GOP put back on defense after Biden’s exit brings surge to Harris and Democrats

Republicans were riding high just a few weeks ago.

A united GOP departed its national convention with a presidential nominee who dominated the polls, narrowly survived an assassination attempt, and unveiled a long-awaited vice-presidential nominee.

But the tides have quickly turned for former President Donald Trump and Republicans, who no longer envision a landslide victory or face a bitterly divided Democratic Party. Armed with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of their ticket after casting aside President Joe Biden, Democrats’ hopes have been resurrected from the dead.

Harris has largely erased Trump’s leads he once held against Biden in key battleground states. Peppered with questions from the press about Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) after early stumbles on the trail, Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill are having to bat down whether the vice-presidential nominee should be traded in due to a series of damaging statements that Democrats have exploited.

“At some point, you’ll have to force Democrats into discussing the records of the two administrations,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-SD) said. “The closer we get to that discussion, the better it is for our side.”

In the latest welcomed news by Democrats that vindicated their decision to effectively oust Biden from the race, a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll released Tuesday showed Harris pulling even with Trump in swing states at 48% support to his 47%. Harris also raised a whopping $200 million in her first week as the presumptive Democratic nominee after opening a floodgate of campaign donations.

With less than 100 days until the election, Republicans are putting on an optimistic face — at least publicly — that the Harris honeymoon while soon subside. That includes the “weird” battle between the parties over whether Harris or Vance is the more bizarre figure.

“Real people like in real America, they’re aware of some stuff, but they’ll really start tuning in I think after Labor Day,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said. “I’m not concerned at all. I just think it’s pretty remarkable that they deposed the sitting president. That’s pretty remarkable, and she’s received no votes.”

Vance himself reportedly told donors privately that Harris’ quick rise served up a “political sucker punch.”

Some of the private anxieties harnessed by certain Republicans over the state of the race can be attributed to Vance, who’s suffered a barrage of criticism over past controversial remarks that could present liabilities for Trump.

His resurfaced comments on “childless cat ladies” and his doubling down that parents should receive more voting power, in addition to prior comments on abortion, have raised questions about whether perhaps Trump made the wrong choice. Republicans are tamping down such notions, saying opposition research comes with the territory and that Harris’ yet-to-be-chosen running mate is likely to face similar scrutiny.

Vance, who hails from the Buckeye State, is expected to bolster Republicans’ chances in the crucial battleground state for both president and the Senate. The Hillbilly Elegy author’s middle-class upbringing in a Midwest family that struggled with substance abuse has Republicans hoping he’ll also boost the GOP in other swing states and with working-class voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.  

Cramer, a close Trump ally and strong Vance supporter, suggested the series of flippant remarks by Vance that have recirculated or been unearthed are part of a politician’s career that may “require either clarification or forgiveness.”

“He’s the perfect guy to weather this sort of thing, to seek forgiveness where he feels like he might need it or to clarify context where he thinks that’s needed,” Cramer said.

Vance has doubled down on a long-held belief that parents should be able to cast votes that their children are unable to. He’s previously denigrated childless Americans as “less mentally stable” people who are the “most deranged and most psychotic.”

Vance has since said his “childless cat ladies” remarks, which were made in 2021 and directed at Harris and other Democrats who he said were ruining the country, were “taken out of context” by Democrats and blown “out of proportion.” But offered the opportunity over by the weekend by Fox News‘ Trey Gowdy to apologize, he declined to seize the moment.

“The American people are forgiving, if we ask,” Gowdy said.

Vance proceeded to accuse Democrats of being “anti-family.”

“If you look at what the left has done, they have radically taken this out of context and in fact, aggressively lied about what I’ve said,” he said. “The left has increasingly become explicitly antichild and antifamily. They’ve encouraged young families not to have children at all, because of concerns over climate change.”

Trump was forced to address the matter in an interview on Monday with the same network. He defended Vance but also made clear he did not want to alienate large swaths of the electorate who haven’t bore children.  

“The Democrats are good at spinning things differently from what they were,” Trump said. “For him, he likes family. I think a lot of people like family and sometimes it doesn’t work out. And you know why? You don’t meet the right person, or you don’t mean any person, but you’re just as good — in many cases a lot better than — a person that’s in a family situation. But they took it and they spun it differently.”

Democrats have also zeroed in on Vance, who was elected to the Senate in 2022, for saying the year prior that “two wrongs don’t make a right” when it came to abortion exceptions for rape and incest.

Trump’s other potential VP contenders included Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), whom close ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reportedly lobbied for in the run-up to Trump’s announcement at the Republican National Convention.  

But the idea Trump would ditch Vance just three months before voters head to the polls remains a fantasy among Democrats that would sow GOP division.

“Well, he’s Trump’s running mate, so he’s our guy,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), a leading contender to become the next Sente GOP leader, told the Washington Examiner. “Obviously, as is true with any running mate, the media started to pick apart things he said in the past. But I think he is a very articulate, smart person with a very compelling personal story that I think can appeal to a lot of constituencies around the country that we need in our coalition to be successful in November.”

David Sivak contributed to this report.