Less than two days after effectively clinching the Democratic presidential nomination this week, Vice President Kamala Harris was introduced to a crowd of 6,000 Black women, all dressed in their sorority colors, as “America’s No. 1 lady.”

“When I was a United States senator, I would see this group of powerful leaders walk through the halls of Congress in white and blue,” Harris said at the national meeting of Zeta Phi Beta in Indianapolis. “I always knew I was looking at some of the most powerful advocates for justice in America.”

That night, former President Trump’s rally in Charlotte, N.C., was full of testosterone, as he recalled “The Hulkster” and Kid Rock speaking at his party convention and the night he overcame bullets “flying” at him during this month’s assassination attempt.

“They said ‘Sir, we have a stretcher for you,’” Trump recounted. “I said, ‘That’s not going to look very good if I get carried out on a stretcher.’”

Less than a week into a reframed general election, it is clear that the race between Trump and Harris is not just between a man and a woman, but about competing notions of gender roles.

Trump has built his image on hyper-masculinity from an era where men sought to present themselves as physically strong and might dismiss allegations of sexual assault by claiming “she’s not my type,” as he did before losing a civil case against E. Jean Carroll. Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White lauded Trump’s toughness as they introduced his convention speech last week.

Harris has achieved a number of firsts in an age when women could redefine power in feminine clothes, while adding issues such as maternal health and reproductive rights to the national agenda. She has made her mark in the Biden administration by leading the fight to restore abortion rights and continued to push that message during appearances this week.

In a historical coincidence, Trump not only faced off against the first woman to lead a presidential ticket, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but is now facing off against the second.

Clinton embraced the role of glass ceiling breaker in 2016 but ultimately lost to Trump, who had no qualms about physically blocking her out during a debate. Harris is eager to erase that history and taunted Trump on Thursday by accusing him of “backpedaling” after he declined to agree to a Sept. 10 debate commitment that was originally scheduled with President Biden.

Trump sounded annoyed with the excitement around Harris as he sought to diminish her during Wednesday’s rally by casting her as a lightweight liberal.

“Putin laughed at her like she was nothing,” he said of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has often praised.

“I’ve never seen a turnaround like this,” he added, blaming the media for the hype. “Three weeks ago, four weeks ago she was the worst politician in America. Now they say: ‘Isn’t it amazing? Look at her. She’s so beautiful.’”

The size of the divide between male and female voters will likely determine the election. Trump beat Clinton among men — 52% to 41% — while Clinton won the women’s vote — 54% to 39% — in 2016. Clinton won the popular vote, but Trump’s margins with blue-collar men helped him defeat Clinton by small margins in several swing states, where she was not able to make up enough ground with college-educated women.

The candidates narrowed the gender gap in 2020, with Biden winning women 55% to 44% and Trump winning men only 50% to 48%, according to post-election analyses by Pew.

A New York Times-Siena poll released Thursday shows Harris within a percentage point of Trump among likely voters, carrying women by 15 points but losing men to Trump by 16 points. The wider margins are closer, but not identical, to the 2016 election. The electorate has also changed: Women outnumbered men in the college-educated workforce for the first time in 2019 and continued through the pandemic, according to Pew.

Sen. Laphonza Butler, a Democrat from Los Angeles and a longtime political ally to Harris, cautioned against comparing Harris’ race to Clinton’s or defining the election by gender, arguing that Harris is building a broad coalition that includes Black women, Latinas, the LGBTQ+ community, as well as men.

“We are where we are in 2024, not 2016,” said Butler, who led the women’s political group Emily’s List before being appointed to the Senate last year.

The 2022 Dobbs decision overturning abortion rights affects both men and women, as did the pandemic, Butler said.

“We have seen our children struggle to recover, which impacts mothers and fathers,” she said. “And so to make a gender story — or to try to somehow, I think, minimize the totality of what it’s going to win this election — even if it’s going to be close, is not telling the whole story.”

That hasn’t stopped Harris from leaning hard into her vision of female empowerment. Her first official campaign video launched Thursday used the Beyoncé power anthem “Freedom,” which she also plays at campaign events. In the video and speeches this week, Harris has put “freedom to make decisions about your own body” at the center of her message, along with gun violence, healthcare, child poverty and Trump’s legal problems.

“In this moment, we are in a fight for our most fundamental freedoms,” she said at an American Federation of Teachers convention in Houston on Thursday. “And to this room of leaders, I say: Bring it on.”

