5 mistakes that doomed Kamala Harris’ campaign against Trump

Vice President Harris suffered a massive loss to President-elect Donald Trump this week, losing her campaign as Trump swept battleground and traditionally Republican states alike that catapulted him past the needed 270 electoral college votes. 

Harris’ truncated campaign cycle, which only launched toward the end of July after President Biden dropped out of the race and passed the torch to his VP, was marked by a handful of gaffes and missteps that haunted her efforts to court voters and became political fodder for Trump and his campaign. 

Fox News Digital examined Harris’ roughly 100-day campaign and compiled the vice president’s biggest campaign mistakes that likely cost her support at the ballot box. 

Harris declares she would not do anything differently than President Biden

In what was arguably Harris’ biggest campaign misstep, the vice president declared early in October while appearing on ‘The View’ that she could not think of an example of where she differed with President Biden on a policy decision or political position across the administration. 

‘If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?’ 

‘There is not a thing that comes to mind,’ Harris answered.

Harris’ comment stands in stark contrast to how voters were feeling: They were unhappy with the current administration’s leadership.  

Preliminary data from the Fox News Voter Analysis, a survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide, found that the majority of voters headed into the polls believing the country was headed in the wrong direction. 

Voters ahead of casting their ballots reported that the country was on the wrong track (70%, up from 60% who felt that way four years ago) and seeking something different. Most wanted a change in how the country is run, with roughly a quarter seeking complete and total upheaval.

‘Kamala Harris is more of the same,’ Vice President-elect JD Vance posted to X last month about Harris’ comment on ‘The View.’ ‘She admits it herself.’

‘This will be the nail in Kamala Harris’s coffin,’ The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis predicted last month. 

‘It reminds me of John Kerry’s ‘I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it’ comment about Iraq war funding when he was fighting charges of being a spineless flip-flopper,’ he added. ‘That single comment ended his campaign.’

Harris accused of using ‘new accent’ during campaign events; ‘word salad’ gaffes 

Harris was accused a handful of times of unveiling a ‘new accent’ while speaking to different voters across the country, including critics comparing her to a cartoon character at one point and a preacher at another campaign event. 

Harris traveled to the Church of Christian Compassion in Philadelphia last month, where she spoke to the predominantly Black congregants and telling them that in just nine days, voters will ‘have the power to decide the fate of our nation for generations to come.’

Harris cited the Book of Psalms in her remarks, including saying, ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the mornin’. The path may seem hard, the work may seem heavy, but joy cometh in the mornin’ and church morning is on its way.’ 

Critics on social media pounced on clips of Harris quoting Psalms, saying she debuted a new ‘pastor’ accent, comparing her inflection to the late Rev. Martin Luther King’s oratory.

While speaking before union workers during a Detroit Labor Day rally, she was criticized for using an accent that was compared to ‘Foghorn Leghorn.’

‘Since when does the vice president have what sounds like a Southern accent?’ Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in September after her Detroit speech that was compared to the cartoon character. 

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ Jean-Pierre replied.

‘Well, she was talking about unions in Detroit using one tone of voice, she used the same line in Pittsburgh, and it sounded like she at least had some kind of Southern drawl,’ Doocy pressed.

‘I mean, do you hear the question that you’re – I mean, do you think Americans seriously think that this is an important question?’ Jean-Pierre pushed back. ‘You know what they care about? They care about the economy, they care about lowering costs, they care about health care. That’s what they want to hear … democracy and freedom … I’m not going to even entertain some question about … it’s just … hearing it sounds so ridiculous. The question – I’m talking about the question – is just insane.’

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a native of Chicago, has also repeatedly been accused of employing different accents across her decades in the public eye, most notably for using a southern drawl.

Harris was also slammed for rambling ‘word salads’ during repeated public events, which the Trump campaign and critics frequently mocked. 

‘We need to guard that spirit. We have to guard that spirit. Let it always inspire us. Let it always be the source of our optimism, which is that spirit that is uniquely American. Let that then inspire us by helping us to be inspired to solve the problems that so many face, including our small business owners,’ Harris said, for example, in September while speaking to the Economic Club of Pittsburgh. 

