Gay Gov. Jared Polis defends Kamala Harris’ evolving & more moderate policy positions

Out Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) recently went on Fox News and explained why Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, has recently changed her progressive position on several issues.

During the 2020 election cycle, Harris publicly supported bans on fracking, mandatory buy-back programs for assault weapons, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, a single-payer “Medicare-for-all” healthcare system, and possibly expanding the U.S. Supreme Court, but she has since backtracked on all of these, Axios noted. Her shift has upset progressive voters and compelled Republicans to characterize her as a flip-flopping “Kameleon” who changes her political identity depending on her audience.

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“The truth of the matter is, yes, she’s come to the middle. She’s pragmatic, she’s a tough leader, she’s the leader we need for the future,” Polis said on Fox News Sunday, according to The Hill. “So again, while she may have in the past ran on things, just as President Trump ran on single-payer—supported single-payer health care years ago and has moved away from that—Kamala Harris did support things that she’s now moderated.”

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“She’s going to be a president for all the American people,” he continued. “Look, whether you’re conservative, whether you’re moderate, whether you’re liberal, I think you’re going to see a lot of your priorities reflected in President Harris, who’s really just out for the people, as she said, fighting to make housing more affordable, improve our schools, make education more affordable and strengthen the jobs market.”

Presidential candidates infamously shift their policy positions when running for the Oval Office, going more moderate after having tacked left or right to win the primary.

Polis also defended Harris from criticisms about not sitting for a mainstream media interview since she replaced President Joe Biden as the presidential nominee. Harris, who has since conducted several interviews with social media influencers, will sit for a CNN interview alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), on Thursday.

“She’s already taking questions at a number of different venues as she’s moving in and out,” Polis said.

Polis recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention and spent the majority of his speech highlighting Project 2025‘s plan to attack Americans’ reproductive rights. Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation’s Christian Nationalist blueprint to staff the federal government with loyalists to former President Donald Trump and roll back civil rights and protections.

“Here on page 562, it says that Donald Trump could use an obscure law from the 1800s to single-handedly ban abortion in all 50 states, even putting doctors in jail,” Polis said while holding a large bound copy of the 900-page blueprint. “Page 486 puts limits on contraception. Page 450 threatens access to IVF. On page 455, Project 2025 says that states have to report miscarriages to the Trump administration. Page 451 says the only legitimate family is a married mother and father, where only the father works.”

“Project 2025 would turn the entire federal government and bureaucracy into a massive machine. It would weaponize it to control our reproductive and personal choices,” Polis added. “Democrats welcome weird, but we’re not weirdos telling families who can and can’t have kids, who to marry or how to live our lives.”

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