Did She Have What It Takes?: An Analysis of Kamala Harris' 2020 Presidential Campaign

Details

Supervisors

Katherine Opello

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue, à finalité spécialisée: langues des affaires

Abstract

This thesis offers an in-depth analysis of Kamala Harris’ failure at becoming president in 2020. The framework established to answer this problematic is separated into two parts: the professional life of the candidates willing to become president, and their personal life. Both parts are based on a theoretical background stating that a candidate has more chance of achieving his or her goal if (s)he followed certain paths. These include being a former vice president, a former governor, a former member of the Congress (whether it be a Senator or a Member of the House of Representatives), and/or being a military veteran. Regarding the personal life, it appears that white men who are around 56 years old and who went to college to study law are the most likely to be elected president. Through a comparison to 21st century presidents and qualities that are common to most of them, it appears that Kamala Harris only lacks being a man and being white in terms of her personal life, whereas she had the right professional past compared to the previous presidents. The last part of the analysis concerns the issues that only Kamala Harris had to face, such as her funding issues, comparisons to Biden and Obama, an attack regarding her right to become president, her opponent being Donald Trump, and her lack of clear fighting points. The conclusion of this thesis is that regarding her past and her situation in 2020, she could have become president if she were a white man. Her past professional and personal life do not seem to have played against her. Thus, the problems unique to her were the biggest impediments which prevented her from becoming the first female president.