OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has confirmed that she will not attend a traditional charity dinner in New York City for presidential candidates, becoming the first to do so since Democrat Walter Mondale skipped out in 1984.
According to the New York Post, Harris won’t be at the Al Smith dinner, an event at which both presidential candidates roast each other. The light-hearted venue, sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York, raises funds for needy women and children.
Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has agreed to attend the Oct. 17 event. “Harris’s camp says she will instead campaign in key battleground states on the final stretch before election day,” The Post reported.
Since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy attended together in 1960, it has been a tradition for both presidential candidates to attend the dinner, where they take turns delivering speeches that roast each other. Archdiocese spokesperson Joseph Zwilling told The Post that officials found out Harris would not be attending on Saturday.
“We are disappointed that she will not be with us, as this is an evening of unity and putting aside political differences in support of a good cause of helping women and children in need regardless of race, creed, or background,” Zwilling said. “We hope she reconsiders.”
The Harris campaign said she would be willing to attend the dinner but only if she’s elected president.
The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, which was first held in 1946, raises millions of dollars for needy residents of New York City, The Post said.
Though held annually, the dinner is especially notable during election years when presidential candidates traditionally appear and exchange lighthearted jabs for charity. Harris will be the first to decline an invitation since Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter’s Vice President, did not attend in 1984 while running a losing campaign against President Ronald Reagan, according to Zwilling.
In 1996, the Archdiocese of New York chose not to invite then-President Bill Clinton and his Republican challenger, Bob Dole, reportedly due to Clinton’s veto of a late-term abortion ban, as reported by the Associated Press.
“The dinner is named after the former governor of New York, who was the first Roman Catholic ever nominated to run for president by a major party in 1928. This year’s event will be held at the New York Hilton Midtown,” The Post noted.
While Harris has received fawning media coverage and has never really been pressed about her policy positions—including several flip-flops—since being anointed the Democratic Party nominee by President Joe Biden over the summer, she still hasn’t managed to build much of a lead over her GOP rival.
And, in fact, according to one of the country’s leading pollsters, despite all of her favorable press, she and Trump are essentially tied, according to Nate Silver.
“With all seven states polling so closely, I don’t really have an intuition beyond what’s in our forecast, which is 50-50, almost exactly,” Silver told CNN on Friday.
“Look clearly, Harris has some kind of momentum post-debate. The thing that would worry me a little bit if I were Democrat is that she had the same momentum earlier on in the campaign and then had a very flat to negative period afterwards. So, can she sustain the good vibe, so to speak, that she had before? You know, to me, Trump seems pretty off-kilter recently. It’s a bit more subjective,” Silver continued.
“But we’re not going to wake up on November 5 with a lot of certainty about the outcome. We might not go to bed on November 5 with a lot of certainty, either. You could even have a recount 2020 style or 2000 style, rather, in one or more key swing states,” he added.