Cooking videos show Harris’s sweeter side
“USUALLY I stuff under the skin and then let it sit in the fridge for a day or two with a lot of salt outside,” says Kamala Harris, staring down the camera. It isn’t Mike Pence, the vice-president, that she is roasting today, but a free-range chicken.
The kitchen is not an environment in which voters are used to seeing the Democratic vice-president hopeful. But it has become more common as she has used Youtube and Instagram to change her public perception from a crimebusting, no-nonsense straight talker, to a more approachable, biscuit-baking Martha Stewart type.
Ms Harris’s videos showing how to make masala dosa, monster chocolate chip cookies and tuna sandwiches have been watched by millions. “Voters feel
an ability to sense whether somebody is ‘one of us’ or not if they have a relationship to food that sits well with them,” says Prof Rebecca Gill, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas political scientist.
It’s something Britons know all too well. A bacon sandwich derailed Ed Miliband’s political career, while eating a hot dog with a knife and fork left voters suspicious of David Cameron. Ms Harris’s clips mark a departure from a social media back catalogue focused on women’s rights and criminal justice reform and may be a response to Donald Trump calling her “nasty” and “angry”.
Female politicians can find themselves stuck in what academics describe as the “double-bind dilemma” where they are seen as competent or likeable, but rarely both. From Italian meatballs to Jamaican rice and peas to southernstyle bacon fried apples, Ms Harris’s favourite recipes are likely to appeal to a range of voters.
“The decision to jump on the food blogging trend might well be strategic and Harris is a smart woman,” said Prof Gill. “But I don’t think it is disingenuous because what we are seeing is a woman showing a different side of herself that is normally hidden – and that is something many women know all too well.”