Kamala Goes To The Border

Kamala Harris trip to the border marks a tectonic generational change in Democrats approach to Latino voters. Will the gambit work?

Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash

Last week, while on my book tour for “The Latino Century,” I spoke to a class of Latino students at Fullerton College in Orange County, California. As I neared the end of my talk, I expressed that I wanted to extend the question-and-answer portion, as there was clearly strong interest from the students. One young man seemed eager to ask a question, so I called on him first.

“Mr. Madrid, how can you look back at your career and be so lenient on George W. Bush, when his policies laid the foundation for what the Republican Party has become today?” he asked.

I paused to consider the question. While it wasn’t new, it proved an opportunity to reflect on how both parties have evolved since the 2000 election. George W Bush was ushering in a new era of GOP politics at the time that was far more inclusive, viewing Latinos as central to his vision of a new America and a new GOP.

“I’ll answer that question by putting things in the context of what his policies meant for Latinos. Kamala Harris is running a campaign on border security that is far to the right of George W. Bush’s campaign…in fact, it’s so far right I would go so far as to say that George W Bush would renounce a politician advocating for the border security platform Kamala Harris is running on. Today's Democratic nominee for President is running on a border security platform that George W Bush would have decried as un-American,” I said.

Supporting border security measures is not inherently un-American; in fact, it is one of the essential functions of a sovereign nation’s government. However, I have no doubt that if a Republican were advocating for this platform, Democrats would likely be marching in the streets, denouncing it as racist.

Unlike previous Democratic nominees, Harris is leaning into border security, making it central to her campaign and heading to Arizona this week to visit the Southern border. She will undoubtedly take photos alongside law enforcement and assert that she is the only candidate who has prosecuted international gangs along with drug and human traffickers. In Trump phraseology, this could be stated as “...drug dealers, rapists, and some I suppose are very fine people…”. 

Harris' first political ad, titled “Tougher,” emphasized her push for thousands of new law enforcement officers which The Democratic nominee outlines in her official border security policy position inspired by a conservative Republican plan (The Lankford bill). And it’s not just the Harris campaign that flipped positions on border security. President Biden signed an executive order that essentially shut down the border by denying virtually all asylum claims, and House Democrats have established a Border Security Conference to advocate for stronger provisions to prevent illegal entries.

This is not your father’s Democratic Party.

Kamala Harris is leading her party in a completely new direction, one which it can not likely reverse course on. Will it work? Are Democrats courting long-term disaster if Harris loses? What if Trump still gets more Latino votes in November as he seems to be at the moment?