Kamala Harris is hitting back for her campaign — and for women everywhere

In recent days, Vice President Harris has flooded the airwaves, appearing on a long list of high-profile and non-traditional media platforms to spread her message to voters across the country. In every appearance from Fox News to syndicated radio host Charlamagne tha God, she has smartly and pointedly pushed back, directly and indirectly, against former President Trump and the attacks and smears relentlessly hurled at her from the right.

It is both the right time and the right strategy. As the first woman of color to be nominated for president, Harris has already faced a massive double standard of expectations and an absurdly high bar compared to her opponent. But history and research show that the only way to overcome the double standards facing female candidates is to fight them fearlessly.

Renowned gender and politics researcher Celinda Lake has studied this question in depth, as have other researchers committed to women’s political participation here and around the world. They found that in most cases, clapping back directly, calmly, and forcefully at the perpetrators of sexist attacks changes public perceptions of women running for office. It makes her seem strong and unfazed. More importantly, research shows that not responding can make women look weak.

According to a study by the Barbara Lee Foundation, “There has long been a misconception that silence is a powerful response when women experience sexism – this research suggests otherwise.” Ignoring serious incidents of sexism or appearing as if you are Turning a blind eye to this can potentially lead to backlash against female candidates because voters want to see strength and backbone.” Aiming high, as Michelle Obama once demanded, is not an option.

For good reason. Since President Biden withdrew as the Democratic nominee, All In Together, the national nonpartisan women’s civic and political education organization I founded, has been tracking cases of racist and sexist attacks against Harris. Since the beginning of 2024 and especially since the start of their candidacy, they have exploded on the Internet.

There were 170,000 individual public posts (excluding replies and shares) on Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok that contained racist and/or sexist attacks against her 8.86 billion impressions. There have also been hundreds of deepfake AI-generated attacks. The sheer scale of these horrific attacks will certainly help shape and distort public perceptions of her, just as they affected perceptions of Hillary Clinton in 2016.

While the attacks have come from a variety of sources, including foreign actors working to disrupt the election, former President Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, contributed significantly to them. Most damaging in the line of attack are the allegations that she is not a serious person, that she has intellectual disabilities, and that she used sex to advance in her career. Just a few days ago, Trump called her a “retard.” A slander that is deeply offensive for a long list of reasons.

Of course, such slander against female candidates is not unique to Harris; They have become an all-too-common campaign tactic everywhere. Studies show that cases of gender-based disinformation and attacks on women running for elected office have exploded in magnitude and impact around the world, particularly due to autocratic leaders who often rise by marginalizing women’s political power. As a result, many women in the United States and around the world have chosen to abandon their race or politics altogether rather than face attacks that can be violent, frightening, and dangerous in nature.

As I have worked to include more women in the political process over the last decade and served in local elected offices myself, I have seen how such attacks can have a profoundly negative impact on the public’s perception of women leaders.

At some point during my elected term, threats against me and my children on social media were so serious that police were stationed outside my home. Women who could have been good candidates saw what I had been through and decided not to run. This could be one reason why there will be fewer women running for office in 2024 after years of progress.

However, Harris benefits from the lessons of others and, frankly, the mistakes Hillary Clinton made on the campaign trail. In 2016, social media was flooded with sexist smears and disinformation about Clinton – much of it, as we now know, fed by Russian-sponsored troll farms seeking to sow division. They were successful in large part because the campaign was unprepared to fight back. It was too new for them to fully recognize the damage being done in real time or to effectively counter the destructive narrative.

This time it’s different.

All In Together noted that Harris has been winning online infowars for weeks. Since August, positive reactions and resistance to her racist and sexist insults online have been twice as large as negative attacks. This “fight back ratio,” fueled by an extraordinarily formal and informal online army of supporters, may be one reason Harris’ positive votes in most polls have steadily increased throughout the summer despite the amount of slander.

And now Harris is fighting back herself, reminding voters that she is strong, prepared and not intimidating. In her groundbreaking interview with radio superstar Charlamagne Tha God, she directly addressed some of the most common attacks. Asked if she had repeated her point too often, Harris responded smartly and with a subtle dig at her opponent’s sly talk: “That’s called discipline.” And she didn’t hold back when Trump said, “The man is really quite weak.” He is weak. It is a sign of weakness to want to please dictators and to seek their flattery and favor.”

The vice president and her team are now making all the right moves to play offense and defense at the same time. Their substantive and strategic victory is urgently needed, not only for this election, but also for women’s political participation now and in the future.

Lauren Leader is co-founder and CEO of All In Together, a women’s civic leadership nonprofit and host of MAJORITY RULES on www.2WAY.TV

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