Kamala Harris' Speech for the Ages
Kamala Harris' Speech for the Ages
Kamala Harris gave a truly transformative speech at the Arizona border yesterday, rising to meet the moment with a concise, aspirational, and comprehensive message. Its time to start trusting her.
The symbolism of the border wall is significant. It’s the physical embodiment of where we begin, who we are and who we are not. For many its a sign of safety, order and the most basic function of the federal government. It's why Republicans make annual pilgrimages to take photo ops, peer through binoculars, and dehumanize some of the most desperate people on earth for political gain. It is the defining illustration of Trumpism. Harris’s stance, markedly different from her Democratic predecessors, symbolizes that she will cede no ground on border security to the MAGA hordes. Much like reclaiming the American flag, and taunting chants of “USA! USA!” from the floor of the Democratic convention, Harris is proving she came to win and isn’t afraid to use the GOP playbook to do it.
This is a demonstrably different campaign than we have seen from any Democrat. Ever.
More importantly, Harris is closing the gap between her and Trump with voters regarding border security. And guess what? The gap among Latino voters is narrowing too. As Harris aggressively drives the border security narrative, her previous loss of support from Latino voters is beginning to reverse. That’s extremely important as we enter the final leg of this campaign, especially since some voices on the inside, who have made a career out of trying to define the Latino base, will undoubtedly try to undermine her for this shift.
These voices are mistaken. They were wrong in 2014, 2016, 2020, and 2022, and they are wrong now.
Kamala Harris is right. Now is the time to stay focused, disciplined, and on message. It’s time to trust her.
This debate is deeply personal for me. It’s one I have to fight back my own bias for and let my professional objective advisor take the lead.
One of my fondest memories of my son is from a day when he was a junior in high school. One Saturday morning, he came to me and asked if we could talk. Recognizing that this was something important, I said “Sure” and focused my full attention on him.
He expressed his desire to join a trip with his Catholic school - a week-long trip to the Arizona border to help the plight of refugees and undocumented individuals struggling for a better life. The program would introduce him to the legal system, law enforcement, detention facilities, and the reality of hiking through the desert to leave fresh water and supplies for desperate human beings risking their lives, their safety, and their families to escape poverty, violence, and chaos.
For decades, I have worked with various coalitions to advocate at both the federal and state levels to fix our sorrowfully broken immigration system. I have devoted thousands of hours, pro bono, in the hopes of finding a better pathway for the least among us seeking refuge in this country.
I am grateful to this day that my son noticed this commitment. Perhaps the greatest gift I can give him is the ingrained drive to fight for those who can not fight for themselves.
When I was his age, I remember the signing of the Simpson Mazzoli bill, known as the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, by my political hero, Ronald Reagan. His support of that extraordinary legislation left a lasting impression on me. It is one of the reasons I revere him.
Since then, the landscape of immigration reform has changed significantly, yet very little has been accomplished. I blame both political parties for this ongoing dysfunction because both parties benefit politically from its continuance. Let me say that again - BOTH political parties are to blame.
I'm not going to drop any names, but I've met with well-known Democrats who have told me there was no way they would put themselves or the party in the way of spending political capital to fix the problem. As for the Republican's intransigence, well…that speaks for itself.
For almost four decades, we have endured partisan trench warfare, with no side making significant ground - until recently.
The political climate shifted in the past four years for two reasons, and I’m gonna be blunt about it - The Democrats lost the battle.
First, the border crisis, and yes it was a crisis, began almost immediately after Joe Biden took office. Biden, perhaps reeling from the sting of Obama’s moniker “The Deporter in Chief” while he was Vice-President, was elected on a progressive border security platform, promising not to build “another inch of border wall.”
Let's be frank here. White Democratic candidates have been particularly sensitive to the charges of racism or bigotry, and that, combined with the toxic rhetoric of Donald Trump, compelled Biden to not just soften the rhetoric Trump had normalized, but turn it completely in the opposite direction.
But there was also a second reason. One that I often write and speak about and will continue to do so, as we fumble along this transformative moment in our political history. Latino voters have changed and changed dramatically.
As much as I yearn for a straightforward solution to placate my 15-year-old sensibilities and those of my then 15-year-old son, I know as a political professional that facts, data, evidence, and common sense surrounding the political system must dictate the approach.
For decades, immigration reform advocates, some enterprising Latino political consultants, and a dubious media have let a false narrative define this debate. Democrats have tried in vain to tie border security to immigration reform but never offered any credible border security proposals. As a result, immigration reform morphed into a racial litmus test for Democrats, despite zero evidence supporting this narrative among the Latino community.
Democrats, lacking any border security specifics, have been labeled as the party of “Open Borders” by the Republicans. Worse yet, they were led to this misguided belief that this position would somehow secure Latino voter support. This was never going to materialize the kind of support they hoped, but there are few things more motivating for Democrats than being seen as unsupportive of minority communities.
By 2020, this absurd strategy became untenable. Democrats didn’t just lose a point or two, they experienced a massive 8-point shift to Donald Trump, jeopardizing Biden’s election. To be clear, Biden nearly lost the 2020 election due to a historic decline in Latino support by following the advice of professional Latino consultants in large part by advocating for a more progressive stance on immigration and ignoring border security altogether.
As Biden's campaign faltered and public polls revealed Trump gaining traction with Latino voters, alarm bells sounded. Ultimately, Biden’s campaign’s leadership had to dismiss the “racial sensitivities” demanded by some who continued doubling down on their position that Democrats continue leftward in their ethnic appeals to Latinos on immigration.
