By Alex Bass
Alex.bass@triangletribune.com
RALEIGH – The economy mattered, most definitely, but not only the economy mattered.
In a timing sequence that began before Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, there were issues for voters, including the youngest.
“More so than the economy, they care about their economic prospects,” N.C. Black Alliance Deputy Director Marcus Bass said. “You have to offer up solutions that are palatable. You have to have real strategies to engage our community.”
Given the reality of Harris’ late-starting campaign, leading with something other than addressing diverse voters’ economic prospects proved to be problematic. North Carolina Central senior Devin Freeman, who also was a 2024 Democratic National Convention delegate, affirmed the vitality of addressing reproductive rights – a key Harris emphasis. Among his field work, Freeman said, it was a formidable challenge to bring voters who saw only current inflation around to understand candidates’ multilayered economic plans and how those plans will impact them.
“It was hard for people to separate (Harris) from (Biden),” Freeman said. “They didn’t feel that she stood on a good economy compared to Trump.”
Democrats were disadvantaged, Bass said, not only by Harris’ late ascension to the party’s presidential nomination, but by growing voter registration trends that emerged locally and nationally before and through Election Day.
In Wake County, approximately 26,000 of 36,000 voters who registered between January and October did so with “unaffiliated” standing. Bass said North Carolina Democratic registration rolls are comparing less and less favorably in total quantities to Republican and unaffiliated rolls, and millions of voters nationally cast ballots without including a presidential vote.
The fact that in-state “down ballot” Democratic candidates like reelected U.S. Representatives Alma Adams and Valerie Foushee, Josh Stein (governor) and Mo Green (superintendent of public instruction) were successful, Bass said, sent another message about Democratic approaches to engaging with Black voters.
“Democrats still bet that individuals will still vote straight ticket and not straight issues,” Bass said. “We saw individuals vote on straight issues. The Black electorate has become more sophisticated than the Democrats ever wanted it to be or were prepared for it to be.”
Trump received a pass, largely, on the divisive rhetoric he has normalized because of Harris’ limited push of race and gender as issues, the latter in contrast to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump’s election, with many people citing policy over his personality, is not lost on some college students’ perceptions of the importance of candidates’ character.
Kinyon McClain, a Shaw University student and member of the nonpartisan group Common Cause North Carolina, said character is part of redefining a political party that has sent individuals with political baggage to the White House for decades.
“We’re looking for leaders we can trust, who understand our needs and who are transparent in their actions,” McClain said. “While policies are important, character and integrity influence whether young voters feel represented.”
Shaw student Vandell Hymon added: “While proposed policies guide concrete actions, a leader’s character shapes their consistency, reliability and how they might adapt under unforeseen circumstances.”
Democrats, Bass said, now must adapt to recover from circumstances marred by Harris’ non-primary elevation to the presidential nominee not being an example of representative democracy. This reality, per Biden’s late campaign departure, created inevitable tension as Biden supporters and staffers made the transition to Harris, who was unable to distinguish herself from Biden.
With a struggling economy and Biden’s 61% unfavorable approval rating in September, the Harris campaign embraced a specific messaging, ultimately unsuccessful tactic. “They were selling them on a very ‘Trumpesque’ candidacy,” Bass said, “which was all about Trump, not the American people.”
