Boasting of Goldman Sachs’ and Dick Cheney’s approval will not win over the working-class voters she needs.
The most consequential moment of the presidential debate on 10 September came towards the middle of the exchange, when Donald Trump was baited into recontesting the outcome of the 2020 election – and tripling down on the false claim that he won that contest. Kamala Harris responded with the most lethal barb of the night: “Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people, so let’s be clear about that, and clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that.”
The second most consequential moment – easier to miss and, indeed, overlooked by most pundits – came towards the beginning, when Harris cited the approval of Goldman Sachs as proof that her economic plans are sound.
The first moment perfectly captured why Harris won the debate. The second one could explain why she is still having trouble winning over working-class voters, and why the new centrism she’s pitching is focused on the wrong “centre.”
In this debate, Harris positioned herself as the voice of reason and decency in contrast to Trump’s unrelenting claims of election fraud. Yet, her move to align with Wall Street’s approval inadvertently highlights the challenges of appealing to working-class voters who have long been disillusioned with economic policies that prioritize financial elites over their interests.
While Harris may have won the debate with sharp rhetoric, her focus on the approval of corporations like Goldman Sachs undermines her ability to genuinely address the concerns of those outside the economic mainstream.
This mismatch between her centrist policies and the needs of working-class voters could come back to haunt her in the general election, where such voters are pivotal to winning key battleground states. Harris’s rhetoric might resonate with corporate America, but it risks alienating the very people she needs to persuade to vote for her ticket.
In a political climate where economic populism is gaining ground, Harris’s attempt to appeal to the center by touting corporate endorsements may leave her vulnerable to critiques from both the left and the right, jeopardizing her chances in a deeply divided electorate.
