After snubbing Biden, Senate Democrats embrace Harris

Reinvigorated party goes all out to support new presidential ticket

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When President Joe Biden campaigned in Michigan in July, Representative Elissa Slotkin, the Democrats' nominee for the state's open Senate seat, was nowhere to be found. But on the night of Aug 7, just weeks after that noshow, Ms Slotkin announced her full-throated support for her party's new presidential ticket at a Detroit rally.

Appearing in front of an estimated 15,000 people at the rally for Vice-President Kamala Harris and her newly minted running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Ms Slotkin concluded her speech by delivering her final punch at Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance.

"Let me just say one thing again about Midwestern values, and again you're going to have to excuse me: No red-blooded Michigander is ever going to let a Buckeye get into the damned White House," she said.

Ms Slotkin is not alone in recognising the new political landscape since Mr Biden decided to end his re-election bid. The new energy and rapid coalescing of Democrats behind Ms Harris and Mr Walz have drastically changed the strategies of both Democrats and Republicans alike in down-ballot races.

Gone are the days when Democratic candidates for the House and the Senate conveniently pleaded prior engagements during visits from their standard-bearer as they quietly issued calls for him to step aside. Gone also are Republican hopes for a collapse in Democratic turnout from a demoralised base that would mean an easy Republican takeover of the Senate and a healthy expansion of the party's narrow majority in the House.

New polling from The New York Times and Siena College shows narrow leads for Ms Harris among likely voters in the crucial battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin - but far bigger leads for down-ballot Democratic candidates.

In Wisconsin, Senator Tammy Baldwin leads her Republican challenger Eric Hovde 51 per cent to 44 per cent among likely voters.