New York Times polling expert Nate Cohn this week talked about Vice President Kamala Harris's rise in swing-state polls and he credited her newfound strength among voters to running what he described as a "generic" campaign.
In an interview with the Times' "The Daily" podcast, Cohn analyzed Harris' campaign speeches and found that she is not saying anything different than what you'd expect to hear from other Democratic candidates: A focus on abortion rights, building an economy through the middle class, and universal paid family leave.
"Some of this stuff is linked to her biography, such as that she's a prosecutor, but most of this is stuff that can be said by just about any Democrat," Cohn noted. "And you know what? It's a plausibly winning strategy to be a broadly acceptable mainstream Democratic candidate."
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Host Michael Barbaro at this point interjected to note that there is little "generic" about Harris, as she would not only be the first woman to win the presidency, but also the first woman of color.
Cohn agreed with this point broadly but countered that Harris was shrewdly not making her gender and race central to her stump speeches.
"She's already distinctive to millions of Americans," argued Cohn. "She's going to look real different from Joe Biden and Donald Trump and the other people who have dominated our politics for the last eight years. Already being so distinct, I think that gives her all the more incentive to run as a very mainstream and typical Democrat."
