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Dear John,

Happy Friday! Here’s another quick round-up of what’s going on in the United States Presidential election.

Harris and Walz Show They’ve Got “Substance”

In an interview that Donald Trump eloquently described as “BORING!!!”, Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz sat down for their first deep-dive interview last night on CNN. Unlike Trump’s “X” interview with Elon Musk, the Presidential candidate was actually asked some not-so-easy questions.

Concerns had previously arisen within the Democratic party that Harris couldn’t handle a one on one interview. She did receive a lot of pushback on her administration’s policy U-turns, having recently decided to overturn her planned fracking ban and back off on plans to decriminalise certain border crossings. But she seemed to handle it well.

Kamala Harris used this interview to cement herself as the “radically normal ([link removed]) ” candidate, acknowledging that concessions would have to be made to win over swing-state voters, and that some of the more left-wing parts of her agenda were simply not palatable in this race.

Some might say that these policy shifts mean she’s caved to Trump’s attacks (he’s been routinely calling her a communist ([link removed]) ) but others see it as par for the course in First-Past-The-Post politics, where swing-states are the all important holy grail of winning elections.

Despite accusations – particularly from the British press, interestingly - that Kamala Harris is running purely a “vibes-based” campaign with no policy substance, this interview seemed to demonstrate a real vision for the country. Harris is continuing Biden’s pivot towards trade unions and a national industrial strategy. She’s cemented the campaign as middle-class focused – and much more working-class friendly than the Democrats have historically been.

She also, notably, did not take the bait on Trump’s racist antics. Asked about the former President’s accusation that she was merely pretending to be African-American, she responded “same old tired playbook.” “Next question, please.”

Their strategy seems to be resonating, given that Harris is only growing stronger ([link removed]) in the polls. We’ll have to check in next week to see what impact the interview had.

In other US election news…
* The first Presidential debate will take place in under two weeks time, on September 10th. It could be a make-or-break moment for Kamala Harris. (I’m more excited, actually, for the Walz-Vance debate on October 1st)
* Third party candidate RFK Jr and former Democratic representative Tulsi Gabbard have both endorsed Donald Trump this week.
* Trump has announced a new policy, to support state funded IVF treatments – something his evangelical base might not love.

That’s it for this week.

All the best,

Matt Gallagher

Communications Officer

Open Britain
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