Harris' first days atop the ticket going 'better than anybody could have expected'

(TND) — The first days of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign have been a rousing success, a pair of political experts said Wednesday.

“What more could you ask for? To have every potential rival just circle the wagons behind her and raise a gobsmack amount of money,” Oklahoma State University politics professor Seth McKee said.

Harris’ campaign reportedly raised more than $126 million in just three days.

“I think it's gone better than anybody could have expected,” said Peter Loge, the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. “She's raised crazy sums of money. And, importantly, it's from a whole lot of people, like well over 800,000 new donors.”

Democrats are excited. Harris has got all the endorsements lined up tight. Her party unified quickly. And she's already given some fiery stump speeches, Loge said.

“I think she's had about as good a first 72 hours as you could hope, especially given the campaign didn't even exist formally or officially until Sunday afternoon,” he said.

Loge, who spent more than 30 years working in Democratic politics, said a pretty ideologically diverse group of Democrats are lining up behind Harris.

“It's interesting to watch because four years ago when she ran for president, a lot of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party didn't like her because she was ‘Kamala the cop,’ and they're now pretty quickly lining up and saying we got to nominate her, she's one of ours,” he said, referencing Harris’ time as attorney general of California.

But Loge said he doesn’t know if swing voters will embrace Harris.

And he said it will be key to see whether Harris can sustain the energy through Election Day.

Right now, he said, Democrats are still in the “dreamy honeymoon phase of Vice President Harris.”

Both parties are in a race to define Harris now to a wider audience.

And Loge said former President Donald Trump’s campaign was anticipating that President Joe Biden could drop out and give way to Harris.

So, Trump’s camp isn’t likely to be caught flat-footed.

“The Republican Party obviously has a file on Vice President Harris, and they're trying to remind voters that, ‘Look, if you didn't like Joe Biden, you're really not going to like the vice president,’” Loge said. “She's everything that Joe Biden was, plus she's in charge of the border. And no one likes how the U.S.-Mexico border is going.”

McKee said Democrats probably have stronger general election candidates on paper than Harris.

“But given the fact that we're in a certain context, the rallying around her, the way it happened, and how much money's been raised, it's the perfect rollout,” McKee said.

The election at this point is a coin flip between Trump and Harris, McKee said.

But he said Harris has clearly energized key parts of the Democratic base, including young voters and Black women.

“The energy that could not be generated for the fact of who the profile Joe Biden was has been completely obliterated, because of the profile of who Kamala is,” McKee said. “I mean, identity politics has just run to the fore of this campaign now.”

And Harris will have to figure out how to spend all that money to reach young voters, who don’t watch TV the way Trump’s older supporters do, McKee said.

“Voters, by and large, have been so dissatisfied with both Trump and Biden for so long,” Loge said. “But I think anybody who's a little bit younger is exciting people.”

Loge said Republicans had a candidate similar to Harris but instead backed Trump’s bid to retake the White House.

“Republicans had a really interesting choice. They had their version of Kamala Harris in Ambassador (Nikki ) Haley, who's young, who's smart, elected statewide, really terrific public servant,” Loge said. “And they rejected her. And they voted for Trump. The Democrats weren't given that option this year. Now they've got it. And they're kind of, I think, embracing it.”

Harris now faces a big decision on her running mate.

Historically, vice presidential candidates don’t really matter, Loge said.

But they just might in this unusual, close race, he said.

Trump picked Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who is much younger than Trump but shares the same conservative populist ideals as the former president.

The Cook Political Report lists just three true toss-ups: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Two of those border Vance’s home state, and the other is a fellow Midwestern state.

But Ohio is already solidly in the Republican’s column.

McKee said Harris could pick a swing state running mate.

Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin are generally considered swing states this election.

North Carolina is questionable as a battleground state, and it leans Republican.

“(North Carolina is) not really in the battleground category as much as people would like it to be,” McKee said.

Several widely reported potential running mates for Harris come from swing states. They include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has also been mentioned.

And then there’s Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

Kentucky isn’t really in play for the Democrats, but McKee said Beshear could play well with moderate voters nationwide.

“If you think that the veep can pluck a state, then you go Shapiro or Kelly,” McKee said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have also reportedly received some consideration as Harris’ running mate.

Loge said Harris will be looking for a running mate who is safe, won’t hurt the party if they vacate their current post, and with whom she gets along well.

Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor, could be a strong pick.

“It's an important state for the Democrats. He's won statewide. He's hugely popular,” Loge said.

And Kelly is a former NASA astronaut and Navy combat pilot.

And Loge said Kelly can help talk about gun control as the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in 2011 while meeting in a parking lot with constituents in her home state of Arizona.