Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Fayetteville, N.C., on July 18, 2024. (Cornell Watson for The Washington Post)
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — As President Joe Biden convalesced from COVID and battled the biggest political crisis of his presidency Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared before a roaring crowd of supporters in North Carolina in what amounted to an audition for the role of Democratic nominee for president.
Biden has struggled to quash Democratic doubts about his ability to beat former President Donald Trump ever since a stumbling performance in last month’s presidential debate. Recent polls suggest that large percentages of Democrats think Biden should step aside, and Democratic calls for him to exit the race resumed Wednesday after a brief pause following a shooting at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Harris’ appearance also marked a return to normal campaigning. The Biden campaign resumed airing television ads Wednesday after a brief pause, and Harris was clearly in campaign mode at Westover High School on Thursday afternoon, where the crowd, which campaign officials estimated numbered 500, burst into cheers as she took a dig at Trump’s newly announced running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio).
“If you claim to stand for unity, you need to do more than just say the word,” she said. “You cannot claim you stand for unity if you are pushing for an agenda that deprives whole groups of Americans of freedoms, opportunities and dignity. … You cannot claim to be for unity if you try to overturn a free and fair election.”
The crowd in this heavily military city near Fort Liberty, the U.S. military installation previously known as Fort Bragg, cheered as she thanked service members and their families, then reacted almost in unison to each remark Harris made, grumbling in agreement with every attack on the Trump-Vance ticket, and responding with emphatic cheers to pro-Biden-Harris comments.
Rally attendees interviewed by The Washington Post said they wanted Biden to remain at the top of the Democratic ticket, but added that they would be willing — or even eager — to vote for Harris.
“I admit the polling does not look great … but I am 69 years old and I haven’t seen anybody get as much accomplished in my lifetime,” said Jesse Goslen, the president of the senior Democrats in Franklin County. “In a way it would be a great loss if he does step aside, but at the same time we have to beat Trump.”
“But if he does step aside, it has to be her. It would be a really bad look if it was anyone else. … and if it is her, Roy Cooper would be a great vice president,” Goslen added, referring to North Carolina’s governor, who introduced Harris at the rally.
Others said they feared that Biden dropping out of the race would signal weakness and hand the election to Trump, who is riding on a wave of adoration from many in his base after what is being investigated as an attempted assassination.
“She has been president-ready since day one,” said Marvin Keller, 66, who said that while he is apprehensive about who was going to be representing the party come November, Harris’ performance reassured him that she would be a strong nominee if called upon.
Age is the elephant in the room in the 2024 election, said Veronica Jones, a county commissioner in North Carolina.
“She definitely delivered it home and made it very clear that she could step in at any time, if [Biden] gets sick or whatever ends up happening,” Jones said. “If anything were to happen to him, she would make a wonderful president.”
Harris, a former senator and state attorney general from California, has toured multiple swing states this week. She made a more pronounced effort to draw on her personal background and identity at campaign events in Pennsylvania and Michigan in a bid to portray the strength of the embattled Biden-Harris ticket.
Although the tour has convinced some voters that she could be a formidable nominee in her own right, she has been careful to always talk up the president’s policy accomplishments and celebrate his background.
“We know whose side our President, Joe Biden, is on: he grew up in a working-class family in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and he has never forgotten where he came from,” she said Thursday, contrasting him to Vance, whose speeches about his own backstory she described as “compelling,” but not quite “the whole story.”
With the national attention firmly fixed on the divisions within the Democratic Party and Biden’s competence, the campaign is desperately trying to swing the conversation back toward the difference in values and policies between the two tickets — particularly surrounding reproductive rights, which Harris has focused on in events all week.
“North Carolina, I think it is clear. If Donald Trump were to win in November, he would continue to sell out working families. He would continue to attack reproductive freedom, and he will continue to undermine our democracy,” Harris said as she concluded her speech.
As she asked the crowd to choose between living in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or chaos, fear and hate, the crowd of her fans — some of them new — cheered.
The Democrats in the audience seemed thrilled with her performance. But with the administration under intense pressure to respond to questions about Biden’s fitness, Harris chose not to speak with any of the reporters traveling with her to North Carolina on Thursday — a departure from her normal routine.
