US Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a televised concession speech to the nation after a whirlwind campaign that failed to stop Republican Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuelled this campaign,” she told supporters on Wednesday at her alma mater, Howard University, a historically Black college.
Harris pledged to continue fighting for women’s rights and against gun violence and to “fight for the dignity that all people deserve”.
Harris addressed a crowd that included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, aides in President Joe Biden’s White House, and thousands of fans who listened to a soundtrack that included Beyonce’s Run the World (Girls) and Tye Tribbett’s We Gon’ Be Alright.
Her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, also joined the crowd.
Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket in July after Biden stepped aside and brought new-found enthusiasm and cash to the Democratic ticket, but struggled to overcome voters’ concerns about the economy and immigration.
She was handed a resounding loss, with Trump winning a greater share of votes across most of the country compared with his performance in 2020, and Democrats failing to secure key battleground states that decide elections.
Thousands had gathered at Howard University on Tuesday night for what they hoped would be a historic victory for the first woman to become president. They came back on Wednesday to show their support after her.
It started as a last-minute effort in February: Organisers in Michigan hoped to use the state’s Democratic primary to send a message to President Joe Biden to end his support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Six months later, Biden is no longer the Democratic presidential candidate. But the US’s “ironclad” support for the war continues. And so has the “uncommitted” movement, the protest effort born in Michigan.
Initially, the aim was to encourage primary voters across the country to cast their “uncommitted” ballots in protest of the war. But now that the primary season is over, the “uncommitted movement” has set its sights on a new platform: the Democratic National Convention.
Next week, 30 delegates from eight states, representing some 700,000 voters who cast “uncommitted” ballots, will be heading to the convention in Chicago. Though they have been denied an official platform to speak at the proceedings, they hope their presence will still send a strong message.
“We’re the first delegation ever to be representing Palestinian human rights. And I think that that’s really important. We’re a small but mighty group,” said Asma Mohammed, who organised for the “uncommitted” movement in advance of Minnesota’s primary.
Mohammed acknowledged the “uncommitted” delegates will be a minority at the convention. Still, she emphasised the voter base they represent could be decisive in November’s general election.
“There’s 30 of us, and there’s over 4,000 delegates nationally. So we’re less than 1 percent of the delegates,” she told Al Jazeera.
“But inside the convention hall, we will be representing the Palestinians that were massacred, representing the almost million voters nationwide who said that they want a ceasefire right now and that they want an arms embargo.”
Activist Natalia Latif tapes a ‘Vote Uncommitted’ sign on the speaker’s podium during an election night gathering in Dearborn, Michigan [File: Rebecca Cook/Reuters]
The group had requested for Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who has worked in Gaza, to speak at the convention. Their appeal was denied, Mohammed said.
Still, the delegates, under the banner of the Uncommitted National Movement, will hold a programme of events on the sidelines of the convention. There, they will meet with various caucuses and seek to rally other delegates pledged to Kamala Harris, the new Democratic nominee for president.
‘Fighting for human rights’
The Uncommitted National Movement has already used its position to protest against the continuing bloodshed in Gaza, where more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Earlier this month, Harris was formally designated the Democratic nominee through a virtual roll call — an online vote in which all delegates could take part.
Instead of voting for Harris, the “uncommitted” delegates nominated victims from Gaza. Mohammed was among the delegates who participated in the protest.
“I submitted my vote for Reem Badwan, a three-year-old who was murdered in an Israeli air strike in Gaza,” Mohammed said. “And I made clear my vote [in the general election] was contingent on a ceasefire and an arms embargo.”
Ahmad Awad, an “uncommitted” delegate from New Jersey, said the effort was a “symbolic way to highlight the many victims of the war”. The 29-year-old lawyer nominated Abdul Rahman Manhal, a 14-year-old killed in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp in November.
“The districts that I’m representing as an ‘uncommitted’ delegate encompasses Paterson and Clifton, New Jersey, which are home to a large Palestinian American community. It’s basically little Ramallah,” Awad said, drawing an analogy to the West Bank city.
Awad explained that his participation in the “uncommitted” movement stems from a family history of fighting and surviving human rights abuses.
“Fighting for human rights is something that’s really ingrained in my DNA,” he told Al Jazeera.
“On my father’s side, both of my grandparents were born in Palestine prior to 1948. My mother’s side is Polish. My grandfather is a survivor of Nazi slave labour camps.”
‘Resolute is the best word’
In Harris’s abrupt entrance into the presidential race, activists have seen a potential opening for a course change in US policy towards Israel.
Harris became the Democratic nominee after Biden withdrew from the race on July 21, amid concerns about his age and capacity to lead.
