With the Democratic National Convention about to start, Kamala Harris will surely get lots of coverage this week. But that will not eliminate the need to reach a whole lot of people who, though they are not deeply enmeshed in political news, will or might vote in November. These are some thoughts about how to make effective use of the two and a half months between the Convention this week and the Election in November, to make a deep, vivid, and positive impression on that swath of voters in the middle of the electorate. (I.e. the voters who will decide which way things go.)
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American parties’ long nominating process requires those who would be President to show themselves to the public again and again over an extended period.
The American people have more of an idea of who they are than they — taken as a whole -- likely have of Kamala Harris. That’s because she, uniquely, became the sudden presidential candidate elevated almost at the last minute by extraordinary circumstances.
So, if Kamala Harris wants the public to know her better in order to move (especially the lower information) voters to support her, it behooves her to do what she can to catch up.
(Kamala already has the Democratic base. The question is how far she can enlist support beyond that.)
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It is clear that Kamala does not want to present herself to the wider public through interviews. (That is probably politically wise. Interviewers would proceed in a way that deflates the kind of excitement whose wave she is currently riding.)
But there are other, better ways of getting onto people’s television screens. One of those ways is to say things — regularly — that are well-crafted to capture the attention of the media. The candidate makes news with statements that are dramatic, colorful — and especially, new.
The standard stump speech has its utility. But as “New” is necessary to make the news, just repeating a standard stump speech is a missed opportunity.
Kamala could cultivate a genre for the news media. At very regular intervals, she would insert into the stump speech something that grabs media attention. People will see her.
(The campaign could distribute to the press, in advance, the text of the news-making part of the speech to come— to direct their attention to that coming footage.)
That genre also could provide an opportunity to assemble a larger picture that puts together the pieces of what she is campaigning for, what she opposing, and thus what are the stakes in the choice the American people will be making in this election.
The sum of all those news-making statements — their cumulative effect — could be a persuasive and meaningful picture.
And those statements can also flesh out the picture of this sudden candidate, showing the American people who is this candidate for President whom millions of people hardly know at all.
(Paid ads can also do this. But also, every campaign appearance represents an opportunity to get onto the TV screens of everyone who watches the news.)
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I hope that the Kamala/Walz campaign takes this on as a creative challenge: to compose such a series of news-grabbing statements that give the wide public a meaningful portrait of this new candidate, and conveys a clear idea of what values and goals a vote for her will serve.