Harris’ message so far seems especially resonant with women, who have filled online events this week. Rochelle Allen said Harris is “our only hope right now” as she waited for her to speak in Houston.

But the 74-year-old from Detroit, who teaches at Wayne State University, is also worried and would have preferred Biden stay in the race. She came of age when women were taught to put men first and allow them to lead, even in her church where she now serves as a pastor, she said.

“There are some people who just won’t vote for a female to be the leader. That’s backwards thinking, but it is the truth,” she said. “That’s why it’s really important that everybody else get out to vote.”

Gun control activists are ramping up spending to elect presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris president and help Democrats capture the House of Representatives in November. 

GIFFORDS, a gun violence prevention group founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, on Friday announced a $15 million campaign targeting battleground state voters. The ad buy is for television, digital advertising and direct mail, as well as for sending Giffords and surrogates to stump for Harris and down-ballot candidates who support tougher gun laws. 

“With just over 100 days until election day, GIFFORDS will redouble its efforts to support champions who are committed to saving lives — including ensuring that Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the next president of the United States,” said Emma Brown, executive director for GIFFORDS.

The multi-million dollar campaign will focus on swing states like Michigan and Arizona for the presidential election, and swing congressional districts in California and New York, which could determine control of the House of Representatives next year, NBC News first reported.

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“Across the country, Americans are crystal clear: they want elected leaders who stand up to the gun lobby and put public safety first,” said Brown.

GIFFORDS pointed to internal polling conducted in June that found 70% of American voters in battleground districts are “extremely” or “very” concerned about gun violence. The group argues that key groups of voters — particularly women, Latino and Black Americans — strongly support tougher gun laws and will make the difference in close races if motivated to get to the polls.

“This year is critically important, and we look forward to supporting allies committed to preventing gun violence at every level of government — from the state legislative level to Congress, and giving Vice President Harris effective governing partners when she wins in November,” Brown said. 

A Fox News poll conducted in June found that 45% of Americans ranked guns as an “extremely important” issue, making it the 7th most “extremely important” to voters out of a list of 10 issues. The highest-ranked issues were “Future of American democracy” (68%), “Economy” (66%) and “Stability and normalcy” (58%). 

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Giffords exits following a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, July 25, 2024 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti)

Erich Pratt, the senior vice president for Gun Owners of America, a Second Amendment group, cast doubt on the contention that gun control is a motivating issue for large swathes of voters.

“It’s undeniable that the policies of Kamala Harris and this administration are responsible for the crime crisis our nation currently faces. Threatened confiscation of common self-defense firearms, coupled with soft on crime officials at the state and local levels in major urban centers across the country, have not helped Americans feel safe,” Pratt told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

“If groups like GIFFORDS really cared about reducing violence, they’d be urging Harris, a former prosecutor herself, to mobilize U.S. attorneys offices against violent criminals. But instead, they would prefer to push unconstitutional disarmament that leaves everyday Americans defenseless. That won’t play well with swing state voters.”

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Harris prepares to swear in Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) with his wife Gabrielle Giffords in the old senate chamber for the Ceremonial Swearing on Jan. 3, 2023, in Washington, D.C.  (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Gabrielle Giffords, a former Democratic representative from Arizona, was grievously wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt when a gunman shot her in the head at an event in her district. The former congresswoman co-founded her eponymous group a decade ago to “end the gun lobby’s stranglehold on our political system,” according to the GIFFORDS website. 

Her husband is Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who is reportedly one of the top contenders to be Harris’ running mate. 

Giffords appeared at an event for Harris on Thursday at the Salt & Light church in Pennsylvania, where she met with community activists in Philadelphia. The predominantly Black neighborhood where she spoke has been impacted by gun violence, including an incident last weekend in which three people were killed and at least six others wounded. 

Giffords spoke briefly about her long recovery from the shooting in 2011, which killed six people during a meeting with constituents at a Tucson grocery store. Harris’ other surrogates, including Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton, framed the November presidential contest as a choice between Harris, who would sign a ban on assault weapons, and more gun violence under Republican Donald Trump, who gun-rights groups back.

“We are overwhelmed with violence all across America from rural Pennsylvania to inner city neighborhoods like where we are today,” McClinton said. “We as voters can make a decision on having a more violent United States or safer communities in every part of America.”

