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Over the last month, much has changed about the 2024 presidential election in the United States.
Now that Joe Biden is out of the race, and Vice President Kamala Harris is in, Donald Trump is having to pivot his campaign to a new challenger.
Associated Press reporter Bill Barrow says there are five changes in the race.
One, being Trump is now the oldest nominee in the case now that Biden is out.
“He had perfected the attacks on Biden as the 81-year-old. And people were able to forget that he's 78. Now he's running against a 59-year-old candidate, and that turns the age question on him,” Barrow said.
Two is the enthusiasm and funding that Harris has garnered since entering the race.
“Kamala Harris has generated all of a sudden massive enthusiasm and money that President Biden could not generate. The question is, how does she turn that into votes? Can Democrats leverage all of that enthusiasm when they're organizing efforts and turning out voters?,” Barrow said.
Three is Trump now has to find a new argument to make potentially
“He had perfected his attacks on Joe Biden, particularly on age and ability. But Kamala Harris is 59 years old. She comes in fresh. He has to figure out how to saddle her with the liabilities of the Biden administration, but also run against her as a distinct candidate,” Barrow said.
The fourth change is that Kamala Harris has to pave her own path and show what kind of candidate she could be.
“An incumbent president running for reelection is pitching things for the future, but he's very much asking to be rewarded for what they've already done. That was the kind of campaign President Joe Biden was running. Certainly, Harris, as his second in command, will have some of his liability, inflation and the border. She will get to take credit for the administration's accomplishments, but she's going to have to play it forward,” Barrow said.
And the fifth is that the Electoral College has changed with the shift in the election.
“President Biden's struggles had basically reduced the map to those Rust Belt states, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania that Trump won in 16, that Biden flipped in 2020. North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona these Sunbelt states were moving, looked like they were moving away from President Biden. Now, with Harris in the race and that energy and enthusiasm among younger voters, voters of color, Black women, especially working-age women. That kind of changes the map and does create a two-front battle again in the Electoral College,” Barrow said.