In just the 24 hours after Kamala Harris jumped in the presidential race, right-wing activists dug in on debunked “side chick” allegations; House Republican Tim Burchett called Harris a “DEI vice president” on CNN; and old footage reemerged of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance listing Harris among “childless cat ladies” unfamiliar with the stakes of running the country.

Early Republican efforts to tamp down on this kind of racist and sexist messaging appear to be going nowhere — and it’s concerning some in the party that the GOP is only stepping in its own way.

“The 4 to 6% in the middle, we’ve got to realize they are the ones we’re all competing for. They watch that, and you better make sense on the merits of the case, not that stuff,” Republican Sen. Mike Braun told NOTUS, arguing that the personal attacks against Harris will hurt the GOP’s election chances.

In a Republican Party that can’t enforce message discipline like it once did, it’s unlikely these personal attacks are going to stop.

Republican leadership’s efforts to tone it down on Harris is running into a system that rewards those who know how to turn it way, way up, Sarah Isgur, former Trump Department of Justice spokesperson and Republican presidential campaign veteran, told NOTUS.

“The party may want to persuade independent voters that Harris’ policies will contribute to inflation,” Isgur went on. “But Congressman Rando isn’t interested in independent, persuadable voters because they don’t donate $5 a month. He needs viral moments on Facebook or cable news to get the money, and inflation has never gone viral.”

Republican Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday that this election “is going to be about policies not personalities. This is not personal regarding Kamala Harris and her ethnicity, her gender has nothing to do with this whatsoever.”

A memo from the National Republican Congressional Committee Monday night told Republican House candidates it is “vital” they are “on message and working together to present Kamala Harris as an extreme San Francisco progressive who is out of step with the American people,” as NOTUS revealed. In all caps, it beseeched Republicans to stick to that script. “DO NOT: Waste time talking about anything other than what Harris WOULD DO as President.”

But this messaging has not been consistent with Republican leadership. Monday’s National Republican Senatorial Committee memo explicitly flagged moments to emphasize listed under the category of “weird,” which includes “laughing at inappropriate moments.”

Several congressional Republicans waved off admonishments against personal attacks. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson and Florida Rep. Greg Steube said they were victims of personal attacks from Democrats, “Nancy Pelosi called me a domestic terrorist, how does it not get more personal than that?” Steube said.

Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman repeated the “DEI hire” line to a reporter.

Many of the attacks against Harris are coming from the top.

Even before Harris had jumped in, Donald Trump crudely referred to a long-standing GOP attack on the vice president over her brief relationship with San Francisco politician Willie Brown in the 1990s in a July 4 Truth Social post. Dismissing Harris as a “DEI hire” also has been common among conservative pundits long before Burchett’s quote to CNN.

On Monday, the Associated Press published a fact-check on right-wing attacks that have started to resurface as Harris rises. They included baseless attacks questioning Harris’ citizenship and her racial background.

If personal attacks continue, it could also hurt Republicans’ stated campaign strategy of reaching voters of color this cycle, Republican strategists told NOTUS.

“I do think Republicans are, and should be, cognizant of looking like a bunch of racist, sexist jerks. That’s particularly relevant right now with apparently a lot of African American votes in play, a lot of immigrant votes in play and … a lot of Asian Americans, including Indian Americans, having gotten more conservative or at least ‘conservative-curious,’” former RNC communications director and Republican campaign messaging guru Liz Mair told NOTUS over email.

“The only people I know who find the ‘DEI President’ line interesting or compelling are white, male, conservative voters — and those people are already either in Trump’s camp or they’re weirdo third-party or write-in voters who will never vote for Trump or Harris,” Mair continued.

Meanwhile, the Biden turned Harris campaign team — after months of laying the groundwork for a campaign for an old white man — now must strategize around this different kind of attack from the right.

“What we saw in 2020 and what we’ve seen over the last three and a half years, it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Kimberly Peeler-Allen, political consultant and co-founder of Higher Heights, an organization advancing Black women’s political power, told NOTUS in mid-July of a potential Harris candidacy. “This is going to be nasty, it is going to be divisive, it is going to be just incredibly sexist, incredibly racist.”

This week, she said the quick rally from Democrats around Harris has helped build momentum to combat the attacks. Part of the strategy she’s said she’s seen as effective from working with Black women candidates is that surrogates should be the ones to address the personal attacks head-on. “Having validators who will push back against the racism, sexism and misogyny and calling it out while not repeating the statement is going to be critically important,” Peeler-Allen said. “She herself does not need to get into the hand-to-hand combat of defending herself.”

Democrats have been ready to go. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rebuked her Republican colleague for using the “DEI hire” line on X, “What women who attack others like this don’t realize is whoever they think they’re appealing to calls them ‘DEI’ too the moment they leave the room.”

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Claire Heddles is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Evan McMorris-Santoro is a reporter at NOTUS.