Inside Harris' strategy for shaping her personal story

• It's a contrast to how Hillary Clinton handled such queries eight years ago as the Democratic presidential nominee with a chance to make her own history in the White House.

Clinton's campaign leaned into the historical nature of her candidacy early and often.

• "We've reached a milestone in our nation's march toward a more perfect union: the first time that a major party has nominated a woman for president," Clinton said in accepting the Democratic nomination in July 2016.

Driving the news: Harris also would be the first Black woman and South Asian woman to be president.

• She doesn't dwell much on that either, but in some speeches has mentioned her pride in graduating from a historically Black university (Howard) and belonging to Alpha Kappa Alpha, one of the "Divine Nine" Black sororities and fraternities.
• At a time when she's under pressure to do more interviews, she has increasingly sat for those with friendly, diverse audiences, such as the Rickey Smiley Morning Show.
• This Tuesday, she'll sit for an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists, the same group that was hosting Trump when he questioned whether Harris is Black.

For the most part, Harris has cast her personal story as that of someone who grew up in a middle-class family with immigrant parents.

• There's a strategy behind that: it has allowed her to promote her plans to boost the middle class — and contrast her upbringing with Trump's.
• "In bad times, it doesn't help to refer to yourself as the first, the first, the first, because people think that makes you a riskier choice," said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who worked on President Biden's 2020 campaign.

Between the lines: Harris' playbook is likely in part an effort to appeal to the undecided voters who could determine the election, Jean Sinzdak, an associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics, told Axios.

• "Undecided voters are about the policy positions or how they feel the candidate is going to help them," she said. "The identity piece of it is not going to speak to those potential voters."
• "It's obvious that she's a woman, that she's a woman of color," former Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) told Axios. "Why does she have to tell people that?"

When asked during the debate to respond to Trump's comments late July falsely claiming that Harris "became ... Black" for political gain, Harris again pivoted.

• "It's a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently, over the course of his career, attempted to use race to divide the American people," she said.

By the numbers: Voters are mixed on what kind of impact Harris' race and gender will have on the election, polls suggest.

• A Pew Research Center survey this month found that roughly 40% of voters said Harris' race and gender will help her in November.
• The survey said 19% thought her race would hurt her, while 30% said her gender will hurt her.
• Other polling also has shown that women candidates — particularly women of color — historically have been held to a higher standard of "electability" than male candidates, even if voters believe they're qualified.

Zoom in: Trump's advisers have urged him to avoid making identity-based attacks on Harris to try to avoid alienating women voters, among whom Harris already has a clear edge.

• Trump has made several mocking comments about Harris' identity on the campaign trail, which she has largely tried to brush off as his "same old tired playbook."
• Harris allies hope such comments by Trump will highlight the divisive aspects of his candidacy that could alienate swing and moderate voters.
• "It [also] doesn't help to engage in personal politics with Trump," Lake said.

Go deeper: Behind the Curtain: Trump's "caught on tape" women problem