Republicans are grappling with how to politically attack the new Democrat poised to be at the top of the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris, the first black and South Asian woman vice president, presidential nominee, and possibly president, roughly 100 days before the 2024 election.
Harris’s record as a San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, Golden State senator, and 2020 presidential candidate before President Joe Biden tapped her as his vice presidential pick provides Republicans with fodder.
But some GOP lawmakers have, instead, underscored her ethnicity and gender, resulting in them having to respond to allegations that they are being racist or sexist and undermining the party’s standing with centrist and independent voters.
The loudest congressional Republican amplifying Harris’s ethnicity and gender is Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who doubled down Wednesday on describing the vice president as a diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, hire.
“When folks are explained that this was in fact a statement that the president had made and that it was one of his criteria for putting her on the ballot with him, then folks understand it,” Burchett told SiriusXM to explain his comments. “Actually members of Congress, both parties, have said, ‘Look, yeah, we get it, but this is what we’ve gotta do because this is what our base and our leadership’s demanding.’ So, yeah. Do I wish I’d said it? No, but it was the truth.”
Earlier, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY), also criticized Harris for “intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel.”
“I think she was a DEI hire,” Hageman told Gray DC. “I think that that’s what we’re seeing and I just don’t think that they have anybody else.”
Burchett and Hageman’s comments defy House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Richard Hudson’s (R-NC) direct appeal to their conference this week to make this November’s election a contest “about policies and not personalities.”
“This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris,” Johnson told reporters. “Her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever.”
It remains to be seen how Harris will react to the DEI attacks, with her campaign and Democratic strategists not immediately returning the Washington Examiner’s inquiries. In her first public appearances as a presidential contender, she has not spoken about her ethnicity or gender, indicating she may adopt a similar position to former President Barack Obama, who was selective about when he talked about race.
Meanwhile, as congressional Republicans scrutinize Harris for her Biden administration responsibilities regarding her role as border czar, with the House Rules Committee approving a resolution condemning the vice president for the border crisis, and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced a second article of impeachment against her accusing her of having “knowingly misled the people of the United States and the Congress… to obfuscate the physical and cognitive well-being” of Biden, GOP leaders have denounced the “DEI” attacks.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for example, dismissed the DEI strategy as “stupid” and dumb.”
“I disagree with DEI, but she’s the vice president of the United States,” McCarthy told NBC. “These congressmen that are saying it, they’re wrong in their own instincts.”
In the other chamber, Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-SD), who is seeking to replace Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), downplayed DEI as “not what the conversation for campaigns ought to be about.”
“This campaign should be about the issues and the clear policy differences that the candidates have, both at the top of the ticket and the down-ballot races,” Thune told the Washington Examiner. “Believe me, there are plenty. There’s a lot to talk about. That is not the issue.”
National Republican Senate Committee Chairman Steve Daines (R-MT) added Harris “has so many vulnerabilities,” encouraging his conference to “just tie her right back to Biden’s policies,” such as on immigration, crime, and the economy, as well as Black Lives Matter, the Green New Deal, and Medicare for All.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), who has his own ties to former President Donald Trump, repeated that if Trump and his campaign concentrate on policy, he will win.
“A little red meat at rallies is one thing … but if I was in his shoes, I would just stick to his record v. the Biden-Harris record,” Cramer told the Washington Examiner. “People can relate to it, they understand it. I don’t even know that they’re all that interested in other stuff.”
Though a Washington Post-Ipsos poll and a separate Marist College survey this year found DEI programs are popular, they have become divisive among Republicans and conservatives who emphasize meritocracy.
Politically speaking, for pollster David Paleologos, the “tactic shouldn’t have much of an impact beyond Republican voters and some white male independents.”
“On the flip side, it could energize Harris support among persons of color, LGBTQ+ families, and those with disabilities,” Paleologos told the Washington Examiner.
Nationally, Trump has an average 2 percentage point edge on Harris in early polling conducted this month, according to RealClearPolitics.
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