Vice presidents seeking the highest office almost always feel the need to distinguish themselves from the presidents they have served.

For Hubert Humphrey, that moment came late in the campaign, when, in a nationally televised speech on September 30, 1968, he deviated from the Johnson Administration's war policy and called for an end to the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.

After eight years as aide to the hugely popular President Reagan, George H. W. Bush struggled to establish an identity of his own among voters. In his August 1988 Republican National Convention speech, he said: He called for a “kinder, gentler nation.” — Nancy Reagan famously responded to this.

“Kinder and kinder than anyone else?”

Vice President Al Gore faced a problem less serious than Humphrey's, but more pressing than President Bush's: While most voters in 2000 approved of President Clinton's job performance, many disapproved of his personal performance.

Gore opted for symbolic separation. Senator Joe Lieberman nominated for vice president, Two years ago, he became the first influential Democratic Party member Publicly criticize Clinton Regarding his affair with Monica Lewinsky, he called his actions “shameful” and “immoral.”

Key points to note from the tournament

A big question to watch at next week's Democratic convention will be the extent to which Vice President Kamala Harris will follow the pattern of her predecessors and define herself in contrast to President Biden.

But that's not all. Other questions include:

• How much weight will Harris place on her experience as a prosecutor? Her law enforcement experience, which hurt her in the 2020 primary but has now re-emerged as a political asset, and we're likely to hear references to it multiple times this week.

• How will Ms Harris respond to the expected outcry over US policy on the Gaza war? Ms Harris has sought to show more empathy than Mr Biden for the suffering of Palestinian civilians, but that has done little to appease protesters who are calling for a complete withdrawal of US support for Israel.

• Which voices within the party will she elevate to key speaking roles? Convention organizers have said they will feature key figures from the Democratic Party's past, including President Biden and former Presidents Obama and Clinton. But the bigger question is which voices Harris will highlight who could shape the party's future.

• How many policy details will she offer? Republicans gave Democrats more leeway by adopting a platform that included few policy details. Harris seems more likely to offer more policy details while avoiding efforts to tie herself down to potentially controversial pledges.

Big increase among Latino voters

Heading into convention week, Harris managed to unite and motivate her party, and also won over many of the nonpartisan voters who were dissatisfied with Biden. A slight lead over Donald Trump They're tied in most national polls, and at least tied in most battleground states.

Some The most notable increase was among Latino voters.She's especially popular among young Latinos who don't have strong partisan views: An Equis Research poll released this week found Biden leading Trump by just 5 percentage points among Latino voters in battleground states, while Harris has a 19 percentage point lead.

The result has been a “reset” of the race, returning Democrats to the level of Hispanic support they had in 2020, said Equis co-founder Carlos Odio. While that's still below what Democrats had in 2008 and 2012, Odio said it's “far from the catastrophic levels” that some polls suggested this spring and is “good enough to win” in key states.

Odiaux said Harris was able to win over these voters by presenting herself as a newcomer while also presenting herself as experienced and proven.

“She's been incredibly good at balancing the advantages of being both an incumbent and a newcomer,” he said. “It's a tough balance to strike, but it's worked so far.”

As evidence of this, a poll conducted by Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report found that 56% of voters in battleground states said Harris gave them a better chance of winning. “Turning the page on the Trump/Biden era.”

The survey found that 59% of voters in seven battleground states – Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – said Harris represents “a new generation of leadership,” Walter said in the report.

Changes in immigration

One of the most notable areas in which Harris has sought to define her own identity apart from the administration is border security, one of Biden's biggest political weaknesses.

Republicans want to hold Harris accountable for the administration's border policies. They are using the border issue as part of a broader attack on her as a “San Francisco liberal” who is soft on crime and disorder. As evidence, they point to Biden's order in early 2021 to task Harris with addressing the “root causes” of international migration.

Ms Harris has not endorsed Mr Biden's policies, instead countering by focusing voters on another aspect of her life: her experience as California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney. Campaign ads hail her as a “border state prosecutor.” He is someone who will “take on the drug cartels” and “hire thousands more Border Patrol agents” as president.

“Fixing the border is hard. And so is Kamala Harris,” a recent ad proclaims.

This focus on border security marks a dramatic shift from the 2020 presidential campaign, in which leading Democrats campaigned on decriminalizing the border and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“It's a departure from traditional Democratic orthodoxy” on immigration, said Mike Madrid, a California-based anti-Trump Republican strategist.

Madrid, Author A new book on Latino politics, “The Latino Century” They believe this approach will give Harris an advantage in winning over young Latino voters, who are often two or three generations removed from the immigration experience.

Whether or not that's true, it's clear that Harris is focused on border security. It has not sparked public outcry. That might have been expected a few months ago, but the adjustments show just how much the party has changed. Changing public sentiment on immigration issues.

Turn the page

Harris' success so far is in part because the unusual circumstances of 2024 have allowed her to turn one of the vice presidency's traditional drawbacks — obscurity — into an advantage.

Voters Don't hold Harris entirely responsible Evan Ross Smith, a Democratic pollster who runs the Democratic message-testing project Blueprint, said there are things voters don't like about the Biden administration's policies.

This is especially true on foreign policy, which voters traditionally see as an area in which the president leads, but also on other issues such as economic policy and the border, the Blueprint poll showed.

“Voters' attitudes toward Harris are far less rigid than their views of Biden and Trump,” Ross said at a news conference Thursday.

Political science research is pointing in the same direction.

In early August, Yale political scientists Joshua Kalla and David Brookman of the University of California, Berkeley wrote 35 different political messages were tested The purpose is to find out which one had the greatest influence on voters' electoral decisions.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is getting a lot of attention. He called Trump and his associates “wackos.” Attacks on the idea proved largely ineffective in changing voters' minds.

In fact, none of the messages attacking Trump, whether for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol or his stance on abortion, have shown much potential to change voters' minds.

“Voters have been hearing about Donald Trump for nearly a decade now. If they are willing to vote for him based on that experience, a few ads or new jokes are unlikely to change their mind about him,” the pair wrote in an explanation of the survey.

The messages that showed potential to sway voters were those that tapped into voters' curiosity about Harris by explaining where she stands on key issues.

That's why both campaigns are pouring huge amounts of money into the race to define Harris' image to voters.

Harris has a big advantage so far because the news has been centered on her and her message over the last month, and she should be able to maintain that advantage for at least another week at the convention.

The Harris campaign has been trying to make the most of the spotlight, giving them a lucky head start in the race to determine how voters view the vice president.

The election will likely hinge on how effectively Harris can use that time to build up her image before an expected Republican onslaught begins to chip away at it.

What else to read

This week's poll: While the U.S. view of Mexico has become more negative, Mexico's view of the U.S. has become more positive..

Must-reads for Saturday: Are Black voters really outpacing Democrats? Data from recent elections tells a more complicated story.

and others.A. Times Special: Adam Schiff expands already large lead over Steve Garvey in California Senate raceThe findings are based on a new poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times and the University of California, Berkeley's Institute of Government Studies.

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