You’ve heard the news, right? Vice President Kamala Harris is pulling in huge numbers from Republicans! Well, that’s what the media’s saying, anyway.
Over the weekend, reports revealed how dozens of high-profile Republicans are backing away (once again) from former President Donald Trump’s campaign and throwing their support behind the least popular vice president in American history. On Sunday, the Harris campaign officially launched the “Republicans for Harris” drive. The new campaign effort was accompanied by testimonies and public endorsements from 30 Republican so-called “moderates” who are backing her efforts to win the presidency.
The news was quickly picked up by every left-leaning news outlet in the country, all of which proudly parroted Harris’ claim that she had substantial support from within the Republican Party itself.
“Republicans Line Up to Endorse Kamala Harris,” Newsweek wrote.
“Trump White House Aides Desert Donald for Kamala in ‘Republicans for Harris’ Drive,” The Daily Beast said.
As part of the campaign, Harris and her team also parroted the popular lie that former President Donald Trump was an active participant in the failed “Project 2025” project – a third-party campaign that recently imploded, which was staffed and organized by former Trump officials. The campaign promoted some of the most hardline ideas on immigration and social issues, many of which were not endorsed by the former president. The ideas were so contentious, in fact, that Trump himself distanced himself from it in several Truth Social posts.
They Were Already Backing Biden!
Part of the deception here is that the Republicans backing Harris were, for the most part, already backing President Joe Biden before he backed out of the race.
Let’s take a look at two of the biggest names on the list, for example: former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham was already never going to vote for Trump, and former national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, Olivia Troyte, wasn’t on the Trump Train either.
In a statement issued as part of the latest Harris initiative, Grisham said that while she doesn’t agree with the vice president “on everything,” she does believe that she will “fight for our freedom, protect our democracy and represent America with honor and dignity on the world stage.”
Sounds like she’s vying for a job in the Harris White House, doesn’t it?
Grisham also called on other officials from the Trump administration, who she claims also saw the former president behaving like a “tyrant” in the White House, to “speak out and stand with Kamala Harris.”
Fat chance of that.
Other names on the list included former Republican governors Bill Weld of Massachusetts, Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, and Jim Edgar of Illinois.
For starts, Edgar said that he wouldn’t vote for Trump way back in 2016. That makes him a de-facto Democrat.
What’s Their Plan?
According to the Harris campaign, the group of roughly two-dozen Republican voices backing the vice president won’t sit idly by as she campaigns over the next three months. Instead, the campaign believes that those republicans will actively work to encourage GOP voices to speak out in support of the Democrats this year.
The campaign will also encourage Republicans who oppose former President Trump to “speak to their friends and family” about switching parties this year, forming what they called a “campaign within a campaign.”
We should no doubt expect a series of flashy videos on social media in the coming weeks and months, but it looks like events are on the cards too. Harris campaign officials confirmed over the weekend that they will host a series of launch rallies in battleground states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Arizona.
The Response So Far
Social media isn’t always real life, but it does give us a good idea of how some of the most politically engaged people in the country are feeling. Glancing at X, formerly known as Twitter, it’s clear that the campaign hasn’t gotten off to a great start. Between criticism from mainstream conservative voices and the endless stream of memes, Harris will certainly be up against it to convince the most engaged Republicans that she has something to offer them.
“BREAKING: Massive Turnout for the Republicans for Harris Rally!” one user wrote, sharing a mocked-up image of Harris waving to a sparse crowd in a sports hall.
Another account shared a photograph of illegal aliens lining up at a U.S.-Mexico border checkpoint, with the line:
“OMG! This is the line to sign up to volunteer for Kamala Harris’s campaign in Henderson, Nevada. Donald Trump and the Republicans are about to get a rude awakening.”
Another user also slammed former Michigan Rep. Dave Trott, who was one of the names on the list released over the weekend.
“Right on Queue [sic] the Michigan Ministry of Truth has brought back irrelevant former Republicans, now turned Democrat, and rebranded them as ‘Republicans for Harris,” the user wrote.
But despite the memes, Harris’ social media game is strong. Arguably much stronger than Joe Biden’s, in fact.
On Sunday, August 4, a campaign video shared on the official Kamala Harris X account showed the vice president exciting a large crowd in a similar fashion to former President Trump. Not only did Harris sound ten times more energetic than her 2020 running mate, who has since bowed out of the race, but she even echoed Republican lines.
“Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it? And when we fight, we win!” Harris said.
Hey, it’s easy to laugh at Harris, and it’s easy to share memes – but is it possible that Republicans are walking into a major loss this time around? Harris might have been the least popular vice president in American history, but who knows if those numbers were a reflection of the fact that during her time as VP, she was barely visible and only ever seemed to appear awkwardly hovering behind the president?
With Harris on the campaign trail, some Republicans pledging their support to her, and a social media game that Biden and Harris can only have dreamed of, who knows how things will work out in November…