Whereas Biden has advanced a policy of “bear-hug diplomacy” towards Israel, some observers believe Harris has signalled her intention to take a tougher stance.
Shortly after entering the presidential race, Harris pledged to denounce the suffering of Palestinian civilians. “I will not be silent,” she said, shortly after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a brief exchange with two “uncommitted” leaders — Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh — at a campaign stop in Detroit this month, she also said she would speak with the group.
But her campaign has not set a date for the meeting, and a Harris campaign adviser doused hopes that she would support a full arms embargo on Israel.
Michael Berg, a 49-year-old uncommitted delegate from Missouri, said there had been some positive signs from Harris, although he had tempered his expectations.
“It’s hard to know where things are going,” said Berg, who named two-year-old Gaza victim Jihad Khaled Abu Amer as his vote during the virtual roll call. “I’m hoping that Vice President Harris is not as dug in on positions as President Biden seems to be.”
Still, Berg explained he and the other “uncommitted” delegates are steadfast in their mission to advocate for a ceasefire at the Democratic National Convention.
“So we are, I guess, resolute is the best word. We are going to the convention because we have a very clear mandate and mission from the people, and we’re going to do what we can.”
‘Standing with my fellow Kentuckians’
In the lead-up to the convention, the “uncommitted” movement has added delegates to its group.
Violet Olds, for instance, applied to represent the “uncommitted” segment of voters in Kentucky but was not initially involved in the movement.
Olds, a digital project manager, said that after she was selected by the party to represent uncommitted voters, she was approached by her local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, which connected her to the national protest movement.
“I actually reached out and found ways to communicate with other Kentucky voters to find out why they voted uncommitted and how I can represent their voices at the convention,” the 41-year-old told Al Jazeera.
“And it all comes down to basically Gaza and Palestine. So I’m standing with my fellow Kentuckians and with Palestinians.”
During the roll call, Olds named Mohammad Bhar, a 24-year-old Palestinian man with Down syndrome who died after being mauled by an Israeli military dog in his home in Shujayea in Gaza.
“I am autistic, and so that means that I represent a whole different class of people than I think the Democratic Party is usually used to representing, and my son is autistic, as well,” Olds said. “So when I heard Mohammad’s story, it really, really, really hit home.”
Asma Mohammed, an activist with Uncommitted Minnesota, addresses media in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Stephen Maturen/AFP]
Others, like Inga Gibson, a delegate from Hawaii, have long been part of the Palestinian solidarity movement. Nearly 30 percent of voters in Hawaii’s Democratic primary cast their ballot for “uncommitted”, the largest proportion of any state. Seven of the island state’s 22 delegates are “uncommitted”.
Gibson attributed the turnout to Hawaii’s “own history of settler colonialism”.
“A lot of native Hawaiians within the Palestinian freedom movement have drawn on that parallel,” she explained.
Gibson, a 52-year-old environmental policy consultant, said that the relatively small size of the “uncommitted” delegation does not reflect wider sentiment against US support for Israel.
Polls have repeatedly shown widespread disapproval of Israel’s actions among Democrats. Experts say the support for Israel could disadvantage Democrats in several key battleground states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“I do not feel that our movement, by any means, is in the minority, even if our delegates are, per se, in the minority compared to 4,000 others,” said Gibson. She named Gaza victim Ruba Yasser Nawas, a 22-year-old software engineer, during the roll call vote.
“Everything that we are asking for is completely mainstream.”
‘Cannot just make this week a celebration’
June Rose, the sole “uncommitted” delegate from Rhode Island, also said it was incorrect to assume the delegation members come from the fringes of the Democratic Party.
“We are Democratic professionals. I’m the chief of staff of the Providence City Council. I’ve made my career helping to elect Democrats and defeat Republicans who pose incredible risk to the future of our country,” the 29-year-old told Al Jazeera.
“But my relationship with the party will never supersede my relationship with my values, and in this case, my values and my party are in direct conflict.”
Rose named Eileen Abu Odeh, a toddler killed with her family in an Israeli air raid in Gaza, during the roll call. They explained the delegation’s presence at the Democratic National Convention can serve as a gut check for the party, as it prepares to chart a course forward on foreign policy.
“Our party cannot just make this week a celebration, and I think that that’s the tone that many in our party want to take,” Rose said. “But that celebration would be on the graves of innocent children who’ve been slaughtered.”
As Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris overtakes her Republican opponent Donald Trump in opinion polls – she is now leading in five crucial swing states – experts warn she will face “a heavy road” when it comes to passing economic legislation should she become the next president of the United States.
