Kamala Harris stood in the Washington Ellipse shortly after dusk, one week before Election Day.

Before her, the biggest crowd of her short candidacy, stretching to and spilling out on the National Mall. To the left of the vice president, the U.S. Capitol where, she reminded the assembled audience, Donald Trump, the former president whom she called “a petty tyrant,” had sent “an armed mob” to overturn “the will of the people.” Behind her in the distance, the White House. And an unpopular president.

President Biden did not attend because, as he explained to reporters earlier in the day, “This is her night.” But her big speech was his democracy argument all over again.

Biden had returned to politics with the lofty, and often expressed, goal of saving democracy. When that threat did not recede, as Trump tightened his grip on the GOP from exile, his warnings became more frequent. Ahead of the midterms, Biden warned of “an extreme MAGA ideology” that could end the experiment in self-government all together. He likened Trumpism to “semi-fascism.” He said his past, and future opponent, was an aspiring “dictator.” He described the preservation of democracy in campaign ads as the “central issue of my presidency.” But it did not work. At least not for Biden.

He consistently trailed Trump and never once pulled ahead of him in the RealClearPolitics Average. So when Harris succeeded him as the Democratic nominee earlier this summer, the vice president set aside the boilerplate. Trump had not changed. She just preferred to talk generally about “freedom” and specifically about everyday issues facing American families.

Voters engaged in democracy still report serious concerns about its future, though. A recent New York Times/Ipsos poll found that three quarters of Americans believe it’s under threat. In the final stretch, Harris has returned to the foundation that Biden built.

Back in the Ellipse, she cast the looming election as part of the........

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