It has been a dramatic half a month for US politics with a dizzying string of rapid-fire events. Republican candidate and former president, Donald Trump, survived an assassination attempt and emerged bolder and more energised in rallying his base. President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race, endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, who within a week managed to win enough delegate support to secure the nomination at the upcoming Democratic National Convention set for August 19-22.

Harris has re-invigorated the Democratic campaign, raising more than $200m in donations, getting 100,000 new voters to register, and securing 170,000 new volunteers within just seven days.

She is also doing better at the polls. Her “favourability” score with the American public rose 8 percentage points to 43 percent in one week. Among likely voters, she is currently polling at 47 percent, just one percentage point behind Trump.

Some of Harris’s early success may be attributed to the significant relief many Democrats certainly felt over Biden’s decision to step aside. A whopping 87 percent of registered Democrats supported his withdrawal.

But this early momentum is unlikely to hold all the way to the election in early November. And while Harris brought much-needed change to the Democratic campaign, she also represents continuity with the Biden administration, which on certain issues could put her at a disadvantage.

One of these issues is the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Let us remember that one reason Biden was initially seen to be vulnerable was the Arab and Muslim American-led “uncommitted vote” campaign during the Democratic primaries earlier this year. A significant percentage of Democrats voted uncommitted to signal their rejection of Biden’s unconditional........

© Al Jazeera