'A vibe I’m feeling': Here's what people are saying about Kamala Harris
CHICAGO ? Earlier this month, longtime Republican LaTrell Bell took up a friend’s invitation to attend a Harris-Walz rally in his hometown of Detroit.
He was skeptical going in ? he's a Black pro-life conservative and two-time Trump voter ? but promised to listen to what Vice President Kamala Harris and her Democratic running mate Tim Walz had to say. Harris has been drawing massive crowds ever since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed her.
“I stood back in the crowd to take it all in to get a feel of what was going on,” said Bell, 32. "There was an energy, an excitement I had not felt in quite a while for a candidate."
Now he's going to vote for Harris.
Polls suggest millions of Americans are changing their presidential voting plans with Harris currently topping the Democratic ticket, signing up for who she is and what they feel she represents.
Many voters interviewed by USA TODAY find themselves surprised to be supporting the new Democratic candidate for president this year, swept up in the excitement and "vibes" of her campaign.
“The momentum she is building is very unique and the enthusiasm she is projecting is so refreshing because our politics can often be a dark place,” said Dr. Tania Israel, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of the book, “Facing the Fracture: How to Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation.” “It's wonderful when we can see people from all walks of life, including those who have felt marginalized, feeling joy and seeing someone who might be able to uplift their communities.’’
That’s the case for Aaron Genus, 23, from Redford Township in Michigan, who describes himself as a “Black moderate conservative Republican who’s also gay.” He now plans to support Harris instead of his previous choice, Trump.
“Honest to God, I think Kamala Harris is going to win,” Genus said. “It’s just a vibe I’m feeling with her.”
Her support is simply stronger
There are at least four distinct groups of Harris supporters: The Democrats who would have voted for whoever their party put at the top of the ticket; the Democrats who weren't sure they would have bothered to vote for Biden, but are enthusiastically behind Harris; the undecideds who have come down on the side of Harris; and the former Trump supporters who are excited about someone new.
Data and anecdotes suggest Democrats liked Biden, but are more jazzed about Harris' bid.
Two recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University polls found substantially more support for Harris in August than Biden received in June among Black voters in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.
In Michigan in August, for instance, 88% of Black Democrats said they supported Harris and 79% of them were "very motivated" to vote for her. In June by contrast, 79% of Black Michigan Democrats said they supported Biden and just 51% were "very motivated" to vote for him.
Initially, Marion Cooke, 87, a registered Democrat from Philadelphia, had been disturbed by how Democrats treated Biden, pushing him aside “at the midnight hour.”
“It was a horrible way to do it,” said Cooke, a retired elementary school music teacher. Cooke said Harris, whom she didn’t know much about, had appeared as a “silent partner” during the administration.
But once she heard Harris speak and her positions on issues, Cooke became a supporter. "I respect her efforts and her goals,'' she said, adding that she trusts Harris "would be able to handle anything they throw at her.”
Salima Suswell, who founded the Pennsylvania-based Black Muslim Leadership Council, said she feels the same surge of excitement for Harris.
"I see myself reflected in her ? her accomplishments are hard-won," Suswell said.
Although her nonprofit cannot endorse candidates, its political-action arm, BMLC Fund, backed Harris earlier this month after remaining uncommitted to Biden because he refused to condemn Israel's attacks in Gaza.
Suswell said the fund believes Harris has a firmer grasp of issues facing Black Americans, including urban violence, police reform, affordable housing and maternal healthcare. Harris' willingness to call for a cease-fire in Gaza was the tipping point, she said.
“We believe democracy will have the best chance to flourish under Vice President Harris," she said.
The League of United Latin American Citizens or LULAC, the nation's oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, also endorsed Harris for president, the first time it has supported a candidate in its 95-year history.
Last month, the organization created the LULAC Adelante PAC, a political action committee.
“We’re extremely concerned that former President Trump would keep his word in his bizarro crazy world about cutting the Department of Education and initiating mass deportation,’’ said Domingo Garcia, the PAC’s chairman and LULAC’s past president. “And when we saw the details about Project 2025, we know this is not the America we believe in.”
