Kamala’s flip-flop frenzy mimics Trump’s playbook for votes

Since becoming the Democratic nominee last month, Kamala Harris has been hard at work reinventing herself as a “moderate.” To distract voters from her extreme left-wing record, Harris’ campaign has been focused on constructing a popular agenda on the fly, even taking positions contrary to those she espoused previously.

In fact, one might boil down the Harris campaign’s strategy to three words: “Just copy Trump.”

People strongly oppose Kamala Harris’ radical cultural agenda, and these are perhaps the only toxic left-wing policies she can’t afford to disavow.

This has gone beyond merely flip-flopping to avoid political liability. Harris is actively plagiarizing her opponent’s policy agenda — and in some cases doing so word for word.

On crime, for example, despite previously praising “defund the police,” bailing out Black Lives Matter rioters, and supporting “police reform,” Harris now identifies as a tough-on-crime “prosecutor.”

On immigration, she now professes to be a border hawk, ready to crack down on illegal border crossings and build the wall. She touts her support for a fake, “bipartisan” immigration bill that nearly all Republicans opposed as evidence that she’s somehow tougher than Trump on the border.

And on the economy, Harris has leaned into the inflation issue despite her incumbency, and she has even been willing to blatantly lift some of Trump’s most popular economic policies, such as his proposal to end federal taxes on tips.

Alarmingly, Harris’ blatant attempts at imitation show signs of potential success. In 2022, Democrats used the same strategy, mimicking Republican messaging on immigration, crime, and the economy in nearly every tight race. They won almost all of those races.

The reality is that Harris is an unknown quantity to millions of voters, having barely made an impression in the 2020 primaries and having skipped the nomination process entirely in 2024. The left’s activist class is perfectly willing to tolerate her current reinvention, and the media is eager to amplify her newfound moderation. All of this is a means to the end of defeating Donald Trump, and they’ll accept any temporary compromise so long as they accomplish that goal.

Well, almost any temporary compromise.

Harris has only one radical position she hasn't tried to moderate: transgender ideology. She remains firmly aligned with the radical stance, as left-wing activists refuse to let her shift her position even one inch.

The Harris-Walz ticket has staked out the most extreme position on just about every gender-related issue. Both support bills that would force men into women’s sports and girls’ locker rooms. Both are all in on sex-change procedures for minors, including with taxpayer dollars. Both continue to defend keeping pornographic material in schools.

Even if she wanted to, Harris couldn’t back away from these policy commitments. Over the summer, for example, the Biden administration tried to meekly suggest that, while it supported puberty blockers and cross-sex drugs, it opposed performing sex-change surgeries on children. But even this was too much for the transgender lobby. The backlash from the far left was so intense that the administration was forced to walk the statement back within 24 hours.

This is Harris and the Democrats’ Achilles’ heel. It’s the mother of all political weaknesses. It’s what should ultimately cost her the election in November.

Fortunately, the Trump campaign has been ahead of the curve on these issues, highlighting the Democrats’ extremism for weeks. This is the right strategy. Republicans must continue doing everything in their power to emphasize this contrast between now and Election Day, including by running ads in swing states, like this one from the Senate Leadership Fund.

This contrast is key. While these issues are great for rousing the base, they are also effective at persuading undecided voters. Americans oppose letting men compete in women’s sports by an incredible margin: 77% to 23%. They similarly oppose the idea of minors getting sex-change procedures: 68% to 31%. These are some of the biggest liabilities the left has on any issue.

And we don’t just see this in polling. In focus groups my organization has conducted among swing voters, we have consistently found these to be some of the most effective issues to flip votes from Democrat to Republican. This shouldn’t come as a surprise — most voters aren’t on board with the crazy.

Election Day is just two months away, but early voting begins in a matter of days. The Trump campaign, as well as House and Senate Republican campaigns, should attack Harris’ flip-flopping on every issue, but it should especially focus on the huge advantage Trump has on gender ideology. People strongly oppose Kamala Harris’ radical cultural agenda, and these are perhaps the only toxic left-wing policies she can’t afford to disavow.