Conservative writer warns Kamala Harris 'could actually win' despite being a 'tragically flawed candidate'
Harris is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A prominent conservative writer warned Republicans that Vice President Kamala Harris could win the presidency despite being a "tragically flawed candidate."
"She’s a tragically flawed candidate, but so is Trump, who doesn’t have the media cheering for him from here to November," National Review's Charles C. W. Cooke wrote in a column published Thursday titled "Kamala Harris could actually win."
Harris has succeeded her boss, President Biden, as the presumptive Democratic Party nominee after Biden withdrew under pressure from the race and endorsed her on Sunday. She has rapidly consolidated support and endorsements, and also brought in huge fundraising hauls, to effectively clinch the nomination ahead of next month's Democratic convention.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}HARRIS EDGES CLOSER TO TRUMP IN NEW POLL CONDUCTED AFTER BIDEN'S WITHDRAWAL
National Review senior editor Charles Cooke warned Republicans that Vice President Harris could still win the presidency despite being a "tragically flawed candidate." ((Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images and Joe Raedle/Getty Images))
Cooke argued that "small shifts in sentiment" brought on by positive press coverage for Harris can "quickly add up" in a divided country.
"If the question in play here were solely, ‘Is Kamala Harris a good candidate?’ my answer would be an emphatic, unalloyed ‘No[,]’" the columnist said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"But that’s not the sole question — or even the material question," Cooke continued. "The material question is whether Kamala Harris and her as-yet-unappointed VP aspirant can win an election against Donald Trump and JD Vance. And I absolutely, unquestionably, categorically think that she can."
"The Biden-Harris administration is by no means loved," he wrote. "Joe Biden is the most unpopular president in modern history, Kamala Harris is the most unpopular vice president since polling began, and, in the minds of the average voter, the years that those two have been in charge of the executive branch have been stained with inflation, waste, incompetence, a tornado of illegal immigration, a series of crises abroad, and, most recently, a dastardly conspiracy to cover up the president’s senility."
TRUMP QUICKLY MOVES TO DEFINE HARRIS AS 'MORE LEFT THAN BERNIE SANDERS'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance. (Getty Images)
Despite the unpopularity of the Biden administration, Cooke also said that voters "still do not like" the leading Republican ticket, Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
"Donald Trump is unpopular," Cooke wrote. "JD Vance is unpopular. In every Senate contest other than West Virginia and (perhaps) Montana, the Democrat is running away with the race. Insofar as the GOP has a good shot at the presidency this year, it is because much of the electorate dislikes the incumbents marginally more than it dislikes the GOP. That, though, could change."
"If, as it ought, the Republican Party wishes to prove me wrong in my suspicion, it’s going to have to escape from its post-convention jubilation — and work like hell," Cooke wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Harris and Trump campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.