Skylar Ross, 23, of Denver, and Shiloh Peterson, 24, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, sported “White Dudes for Harris 2024” T-shirts Monday at a protest at this week's Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
They came to talk to people for their new podcast. They expected backlash for wearing their shirts, but even some Harris haters "respectfully" shared comments with them.
Harris is “the best option when you consider the alternative is a danger to the country and American culture,” said Ross.
Some Republicans bail on Trump
Genus, the moderate conservative Republican, said he’s ready to move on from Trump.
“I’m sick of his lies. He doesn’t have a real plan for America. He says the same old tired rhetoric. The country can’t move forward with him,” Genus said. “I find it interesting (Harris is) giving speeches and having 10- to 15,000 people show up. Now she's pulling Trump-like numbers.”
Genus is running for Trustee in his “mostly Democratic” township, though he admits he likely won't win. He said he's not the only Republican ready to move on from Trump.
"There are millions who have grown sick of him and his nonsense,” Genus said. “If she can do something to bring them over and some Independents in the bag, it might be a wrap. If she focuses too much on one group, she might not make it.”
Bell said he could sense a shift once Harris replaced Biden and he stood in a long line at a local high school to be shuttled to the recent Detroit rally.
“I saw white people and Black people, blue-collar mingling with white-collar folks in the same line, different age groups, different backgrounds ? that excited me,” Bell said, adding that he talked with a man who immigrated from the United Kingdom and is now a U.S. citizen.
“We discussed politics and had a good conversation. A lifelong Republican and a lifelong Democrat. I said to myself ‘This is America,’” said Bell who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, but chose Nicki Haley in the recent state primary. “Honestly, it was a breath of fresh air.”
Bell said he was particularly disappointed when Trump selected Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate.
“Do I love all of the agenda that’s coming from the left, no I don’t,” said Bell, who describes himself as a conservative and a pro-lifer. “But I’m not comfortable putting my vote behind Trump.”
Groups say 'folks are pumped up'
Spurred by the momentum for Harris, some civic engagement groups and others ramped up their get-out-the vote efforts ahead of the Democratic National convention.
Vote.Org launched a voter registration project targeting young people, including through social media and with a “pledge to register’’ campaign for young people when they turn 18 years old.
The organization said it has registered more than 286,000 new voters, most between 18 and 34 years old, since Biden stepped down.
“We really want to capitalize on the moment to on-ramp this next generation,’’ said Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.Org. “We've used the momentum … the excitement that's happening right now to get people thinking and talking about elections for the long term and building up civic participation.”
Earlier this month, State Voices held a virtual vote rally to provide participants with information about how to engage their communities.
“We know folks are pumped up right now,’’ said Alexis Anderson-Reed, CEO of State Voices, a nonpartisan group of advocates and organizers. “I just think that this has moved people in a different way. We're just going to continue to harness that, not only over the next couple of weeks but through Election Day.”
Not everyone supports Harris' bid
There are still those who don't support Harris.
Cornel West, an independent presidential candidate, recently questioned Harris’ abilities to be the first female to lead the nation.
“It is not about your skin pigmentation or your gender. What kind of moral substance do you have?'' West asked at a rally in Chicago Monday before demonstrators marched toward the site of the Democratic National convention.
Hours later during the protest, Hassan Abdel Salam held a bright yellow sign that read “Abandon Harris.”
Abdel Salam, of Minneapolis and a former human rights professor at the University of Minnesota, helped create the site AbandonBiden24.com last fall with other activists after Biden didn’t meet their demand to call for a permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Harris reflects the Biden administration’s goals, he said.
“We want to punish her for enabling genocide and causing mass destruction in Gaza,” Abdel Salam said. “Our campaign is to ensure that on Nov. 5, the vice president will be defeated.”
Bell, the registered Republican, is willing to give Harris a chance, but wants to see more substance than style.
“You know what I want to hear, where does she stand on the economy, taxes, the day-to-day issues?” Bell said. “Show me something. Please. I want to hear her plans and her complete vision for America.”
Harris is expected to lay out details of her platform on Thursday at the Democratic National Convention. Her speech might turn off people like Bell ? or might bring more into the fold.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Voters say momentum for Kamala Harris is fueled by positive 'vibe'
