Opinion: Where'd the joy go? Harris ditches happy vibes for fearmongering about Trump.

For a candidate who has inexplicably changed her view on every major issue, perhaps it’s not surprising that Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has also done a complete 180.

What began this summer with an explosion of “joy” and “good vibes” has suddenly morphed into something very different, now that we're closing in on the election.

Democrats seized on Harris’ happy persona and her big smile, and for a while, that seemed to be enough to put her within striking distance of former President Donald Trump. It also helped that she wasn’t her boss, President Joe Biden, whose decline had become impossible to cover up.

Harris’ initial jolt has fizzled, however, and polls indicate that she’s losing ground in these crucial final days of the campaign – while Trump is gaining it.

That’s why in recent days, the tenor of Harris’ campaign has changed dramatically from one of joy to one of fearmongering. Gone are the days of focusing on her “opportunity economy.” Now is the time for calling Trump a “fascist.”

Will scare tactics drive voters to Harris? Doubtful.

At several recent events, Harris doubled down on dire warnings about what a second Trump term would look like. From her residence in Washington, D.C., Harris told reporters Wednesday that Trump is “increasingly unhinged and unstable” and that he “wants unchecked power.”

Harris chose to respond to recent media interviews with John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff and a retired general. Kelly is quoted as saying Trump “falls into the general definition of fascist.”

Later that day, during a Pennsylvania town hall with CNN, host Anderson Cooper directly asked Harris if she thought Trump was a fascist. She said, “Yes, I do.”

So what’s driving this change in tone? It has everything to do with the polls.

Opinion: Why is Trump doing so well in the polls? It's the economy, stupid.

Several recent surveys show a tightening race – and one that’s going in Trump’s favor. A new Wall Street Journal poll found Trump leading Harris, 47% to 45%. In August, Harris led Trump by 2 points.

Also bad for Harris: Voters are seeing the vice president in a more negative light, with 53% viewing her unfavorably compared to 45% with a favorable opinion. Those numbers were tied in August.

Her job approval rating also has fallen, which puts it more in line with where she was before Biden dropped out of the race in July. While she has a -12 rating (54% disapprove; 42% approve), voters rate Trump’s job performance in office much higher, at +4 points, with 52% approving and 48% disapproving.

When it comes to the issues voters care about most, Trump also dominates. The Journal poll found that “by 10 points, more voters have a favorable than unfavorable view of Trump’s economic plan for the country, while unfavorable views of Harris’s economic plan outweigh positive views by 4 points.”

Similarly, a recent NBC News poll found that 45% of registered voters believe Biden-Harris administration policies are "hurting" their families, compared with only 25% who said they were helped by them. Comparatively, 44% of voters said they were helped by Trump policies when he was in office (31% said they were harmed).

This is why Harris wants to change the conversation.

Opinion: I'm a non-MAGA conservative. Sanctimonious liberals make me want to vote Trump.

Harris fails to define herself, so she’s making it about Trump

In case it’s not obvious what Harris is trying to do, she is scheduled to give a speech Tuesday at the same location outside the White House where President Trump gave his address shortly before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

She’ll drive home how scary it would be for the country and democracy if Trump were to win reelection.

Harris is having to ditch the joy and turn to this rhetoric because she has utterly failed to define herself to the American people and what her presidency would look like. She has time and again been unable to say what she’d do differently than Biden, including at the CNN town hall.

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To fill this huge void, she’s stuffing it with fear over Trump. This isn’t a new tactic, however, and it’s one that failed for both Hillary Clinton in 2016 and proved ineffective in more recent years for Biden. Recall Biden’s dark rhetoric during his speech in 2022 when he warned about Trump and MAGA’s “threat to democracy.” He even had an ominous blood-red background to underscore his point.

Biden also called Trump and his supporters proponents of “semi-fascism.”

The handwringing over Trump couldn’t save Biden’s campaign this year. Don’t count on it to help Harris, either.

We already know she’s not Trump. But we still don’t know who she is.

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Harris stokes fear of 'fascist' Trump as poll numbers slide