The year 2025 will be one filled with political negotiations as several significant pieces of economic legislation are set to expire, including tax cuts for individuals under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the reinstatement of the nation’s debt limit, which was suspended last year.
But with voters choosing members of both houses of the US Congress – all of the lower House of Representatives and a third of the upper chamber, the Senate – in November as well, Harris’s ability to push through any legislation will depend on how Democrats perform in those elections.
“The House is up for grabs, but if the Senate is Republican – a likely outcome – Harris will have a heavy road in getting any legislation passed,” Gary Clyde Hufbauer, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Al Jazeera.
Among those major pieces of legislation are the individual provisions under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which are due to expire at the end of next year when they will revert to the levels of a 2016 law.
The 2017 law, which was signed by Donald Trump, provided dramatic tax breaks to US corporations while families at all income levels saw a drop in income tax from 2018 with the largest benefits going to the rich.
“If Harris wants to extend any of the provisions on the individual side or make them more favourable to lower-income people, she will have to contend with the Senate. That will be a huge horse trade,” Hufbauer explained.
There will also be negotiations on the US government’s debt limit, including the perennial challenges of avoiding a government shutdown, said Bernard Yaros, lead US economist at Oxford Economics.
“In the low probability that Democrats fully sweep the elections, we don’t expect Harris’s economic agenda to change. She’s running on a platform of continuity, and she’s going to want to implement all the Build Back Better agenda that didn’t get enacted,” such as the caregiving and family support policies, Yaros told Al Jazeera. “We don’t see much difference between her and [incumbent President Joe] Biden’s policies. She will want to run to finish the job.”
‘Pivot to the centre’
Harris’s economic views and policies are so far largely unknown. While Trump is trying to seize on her statements before the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries when she had positioned herself on the left as she tried to win the ticket to be her party’s nominee, economists have largely dismissed those statements.
Her campaign in “2020 was under different circumstances,” Yaros told Al Jazeera. “Now she’s in a general election, so she has to pivot to the centre. She has to appeal to moderates in swing states who will not be enthused by a 35 percent tax rate, for instance,” Yaros said referring to Harris’s 2020 stance when she suggested hiking the corporate tax rate to 35 percent from the current 21 percent.
Medicare for All is another policy that the Trump campaign has seized upon to discredit Harris as a viable candidate for the top job but, again, one that economists are not worried about. “I wouldn’t take that seriously,” Yaros said. “She needs to pivot to the centre.”
The one thing that could hurt her chances is inflation. Even though the consumer price index is at 2.9 percent and finally within spitting distance of the US Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent, compared with historic highs of 9.1 percent in June 2022, actual prices are still substantially higher than before the pandemic.
‘Carrying the baggage’ of inflation
“Her approval rating has been very co-related with Biden’s on inflation and fell like Biden’s in 2022 during high inflation,” Yaros said. “The Democrats and she will still carry that baggage. But now that people are starting to know her more, she’s now more out and front. If her approval rating is on the rise, voters may not penalise her for what happened under the Biden presidency in terms of inflation.”
Hufbauer added: “Inflation, immigration are just killer issues for Democrats, and I don’t think Harris could escape those.”
Harris’s “advantage is that she doesn’t have much of a record in the economic sphere, so that gives her freedom to manoeuvre and do things”, Hufbauer said. These could include political efforts like bringing down petrol prices by releasing US reserves in the run-up to the elections, capping rent hikes at 5 percent and lambasting everybody’s pet peeve – corporate greed.
Prices have gone up and “young people are really unhappy” because house prices have gone up 30 percent to 40 percent and that’s “way more than wages”, Hufbauer pointed out. He added that while Harris cannot really bring down those prices, she can offer sympathy and be forward-looking by addressing issues such as how to tackle the situation using rent control, help for new families coming into the housing market with tax deductions, “things that look like she’s actually addressing that”, Hufbauer said.
On Thursday, the Reuters news agency reported that Harris would announce 3 million new housing units in a speech on Friday and outline new tax incentives for builders who construct properties for first-time homebuyers.
Trade, another big economic issue
Trump has proposed imposing a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on all imported goods and levies of 60 percent or higher on Chinese imports, an idea derided by economists. “That would be a shock to the world system,” Hufbauer warned. Biden, for his part, has kept many of Trump’s tariffs in place and added targeted ones.
Businesses typically pass higher tariffs on to their customers, raising prices for consumers. That could also affect businesses’ decisions about how and where to invest.
The one area that could really hurt Harris is an expanded war in the Middle East as that will also stoke inflation and send prices skyrocketing again.
“If the US gets on more of a war footing, that’s her danger point on inflation,” Hufbauer said.
