Harris steers clear of race, gender despite historic bid

Kamala Harris is aiming to make history as America’s first Black and South Asian woman president — but she has not leaned into the prospect.

Instead, Harris has steered well clear of mentioning race and gender during speeches, rallies and the first press conference of her lightning campaign.

The 59-year-old Democrat has also refused to engage with Republican rival Donald Trump and his allies when they have tried to bait her by questioning her racial identity and making sexist attacks.

Rather, Harris seems to be focusing on the broader excitement over her replacing President Joe Biden as candidate, and on issues like the cost of living that she believes voters care more about.

Her reluctance to rely on her trailblazing status as a selling point was on full display when she and her running mate Tim Walz gave their first interview to CNN on Thursday.

Harris was asked about a photo circulating of her grand-niece watching her Democratic National Convention speech in Chicago, which went viral as a symbol of the breaking of racial and gender barriers in America.

But Harris was not biting.

“I am running because I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender,” Harris told CNN.

Harris was equally dismissive when asked about Trump’s inflammatory accusation that she leaned into her Black identity for political gain. “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” she said with a laugh.

– ‘Precious time’ –

One reason for her approach is that Trump’s attacks are so far merely drawing attention to her history-making status, rather than damaging her, said Jesse J. Holland, an assistant professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University.

“Why spend your precious time talking about things when your opponent’s doing it for you — and perhaps not successfully?” Holland told AFP.

Harris is also helped by the fact that she is already a known quantity as the first ever Black, female and South Asian vice president, even if voters are still getting used to her as a presidential candidate.

She has not shied away from talking about her background as the daughter of a Jamaican-born father and an Indian-born mother.

She began her convention speech with a heartfelt tribute to her mother, a “brilliant, five-foot tall brown woman who taught her children to ‘never complain about injustice, but do something about it.'”

But going further and explicitly ramming home a message on race and gender is not necessarily a vote winner across the board.

Her candidacy has fired up many young, female and Black voters, but there are equally voters who would be turned off by a female or Black president, said Holland.

Meanwhile, Democrats believe issues like the economy and migration are likely to play a bigger role in what is set to be another nail-biting election.

Nancy Pelosi — the influential Democratic former House speaker who was critical in pushing Biden out of the race — backed Harris’s strategy of staying low-key on her race and gender.

A female president would be “icing on the cake. But it ain’t the cake,” Pelosi told a podcast with Barack Obama’s one-time strategist David Axelrod, adding that “kitchen table” issues were more important.

– ‘Resisting labels’ –

Democrats have also been stung by what happened in 2016 to Hillary Clinton.

Clinton made being a potential first female president a core part of her campaign with the slogan “I’m With Her” — but then lost to Trump in a shock result.

“Kamala Harris is right not to make her race and gender a rallying cry,” Zeeshan Aleem said in an opinion piece on MSNBC.

Aleem said Clinton’s slogan “got it backward: the president is supposed to be with us, not the the way around.”

There’s also a personal element to it for Harris, who has avoided attempts to be categorized throughout a career as a prosecutor, California attorney general and senator.

In her media interactions, Harris often comes across as guarded, giving deliberative answers that can be hard to pin down.

But that same instinct could be politically valuable as she seeks to prevent Republicans defining her in an aggressive election cycle with less than 10 weeks to decision day.

“At this very second, she may be resisting labels, maybe resisting being boxed in,” said Holland. (BSS/AFP)