreign policy, including the Ukrainian crisis and the Gaza war, and a number of other issues.”
The political science professor expected that the debate would witness personal attacks from each side towards the other to distort its image in the eyes of the American public and to convince voters not to vote for it.
The Associated Press considered that sharing the stage with Trump is a crucial opportunity for Harris to define herself and her position on many political issues, but it also constitutes a major test, a test that President Joe Biden failed miserably to the point that he ended his campaign and made way for her.
For his part, Washington political analyst Andrew Jose expected that the debate between Harris and Trump would revolve around the competence of each of them in running the country, in addition to Harris’ attempt to portray Trump as incompetent.
Jose told Al-Ittihad that Trump will certainly attack Harris because of her association with the Biden administration and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and is trying hard to present her as someone who is unable to deal with the foreign policy file.
He pointed out that the debate will witness discussion of topics of interest to American domestic affairs, such as gun rights and immigration, especially since Trump confirmed that he will restrict immigration and defend gun rights, while Harris will blame the Republican Party’s Second Amendment policies for the increase in gun violence, and will call for a compassionate approach towards asylum seekers.
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