Polling continued to indicate that Latino voters were moving markedly to the right on border security, including supporting Texas Governor Greg Abbott's controversial policy of transporting undocumented immigrants by plane to blue states. Other polls, including one from Axios in April 2024, reported high levels (42%) of Latino support for Trump's ‘mass deportations’ policy. Reality was not meshing with the bad advice Biden was getting.
By Spring it became clear that the Biden campaign had been misled resulting in a massive shift away from the policies that promised a repeat of the disastrous results in 2016 and 2020. Biden issued an executive action that effectively shut down the border by denying most asylum claims. New polling from ABC News showed that 69% of Latinos supported the executive action nearly matching 70% of all voters.
Kamala Harris stepped on the gas as she became the presumptive nominee weeks later, launching her first campaign ad to dramatically enhance that narrative. Harris began redefining the Democratic Party's entire stance on border security, and Latinos responded positively, narrowing the gap Biden lost.
However, old habits die hard in politics. Financial contracts, White House invitations, and relationships built on misguided ideas can impede progress.
Columns continue to circulate driving the failed narrative that immigration reform is a central issue for Latinos. It is not. It never has been. Pew Research just released poll results indicating it's not even an intense issue for Latinos backing Kamala Harris. The suggestion that “Latinos really want immigration reform and border security” or “Latinos will respond if you talk about Mass Deportations” subtly undermines Harris and her campaign. This narrative is not only counterproductive, it's harmful to her electoral prospects and fundamentally incorrect in a campaign context. Protecting personal interests should not be the rationale for leaking damaging stories about your party’s nominee, especially when facing a very close election with the fate of democracy hanging in the balance.
There is no evidence that coupling border security to immigration reform is effective. There is evidence that it is not a priority for Latino voters. There is also no justification for diluting the strong message Harris needs to drive on border security. None.
In fact, as noted above Pew research, the longest operating and best objective standard of Latino public opinion shows that border security is a more significant concern for Latino voters supporting Trump than Harris. Trump's share of the Latino vote has been increasing over the past eight years, making it critical for Harris to reclaim that support. These are the voters Republicans have been winning since the 2012 election. They are the Latinos responding to the Axios poll, and virtually every national poll, and maintain historically high levels for Trump at the current moment.
Pew’s findings highlight the priorities for Latino Voters. For Trump’s Latino supporters, the economy (93%), violent crime (73%), and immigration (71%) are the three most-cited issues important to their vote. By contrast, for Latinos who back Harris, the economy (80%), health care (78%), and gun policy (66%) are the three top issues. Notably, immigration was cited by 51% of Harris Latino voters as important for their vote for president – the second-lowest share among the 10 issues asked about in the survey.”
All of this is to say that Kamala Harris is on the right path. A Black woman from California knows how to navigate the complexities of race in politics - shocker I know. She will face pressure from the Left demanding she include even more immigration reform elements in her speeches, as if she's not going to go there as President anyway. For those who would suggest that this is just the advice of a Republican consultant, I would point you to James Carville who has loudly been admonishing these same voices in his own party for the exact same reasons.
She's closing the gap with Latinos in the polls despite the voices still claiming that Latinos favor more progressive policies.
It’s time to stop demanding more of her.
It's time to stop offering her bad advice.
It’s time to let her instincts guide her out of the mess some of these Democratic strategists have created.
It's time to trust Kamala Harris.
The one thing I know about politics is that whenever an issue becomes a political football, there will be no more room for objective analysis and rational policy by either party. Things will get worse before they get better -- if they ever do. Until, maybe, someday, the situation is so desperate and a true leader rises who is able to cast the issue in an entirely new light, the ice jam breaks, and the river of history flows again.
Along with Harris, I include you and other key Never Trumpers as true leaders who have risen to this desperate moment we are in. You were there before Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, and many others who are (thankfully) now standing up.
I often ask myself if I would have had the integrity to do what you have done. For example, suppose former Resistance hero Michael Avenatti had been born under the shield of wealth like Trump, or been a shade less reckless and not ended up in jail. Having observed Avenatti carefully, I believe he would have been the Democratic version of Trump in terms of demagoguery, corruption, and potential to become an autocrat. Now, suppose Avenatti had been the Democratic nominee instead of Clinton in 2016, and Jeb Bush had been the Republican nominee instead of Trump. With the Supreme Court in the balance, what choice would I have made? I like to think of myself as a principled person, and try to be one, but ... Hopefully, after a first, disastrous Avenatti term I would have woken up, but I might have kept telling myself how dangerous the GOP candidate was, just like all the Republicans now calling Harris a radical Leftist now.
Which is a long-winded way of saying you're one of my heroes, Mike!
This is powerful, Mike. Like you, on a personal level I’m very pro-immigration. I’ll never forget when Trump rescinded DACA. I was in a room with friends who are on DACA and had family members in the program. They were huddled in the dark crying and scared while watching the news reports. I was so enraged. Dreamers did everything right and the US Government went back on their word. It’s the moment that turned me from just being informed to actually being involved. I started volunteering on campaigns (shout out to Lauren Underwood), I became a Democratic Party Precinct Committeeperson, knocked doors, wrote endless letters to my local newspapers, and even marched.
It’s difficult but essential to separate border security from immigration reform like you said Mike. They are two separate things. And if we want to win this election to save democracy the country needs to know how strong Harris is on the border.
This obsession my fellow Democrats have gotten with identity politics has caused us to lose voters across the board. Racism is a problem for sure. This idea though that we could make everything about race, ignore class struggle, accuse millions of gettable voters that they’re racist, and not face electoral consequences was always shortsighted. Democrats ended up treating latino voters as foreigners rather than as Americans who also care about wages, cost of living, housing, etc.
Great article, Mike.