With the Iowa Caucuses just about a year away, the United States is now seeing a horde of prospective nominees voicing their candidacy from across the country. These elections are expected to be particularly interesting especially since analysts have predicted more than 40 Democrats contesting standing president Donald Trump, who filed for re-election with the FEC on the 20th of January, the day of his inauguration. Many prominent Democrats have already announced their candidacy. Familiar names like Elizabeth Warren and Julian Castro populate the list with other fresh faces and prominent individuals such as Andrew Yang.
The candidate with the best prospects so far seems to be Senator Kamala Harris who only recently announced her nomination and was able to raise over one million dollars in donations within 24 hours of her announcement on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The first-term senator from California is already being seen as a formidable contender by many leading Democrats. A Howard University alumni, Harris is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the oldest black sorority in the States, enabling her to have deep ties with the black community. She is making her first campaign stop in South Carolina, a state in which African-Americans make up a majority of the demographic.
The rise of early voting may also lead to many casting votes for her in California (her native state) as early as the Iowa Caucuses. Even in diverse states such as Illinois and Ohio, early ballots can be cast before the New Hampshire primaries. Despite her unique position, which I will talk about next, she is already facing harsh criticism due to her “tough-on-crime” positions as a Californian prosecutor.
What appeals to many women and nonwhite voters is the fact that she does not fit into any clear ideological ‘lane’ so to speak. Her agenda resembles that of Bernie Sanders, with strong support for Medicare and the fact that she has been rejecting most corporate donations. This, combined with her well maintained connections at Alpha Kappa Alpha give her a unique standpoint which would appeal to various factions of the Democratic Party. Furthermore, she released a video soon after her announcement in which she portrayed herself as an advocate for justice, equality and decency.
With the current government shutdown and the standing president seeming helpless in the face of the opposition, chances for Trump’s re-election look slim. The president’s term has so far been marred by policies gone wrong such as his strict border policy and the carrying out of his campaign promise of building a wall on the States’ southern border leading to the longest government shutdown the US has ever seen. Besides this, Trump has routinely had disagreements with Democrat lawmakers, most recently House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It is important to note that it is still too early to predict how Harris will fare among other potential nominees of the Democrat Party but, in my opinion at least, she should rather unsurprisingly face little opposition from within the party.