Both Giffords and McClinton, an ally to Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is also under consideration for the Democratic vice presidential nomination — dodged questions about the veepstakes. Giffords aides told the Associated Press the event had long been planned before President Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris for his job, and certainly before her husband emerged as a potential candidate to run on the 2024 ticket. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

James Reem has lived in a tent on the corner of Fell and Baker streets for more than a year. An artist by trade, he said he was evicted from his apartment after troubles with his landlord and for a time lived out of a van. After the van got towed, someone gave him a tent and he turned to the streets.

His tent sits outside the city’s only DMV office, across the street from the Panhandle, a lush strip of greenery that opens into Golden Gate Park in a family-friendly neighborhood adorned by rows of manicured Victorians.

It’s a comfortable spot, said Reem, 59, with a sidewalk wide enough to accommodate his tent and still leave room for pedestrians. Some days, Reem is one of a dozen or more tent-dwellers on the concrete stretch.

“There are a few of us that stick together,” Reem said.

His adopted neighborhood is among dozens of sites likely to be targeted as the city launches what Mayor London Breed has said will be an assertive campaign to force people off the streets in response to a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

An estimated 8,300 people are living homeless in San Francisco. And despite a years-long effort to move people into temporary shelter or permanent housing, unsanctioned encampments remain a widespread and visible problem, often accompanied by garbage, theft and open drug use.

For years, Breed and other city officials said their hands were tied by decisions issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers many Western states, that deemed it cruel and unusual punishment to penalize someone for sleeping on the streets if no legal shelter was available.

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision in a pivotal June 28 ruling, saying that cities in California and the West may enforce laws restricting homeless encampments on sidewalks and other public property.

On Thursday, citing the ruling, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring state agencies to remove encampments in their jurisdictions. While the directive doesn’t require cities to follow suit, Newsom urged them to do so, characterizing the proliferation of encampments as a health and safety hazard that requires immediate action.

Breed, a fellow Democrat, has also embraced the ruling. She said last week that, armed with the high court’s decision, she will spearhead a “very aggressive” effort to clear homeless encampments beginning in August. She said the effort could include criminal penalties for refusing to disperse.

Breed was not available for an interview Friday, and her office has yet to provide details of what the sweeps will entail or where people living in tents are expected to relocate. Her spokesperson, Jeff Cretan, said some of those details would come into clearer focus next week.

During a July 18 mayoral debate hosted by the local firefighters union, Breed acknowledged her decision to orchestrate sweeps was “not a popular” one but said it was a necessary step.

“We have had to move from a compassionate city to a city of accountability,” she said. “And I have been leading the efforts to ensure we are addressing this issue differently than we have before.”

She said the city has worked over the last several years to add shelter beds and disperse outreach workers to offer services and support. But even when outreach workers offer shelter, according to the mayor’s office, those offers are rejected nearly 70% of the time.

San Francisco has experimented with sanctioned tent cities in an effort to address the needs of its homeless population.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

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Breed’s crackdown is likely to offer headlines out of San Francisco that counter the narratives promoted by conservative pundits as Vice President Kamala Harris ramps up her presidential campaign. Her Republican opponents have long tried to paint Harris, who rose to political power in 2004 as San Francisco’s elected district attorney, as a California liberal whose policies have helped contribute to the surging homelessness and retail crime plaguing her home state.

But the Supreme Court’s ruling is proving divisive for California’s local Democratic leaders. More left-leaning Democrats, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, say the decision will allow cities to criminalize homelessness without doing anything to address the root causes, including addiction and a dearth of affordable housing. It’s a sentiment echoed by homeless advocates.

“This order won’t reduce homelessness or deter encampments, but it will leave vulnerable people even farther away from home and health than they are today,” Sharon Rapport, state policy director for the Corporation for Supportive Housing, said in an emailed statement.

Whether San Francisco has enough shelter beds to accommodate the potential wave of people pushed off the streets is unclear. Since Breed took office, the city has expanded shelter beds from about 2,500 to nearly 4,000, her office said, and has expanded permanent supportive housing to about 14,000 slots.

The DMV encampment where Reem lives is one of several that city officials have cleared time and again, only to see it return days later. So far this year, the encampment has been cleared more than a dozen times, according to the mayor’s office.

Reem says he feels safer outside than he does in an emergency shelter, where he worries about his belongings getting stolen. He said he would accept help from city workers. But he also said he thinks Breed’s plan is less about helping people like him than it is about clearing out tents that make the public uncomfortable.

“They’re not concerned about the homeless,” he said. “They’re concerned about getting rid of us.”