Joe Biden is out of the 2024 presidential race, and the Democratic Party already seems to be coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris as the pick to replace him at the top of the ticket and take on Donald Trump.
Harris, a former senator and California attorney general, made a bid for the presidency once before in 2020, but lost to Biden in the Democratic primary. In the aftermath of Biden’s resignation from the race, one of Harris’ 2019 ads attacking Trump has gone viral, with commentators pointing to it as an example of what voters may be getting as she goes head-to-head with the former president. Democratic delegates who will decide the nomination are taking notice.
The ad, written more than five years ago, still feels like a fresh, timely attack against Trump. “I prosecuted sex predators. Trump is one. I shut down for-profit scam colleges. He ran one. I held big banks accountable. He’s owned by them. I’m not just prepared to take on Trump, I’m prepared to beat him,” the post’s caption reads.
“He’s a world leader in temper tantrums, she never loses her cool,” the video says of the two then-candidates. “She prosecuted sex predators, he is one.” The attack has taken on new resonance after Trump was found liable for sexual battery and defamation in a 2023 civil rape lawsuit brought against him by author E. Jean Carroll.
“He’s tearing us apart, she’ll bring us together,” the ad continues. “This is Trump, and in every possible way, [Harris] is the anti-Trump.”
Jennifer Lazslo Mizrahi, a Democratic delegate from Maryland, says she and other delegates, many of whom are lining up behind Harris, have been “been really, really impressed with what she offers, and how she’s going about it. She’s just very strong.”
Mizrahi cited the old Harris ad when speaking about her support, saying it shows “the contrast between her and Donald Trump. I think it’s just very timely.”
Mizrahi and other delegates will be casting their votes for a nominee at the Democratic National Convention in August — or sooner if the Democratic National Committee decides to move forward with plans to hold a virtual vote in the coming weeks. Given the number of prominent endorsements Harris is racking up as the party moves to unify around her, it seems exceedingly likely that she will be the nominee.