Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Boost Campaigns

^{WITH nearly four weeks to go for the U.S. presidential election day, November 5, Democratic Party presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, and Republican Party’s Donald J. Trump, have deeply energised multiple levels of their respective campaigns. All-out feverish efforts are being offloaded to reach out the electorates in every nook and corner of the country as quickly as possible. Townhall rallies, personal contacts at varied social platform are being actively yoked with a wide variety of messages – personal, family liaison, political ties, official and even distant acquaintances.}

^{However, Kamala Harris is faring much better, and is rapidly pursuing a winning trail when compared to the Republican Donald Trump’s team. Her genial nature, her ambitious biracial and multicultural accomplishments have widened her horizons as a laudable leader and have stood in good stead to face a rival contestant– Trump– who has little humility, and who for most Americans is ’unrelatable’ to the common voter. And this instinctive persona may prove to be a singular factor in Kamala Harris’s path to the White House. Moreover, Kamala Harris’s winning three consecutive California- statewide elections in the past, her win in the presidential race should not be a surprise for her constituents.}

^{However, here’s how it looks possible.}

^{Meanwhile, it should be remembered that Kamala Harris has too many practical, and several inherent disadvantages, the so-called unique “FIRSTS” against, or in her favour. Some of the prominent ones of these include:  Being the first ever American woman to contest for the United States’s highest public office, the first ever Indian-origin American, the first South-Asian, the first Black-American... Moreover, as a recent report in the New York Times noted “the flash flood of endorsements, donations and support for Harris has been astonishing. Be it because of …fear of Trump’s momentum after many recent political party developments in the country.}

^{Be that as it may, Kamala Harris is an eminent Democratic Party personality in her own right: with a brilliant and most honorable report card of her long public service; blemish less account-book in assignment she was entrusted with, or she undertook.}

^{Beginning her career in the office of the district attorney of Alameda, California, she was the City Attorney of San Francisco, later publicly elected Attorney General of California, a highly prestigious position, from 2010 to 2021, as the first woman, the first African American, and the first Indian-Asian American to inhabit these posts. Also, Harris was the junior U.S. Senator from California from 2017 to 2021.} 

^{She won the 2016 Senate poll becoming the second Black woman and the first South Asian American Senator, in which position she was instrumental in getting numerous social reform laws enacted. In 2020, Jospeh R. Biden chose Kamala Harris to be his vice-presidential running mate for the 2021-2025 White House race. And after Joe Biden withdrew on July 21 from the 2024 presidential election, he nominated Kamala Harris to contest as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the 2024 White House race. On August 6, Harris chose Tim Welz, the Minnesota Governor and the former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, as her vice-presidential running mate. She launched her presidential campaign with endorsement of President Joe Biden.}

^{The Harris-Welz team has had a roaring election campaign so far. The Harris-Welz ticket has received voters’ overwhelming support ever since the team reached out to them anywhere in the country. The Harris-Welz team’s public approval ratings have been mounting with  astronomical speed. Currently, it’s 65% to 50%, against her Republican rival contestant.}

^{American mass media have also generously come forward with stupendous support. Among the most prestigious Star supporters include: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The USA Today,  the nation’s multiple 24x7 television and radio channels.} 

^{Finally, it would be quite relevant to mention what The New York Times’ Editorial Board published this week twice (September 30 and October 1) on its front page accompanied by a double-column Kamala Harris’s photograph: The only choice for President—Kamala Harris.}

^{The write-up said: Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party presidential candidate is, ‘morally unfit for the office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest…}

^{“Temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities – wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline, that he most lacks.  His many criminal charges, his advancing age, his fundamental lack of interest in policy, his bizarre cast of associates.”}

^{The November 5 Presidential election will be the Americans’ litmus test: Kamala Harris-Tim Walz or Donald J. Trump-J.D. Vance?}

^{Let us sit with fingers crossed.}

1. M.R. Dua, former professor-head, journalism department, Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi, and an ex-faculty Journalism, California State University, US.