'We have to save America': GOP strategist claims 'suburban moms' are 'afraid' of Harris

Within days of Vice President Kamala Harris announcing she would seek the presidency this November, Geri Jannarone said her phone buzzed nonstop from women reaching out to find ways to get involved.

Jannarone is the head of Emerge New Jersey, an organization that aims to increase the number of Democratic women in public office. She said the surge in interest in the race for the White House didn’t just come from politically active women, but also from those who have never labeled themselves as political people, she said.

“We’ve never seen anything like it, not since the Obama campaign,” said Jannarone. “It’s really exciting and important to have someone like Kamala at the very top because it is so representative of who New Jersey is, who we are, and what makes us.”

Jannarone is one of the many Democrats celebrating their party’s new ticket, with Harris at the top and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Jannarone believes Harris as the party’s standard-bearer will inspire more women to run for office, and she’s seen a new excitement over the campaign in communities of color and among younger voters.

Some polling backs her up. An Aug. 4 CBS News poll found younger and Black voters are more likely to go to the polls now that Harris is the nominee. The poll says 74% of Black registered voters say they will definitely vote, compared to 58% in July, when President Biden was still planning to seek reelection.

Marilyn Davis of public affairs firm MDD Connections said her 20-year-old niece, who wasn’t planning to vote for Biden in part because of his failed attempt to fully forgive student loans, is eager to campaign for Harris, Davis said.

“I’m like, ‘What? In a nanosecond, you’re not only ready to support the vice president, but actually go out on the campaign trail, which you’ve never done in your life,’” Davis said. “So there is absolutely so much excitement about her candidacy.”

Davis previously worked with the Democratic National Committee during Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Now, she’s helping organize virtual fundraisers for Harris, create county-level teams to boost her campaign, and shift some resources over to Pennsylvania.

Harris’ campaign may resonate with women not just because some want to see a woman win the White House but because of how front of mind reproductive rights is in this election, Jannarone said. She also noted former President Donald Trump “showed us who he is again” after telling a group of Black journalists last week that Harris “happened to turn Black” — Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother who both immigrated to America — and that undocumented immigrants are “taking Black jobs.”

Those comments “absolutely offended” communities of color, said Davis. And, she added, who is Trump to define someone’s race?

Republicans have blasted Harris’ promotion to the top of the Democratic Party’s ticket as one that disenfranchised 14 million primary voters who cast their ballots for Biden.

Jeanette Hoffman, a Republican public affairs strategist, said New Jersey Republicans are happy to have women as their party’s leaders, noting that New Jersey’s only woman governor, Christine Todd Whitman, is a Republican and former Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno was the Republican nominee for governor in 2017 (Whitman this week endorsed Harris over Trump).

But Hoffman added Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, isn’t doing any favors to gain support from voters, pointing to comments he made in a 2021 Fox News interview saying that people without children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the nation.

“Republicans always need to work harder to appeal to women voters, and J.D. Vance and his ‘childless cat women’ comments certainly isn’t helping that mission,” she said.

The CBS News poll also showed a third of Republicans are more motivated to vote now that Harris will be Trump’s opponent. Christine Fano, who chairs the Republican Committee of Montville Township, said Harris’ “leftist” policies and Walz’s “extreme” views have suburban moms afraid of what a Harris presidency would look like.

“This is basically, it’s a call — we have to save America,” she said.

Fano said she doesn’t believe suburban moms are connecting with Harris. People want to hear more about kitchen table issues, she said, like the skyrocketing cost of groceries, gasoline, and housing.

“They don’t buy what she’s selling. They feel as though she’s a phony,” Fano said. “She didn’t really have any accomplishments before she became vice president. I think many women believe it’s wonderful someone who is in leadership be a woman, but she really has to have merit.”

Amid Democratic excitement for the new ticket — Davis said she joined a Zoom call with tens of thousands of Black women that was organized within hours of Harris’ campaign launch — some Democrats remain trepidatious.

Earlier this month, former Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer joined a similar Zoom call for South Asians supporting Harris. She said numerous messages in the chat asked what Harris would do to bring a cease-fire in Gaza and how her approach to the war in Gaza would be different than Biden’s.

Jaffer said it’s “definitely powerful” to have a Black and South Asian woman on a major-party ticket, but said she and others remain “cautiously optimistic.” While Arab American communities are relieved that Biden isn’t seeking reelection, families are also grappling with losing dozens of members amid the war, she said.

Jaffer wants to see more outreach from the Harris campaign to Muslim communities and Arab Americans in New Jersey. With their priorities and perspectives heard, the Harris campaign would have a “winning strategy,” she said.

“We have to be consistent as Democrats — if we say that we believe in equality, and that every person’s life is valuable and deserves dignity and safety, that has to apply in our international endeavors as well,” she said.

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