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Where does Kamala Harris stand on abortion and Israel?


abortion and Israel

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has hit the ground running. Shortly after US President Joe Biden had announced via social media that he was withdrawing from the presidential race, he shared a second post endorsing Harris as the Democratic candidate for president. Former US President Bill Clinton  and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Speaker of the House and grande dame of the Democratic Party Nancy Pelosi, as well as many Democrat Congress members and governors, followed suit.

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Harris’ campaign also set a new record for a presidential campaign’s fundraising, with $81 million in donations coming in during the first 24 hours of Harris’ candidacy. That sum was raised across the campaign, Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committees. Another important factor for her campaign going forward: more than 888,000 grassroots donors contributed in those 24 hours, and 60% of them were first-time donors in the 2024 election cycle.

That means they hadn’t donated to Biden’s campaign, but took out their wallets for Harris. And as vice president, Harris also has access to all the funds that were raised for Biden. The current president’s nearly $96 million campaign fund was transferred to Harris on Sunday.

Uniting the party is an important first step because Harris is not yet the official nominee. For that, she has to win a majority of delegates’ votes at the Democratic National Convention, which is taking place from August 19 to 22 in the midwestern city of Chicago.

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One factor in particular could help Harris with female voters: Since the majority-conservative Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion, Harris has spoken out repeatedly against the verdict. She “was a leading voice in defending a woman’s right to choose,” Clüver Ashbrook said. “And she has been extremely vocal and successful on that issue on the campaign trail.”

In the field of foreign policy, Harris hasn’t had much exposure yet, Clüver Ashbrook said. However, the vice president made it very clear at the Munich Security Conference in 2024 and 2023 that she highly values the US’ membership in NATO, something that Trump does not. And Harris doesn’t just want to continue cooperating with European allies.

The question of what the US stance would be on the conflict in Gaza under a potential President Harris is particularly interesting because Biden’s staunch support of Israel had been a point of criticism among young voters and Arab-Americans in particular.

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“I think she has been a little bit more sympathetic toward Palestinians and came out a little stronger criticizing the humanitarian catastrophe in Palestine,” Stormy-Annika Mildner, the executive director of the Aspen Institute Germany, a transatlantic think tank based in in Berlin, told DW, adding, “So I could see that maybe the tone is going to change a little bit. But the support for Israel ― that is not going to change.”

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