In Defense of Democracy: Examining Vice President Kamala Harris’ Presidential Campaign in a Polarized American Context

The 2024 United States presidential candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party nominee came into existence at a point of extreme polarization among Americans fueled by social, economic, geopolitical, and migration issues. Despite America’s understanding of itself as a well-established democracy, a surge in voter suppression tactics, election denial, a weakened press, and perpetual misinformation targeting low propensity voters have converged to produce a compromising of democratic principles accompanied by a rise of autocratic politics cloaked as populism. Against this backdrop, Harris’ candidacy and dominant campaign frame situated itself as a resistance against the autocratizing politics in a severely polarized American context. The papers on this panel interrogate not only Harris’ official campaign, but importantly we explore the support of social identity and ideological groups that positioned their support for Harris as a broader call for protecting democratic values and ideals. In addition, papers on this panel engage the ways in which stereotypes and troupes of Harris depict the visceral that marks the country’s polarization and the ease at which stereotype and constructions of “the other” marked this presidential election cycle and this moment in American politics. Through centering the Harris campaign for the presidency, this panel will explore public mobilizations of identity, political organizing, and social movement politics.