Kamala Harris fighting to "earn everyone's vote" in leadup to Nov. 5 election
In the final countdown to the election, Vice President Kamala Harris is defending her record and making her case for the presidency while dealing with unrelenting attacks from former President Donald Trump.
The Democratic Party rallied around Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, after President Biden dropped his reelection bid in July. Supporters across the country responded with relief and optimism in the early days of Harris' candidacy, but the race remains extremely close.
"I take it seriously that I have to earn everyone's vote," Harris said. "This is an election for president of the United States. No one should be able to take for granted that they can just declare themselves a candidate and automatically receive support. You have to earn it. And that's what I intend to do."
A quarter of registered voters in a recent poll said they need to learn more about Harris, even though she's been vice president for nearly four years and has been on the national stage for even longer. Critics say the reason so many voters don't have a clear picture of Harris is because she's changed her position on so many issues. She was against fracking, but now supports it; she supported looser immigration policies, but is now in favor of tougher restrictions; she was for Medicare for all, but now she's not.
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Harris defended her evolution, saying it reflects her experience as vice president seeking common ground.
"What the American people do want is that we have leaders who can build consensus," she said. "Where we can figure out compromise and understand it's not a bad thing, as long as you don't compromise your values, to find common-sense solutions. And that has been my approach."
Building that consensus also involves bridging the gap in a politically divided America.
"I believe that the people of America want a leader who's not trying to divide us and demean," Harris said. "I believe that the American people recognize that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it's based on who you lift up."
Late last week, Harris was in Ripon, Wisconsin — the 1854 birthplace of the Republican Party. She was joined by staunch conservative and former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney at a rally plastered with "country over party" banners.
"I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris," Cheney said to applause at the rally.
As vice chair of the House January 6th committee, Cheney became one of Trump's fiercest critics.
"I hope that if you had said to me four years ago, 'Our constitution is going to be under threat and it's going to be crucial for the parties to come together and to support Vice President Harris because she'll defend the rule of law,' I know I would've said, 'That's exactly what I'll do,'" Cheney said.