Lois Frankel: Voters will like Kamala Harris as they learn about her

Congresswoman Lois Frankel said Monday this week’s Democratic National Convention is an opportunity to introduce the country to Vice President Kamala Harris, lay out the party’s vision and refute what she called Donald Trump’s “lies.”
“The goal should be for people to really know who our nominee is,” said Frankel, who is a Florida delegate. “The more people know Kamala Harris, the more they’re going to like her.”
Already, she noted that Harris’ entry into the race as the party’s presumptive nominee a month ago has energized the party. In Florida alone, Harris campaign officials have said, more than 22,000 people have volunteered to assist.
“The enthusiasm is there. Even in Florida, it’s big,” she said.
Frankel also said the four-day quadrennial gathering of party leaders, elected officials, candidates and others offers Democrats a platform to explain the policy menu.
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She acknowledged that even as the rate of inflation has been curtailed, “we still know there are people hurting.” But she said there are other are other costly issues for families that Democrats, not Republicans, want to address.
One is broadening the child tax credit and the so-called care economy, measures to assist families struggling with child and elder care. Those issues loom even larger in Florida, she said, because the state is one of the few that refused to expand Medicaid to a larger population of families.
Frankel also took Trump to task, deriding the former president’s assertion that access to abortion is no longer a campaign issue.
She pointed out that Florida has one of the most restrictive laws in the country, and that’s partly behind a surge of women, 2-to-1 to men, coming out to volunteer. Voters, she predicted, will follow.
“It’s going to be like a flood in Florida of people getting out to vote to support the candidates that support reproductive freedom and support Amendment 4.” she said. “The principle that women should decide when and if to start or grow a family is a personal health care decision and not for politicians.”
And Democrats meeting in Chicago will also draw a “stark” contrast to Trump’s agenda, Frankel added. The West Palm Democrat said the party will oppose more tax cuts to “billionaires and big corporations” and call out Trump’s “lies” in saying he does not embrace the controversial and extremist Project 2025 blueprint for governance.
Democrats, Frankel said, will also point out Trump’s hypocrisy in decrying the state of border security when he opposed the legislation negotiated in the U.S. Senate with conservative Oklahoma Republican James Lankford.
“Senate Democrats, Joe Biden and Senate Republicans had one of the toughest immigration deals on the table ready and to pass,” Frankel said. “Then Donald Trump called his friends in the Senate and put a hold on it because he wanted it to be an issue in the campaign.”
Frankel added that right now, the level of border crossings has fallen, and she said Democrats will seek to set the record straight on immigration reform.
“We want to do more than build a wall,” she said. “We do believe there should be border security, an orderly process for people wanting to come into the country, but you’re not going to just do that with a wall.”
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.