As Vice President Harris moves closer to the Democratic presidential nomination, some top Republicans are focusing their attacks on her race and gender – and her supporters are warning that strategy might backfire for her opponents.

In recent public comments, Republican members of Congress including Harriet Hageman of Wyoming and Tim Burchett of Tennessee have described her as a “DEI hire.”

On Fox Business, a guest repeated that idea and referred to a vulgar TikTok meme, appearing to imply without evidence that Harris had somehow used sexual relationships with powerful men to advance her career.

Running scared?

Harris is the highest-ranking woman ever to hold office in the United States. And the first person of Black and South Asian heritage – not to mention that she could become the first female president.

To her supporters, like Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women’s Law Center, the crude stereotypes about powerful women are no surprise.

“Rather than talking about their out-of-step views, they’re trying to resort to old tactics of scaring people using racist and sexist tropes,” Graves said. “And so it is totally predictable. But it is also ridiculous.”

It’s a sign, Graves contends, that Republicans are running scared after President Biden’s decision to step aside from the presidential race upended the campaign.

“These attacks just demonstrate how desperate they are,” she said.

A fight for swing voters

Supporters also see Harris as well-positioned to take on former President Donald Trump on key policy matters including abortion rights – an issue where Harris has been front and center and which motivates the Democratic base.

Ange-Marie Hancock, director of the Kirwan Institute at the Ohio State University, is curator of the Kamala Harris Project, which studies the vice president. Hancock says the messages about Harris’ race and gender appear designed by her opponents to undermine her credibility.

“There is very much this idea that they want to make sure she’s seen as not qualified,” Hancock said.

It’s not a new idea. In a Fox News clip from 2021 that’s been circulating widely this week, JD Vance – now Trump’s running mate – cast Harris as a “childless cat lad[y]” who is “miserable” and suggested that people without children exert too much influence over American politics.

Harris has two stepchildren with her husband, Doug Emhoff, whose former spouse and daughter both came to Harris’ defense this week.

Hancock, the political scientist, says messages about Harris’ gender may be aimed at key groups of swing voters.

“Those kinds of things are really designed to appeal to those suburban women voters who are more traditional in their values about what kind of life women lead,” Hancock suggested.

Activating the base

Harris’ supporters warn, though, that these attacks may backfire for Republicans by galvanizing the Democratic base.

“What we know is that there are more people that are going to be re-engaged in this fight,” explained Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign. “They’re going to see not only what’s at risk, but what is possible, particularly if you’re a person of color, if you’re someone that lives at the margins. And those are the folks that we’re activating.”

Some conservatives agree it’s not the right message. Republican strategist Deana Bass Williams, former press secretary for Ben Carson’s 2016 presidential campaign, says Republicans should stay focused on policy.

“Republicans do a much better job and we win when we are talking about the failed Biden policies,” she said. “So I don’t think that it is appropriate to use that kind of language, and I also don’t think it’s effective.”

In a memo this week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee advised campaigns to focus on policy – including Harris’ role as the so-called “border czar.” It also encouraged candidates to label Harris as “weird,” and focus on several of her traits, including the way she laughs.