‘I grew up understanding the children of the community are the children of the community, and we should all have a vested interest in ensuring that children can go grow up with the resources that they need to achieve their God-given potential,’ she said at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 47th annual Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., in September. 

In another ‘word salad’ misstep just days ahead of the election, Harris said, ‘We are here because we are fighting for a democracy. Fighting for a democracy. And understand the difference here, understand the difference here, moving forward, moving forward, understand the difference here.’

Harris avoids the media for weeks, fails to hold a press conference 

Harris carried out her 107-day campaign without holding a single press conference, and she avoided sit-down media interviews for the first 38 days of her campaign before finally joining CNN for an interview. 

Trump held at least six news conferences in which he took questions from the media since the beginning of August. Harris held none, but did have a few informal press gaggles throughout the campaign.

The Harris-Walz campaign increased their media presence in the final weeks of the campaign, including Harris joining a CNN town hall and interviews with NBC News, Telemundo and CBS, in addition to several podcasts and local news stations. She also sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier last month, which Baier described as a ‘contentious’ interview. 

Touted celebrity endorsements in campaign events 

Harris repeatedly leaned on celebrities during the campaign, including touting their star status for flash rallies. 

Harris held a rally last month in red Texas where she was joined by celebrities such as Beyoncé, Jessica Alba and Willie Nelson. Harris’ rally included an estimated 30,000 people as word spread that Beyoncé was slated to appear at the rally. The pop star officially endorsed Harris during her appearance but did not perform any songs.

Ahead of the rally, media outlets such as MSNBC reported Beyoncé would not only appear but would also likely perform at the rally. Beyoncé did not perform, sparking the Trump campaign to argue that Harris ‘lied’ about Beyoncé’s appearance at the rally in order to ‘build a crowd.’

In Pennsylvania, which was viewed as the state that would likely determine the outcome of the overall election, Harris held a bevy of events on her final day on the campaign trail. She was joined at rallies in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia by celebrities such as Cedric the Entertainer, Katy Perry, Andra Day, DJ Cassidy, Fat Joe and Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga. 

‘The other thing that makes me nervous, in 2016 we had a big star-studded event right on the edge of the election, and we lost the state,’ liberal political analyst Van Jones said on CNN ahead of the election, referring to Harris’ Pennsylvania rallies. 

Harris’ steady support from celebrities comes as voters reported that the economy and jobs were their most important issues heading into the election as inflation since 2021 has throttled Americans’ pocketbooks. 

Lackluster VP selection 

After Biden’s exit from the race – as concerns mounted over his mental acuity and age – Harris simultaneously launched her campaign as well as her search for a running mate, combing through a list of high-profile Democrats and lesser-known allies before choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Democrats ultimately rallied behind Walz, but another choice, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, was viewed by many as the better candidate to get the Democratic Party across the finish line victoriously.

‘As a founding member of She Shoulda Picked Shapiro, I think it’s relatively clear now that she made a mistake,’ statistician Nate Silver told the New York Times ahead of Election Day. 

‘Pennsylvania seems to be lagging a little behind the other blue-wall states. Meanwhile, Walz was mediocre in the debate, and he’s been mediocre and nervous in his public appearances.’

Harris-Walz surrogate Lindy Li told Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich from Howard University, where Harris held her election night party, that Shapiro would likely have aided the Harris campaign’s efforts to notch a massive victory. 

‘One of the things that are top of mind is the choice of Tim Walz as vice presidential candidate,’ Li said. ‘A lot of people are saying tonight that it should have been Josh Shapiro. Frankly, people have been saying that for months.’

Considering Pennsylvania’s battleground-state status, the popular first-term governor was viewed as a potential key for the Harris campaign to reach the coveted 270 electoral votes to lock up the election. Shapiro, who is Jewish, was also touted as a potential bridge for the Harris campaign to court Jewish voters amid backlash over her previous comments defending anti-Israel protesters who rocked college campuses last year during the war in Israel.

Pennsylvania ultimately voted for Trump and moved him across the finish line.

Fox News Digital’s Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this report.