New problems for Kamala Harris. Less than twenty-four hours after the truckers’ union failed to endorse her, the vice president was denied the support of the Uncommitted National Movement: we are talking about a grouping of the pro-Palestinian American left, which judges the Biden-Harris administration as too favorable to Israel. “The vice president’s reluctance Harris to change unconditional gun policy or even make a clear statement in support of respecting current U.S. and international human rights laws has made it impossible for us to support her,” reads a statement from the movement, which also showed disappointment that the Democratic candidate accepted the endorsement of the former American vice president, Dick Cheney.
Of course, the movement also expressed itself against Donald Trump and other minor candidates. The fact remains that the announcement represents a problem above all for the Harris. As mentioned, this organized group is active in the left wing of the American Democratic Party. These are therefore voters who would never have voted for a Republican Party candidate anyway. Harrison the other hand, can no longer afford defections to the left, if she wants to win in November. Otherwise, the risk for her is to end up like Hillary Clinton who, in 2016, lost the elections because a handful of voters Bernie Sanders voted for Trump instead of for her in key states. Not only that. The Clinton In particular, he saw Wisconsin slip away also because of Jill Stein: a far-left candidate who, in that state, sucked away precious votes from her.
After all, the Harris she has been perfectly clear about this problem since the beginning. If she had had the courage and vision, she could have tried to remedy it, shuffling the cards and aiming for the center, to make the pro-PAL far left irrelevant. Unfortunately for her, she instead chose to court her, in the hope of gaining her sympathy. A strategy that not only did not achieve the desired objective but that, now, could create great difficulties for her.
In July, the Harrisdespite being President of the Senate, did not attend the speech given by Benjamin Netanyahu before the joint chambers of the U.S. Congress. In early August, he then chose as vice Tim Walz rather than Josh Shapiroeven though the second one was much more capable than the first one. Not only that. Opting for Shapirothe Harris would almost certainly have had a crucial state like Pennsylvania as a dowry. Furthermore, being more to the right, Shapiro could have defused criticism from Republicans who tend to paint the vice president as a Marxist. Nonetheless, the Harris has turned on Walz. And he did it precisely so as not to irritate pro-Palestinians, given that Shapiro, in addition to being Jewish, was also a courageous critic of the pro-Palestinian protests in American universities.
Yet, despite these flattery, the pro-Palestinian world has continued to have a critical attitude towards Harris, often interrupting her rallies and holding some protests during the Democratic Convention in Chicago last August. And we arrive at the announcement a few hours ago which, as mentioned, came to add to the lack of endorsement of the truckers’ union: a union that, in the last 24 years, had always given its support to the Democratic presidential candidates. The two things seem unrelated, but they are only partially so. Yes, because both this union and the Uncommitted National Movement are particularly influential in the Rust Belt states, where the electoral situation appears fundamentally in the balance.
Pro Pals are worth about 100,000 votes in Michigan, 60,000 in Pennsylvania and almost 50,000 in Wisconsin. Even in Georgia, therefore in the Sun Belt, these voters can make the difference with their package of 6,000 votes. Let us remember that, in 2020, Joe Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes, and Georgia by 10,000 votes. He then prevailed in Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes, and Michigan by 154,000. In short, despite being a minority, the pro-PAL members of the Uncommitted National Movement could create significant problems for the candidacy of Harris: problems that would be added to other issues that the interested party must face in various key states (from the coldness of Catholics in Pennsylvania to that of blue-collar workers in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania itself).
Harris’ strategy of courting the far-left pro-Palestinian movement does not appear to have worked. Not only did she refuse to endorse her, but her choice Walz as vice presidential candidate has made the Democratic candidate more vulnerable to accusations of radicalism leveled by the Republican Party, with the result that, according to some polls, nearly half of Americans now consider her “very liberal.” The game remains open, let’s be clear. But the structural difficulties for Harris, especially in the Rust Belt, are increasing.
