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Kamala Harris kicks off campaign

GOP struggles to find its Harris message

House Republicans just got the rug pulled out from under them.

They’re so used to running against President Joe Biden and seem to be struggling mightily with how to run against Vice President Kamala Harris, a 59-year-old woman of Black and Indian heritage who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Consider just what’s gone on during the last couple days. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) called Harris a “DEI hire,” a shocking remark that Democrats pushed back hard on.

Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), one of just four Black House Republicans, then told us that Harris is “the greatest example of DEI.”

More Owens: “For those who believe in DEI, this is exactly what DEI is like. Kamala Harris.”

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said on Sunday that Democrats “have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.” We followed up with Grothman on this, who then informed us “I don’t think people view her as Black.”

Grothman added that people “just view her as someone who did nothing on the border.”

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), when asked if Republicans need to be careful in how they talk about Harris’ race, told us: “I’m not going to get into all the color stuff. I’m just looking at performance.”

What’s happened to Harris, Biden and the Democratic presidential ticket has no direct precedent. Democrats dumped Biden just months before the election, leaving Harris roughly 100 days to rally the party — and the nation — to her side.

But it’s also a problem for the GOP, which has spent the last couple of years probing every facet of Biden’s life. They dug into his family’s business deals. They considered impeaching him. They highlighted Biden’s every weakness, misstep and fumble. Now all of that’s changed.

Harris is a diametrically different challenge for Republicans. Biden is old and occasionally confused. Harris is younger and sharp. Biden is a white man. Harris is a woman of color. There are lots of firsts in Harris’ bio, of course.

Former President Donald Trump seemed to try out some attack lines against Harris on Monday night, labeling her as “Lyin’ Kamala” while calling himself “a fine and brilliant young man named DONALD. J. Trump.” At 78, Trump is more than 18 years older than Harris. Harris is trying out her own lines on Trump too.

To be clear, there are openings for Republicans to score political points against Harris. Biden did tap her to oversee the crisis at the southern border. Harris and the whole Biden administration clearly failed there. And the Trump campaign will tag her with the same economic talking points they were going to hit Biden on. Harris will be responsible for all the successes and failures of Biden’s presidency.

To that end, the House Republican leadership is moving headlong to the floor with an “emergency” resolution “strongly condemning the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris’s, failure to secure the United States border.”

This non-binding resolution carries no actual weight. Passing the measure this week certainly isn’t an emergency, even if the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is a pressing issue. What they really want to do is bash Harris on the issue, and this resolution from GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is the vehicle to do that.

Speaker Mike Johnson told us Monday evening that the 2024 race is a contest “between policies not personalities.” Here’s more from Johnson:

But it’s clear there are some concerns inside the Republican Party about messaging against Harris.

An NRSC campaign “memo” Monday said that Harris sometimes laughs at “inappropriate moments.” They also criticized her love of Venn diagrams. Yeah, OK.

The NRCC, the House GOP’s campaign arm, sent talking points to their members in competitive races warning of the challenges of trying to define a presidential candidate in roughly 100 days. This will be critical for not only the presidential race but also down-ballot contests.

“Republicans have never had less time to define the presidential nominee of our opponents,” the memo said, according to a copy obtained by Punchbowl News. “Because of that, it is vital that our entire Conference is on message and working together to present Kamala Harris as an extreme San Francisco progressive who is out of step with the American people.”

The House GOP Conference also sent out a messaging memo to its members, making clear that a central part of their strategy will be linking Harris to Biden’s most unpopular policies, particularly at the border.

Nowhere in these memos does it say that Republicans should define Harris as being a DEI hire.

“It’s certainly not something I’m going to say,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) told us. “I’m going to remain focused on the policies.”

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. Political ads courtesy of AdImpact.