Democrats are worried the window for Vice President Kamala Harris to persuade undecided voters is closing despite her campaign’s more aggressive strategy.
Harris is encountering difficulties connecting with members of the traditional Democratic base, including black and Latino men, and those undecided voters could decide the election.
With less than three weeks until Nov. 5, Democrats, including South Carolina state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, concede the “persuasion piece” of the 2024 election “is over,” or it will be “by the end of this week.”
“People will have made up their minds,” Harpootlian told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t think anybody’s going to walk into that voting booth or two days before the election be undecided about where they’re going.”
“This is going to be trench warfare, it’s going to be all out, everybody’s all hands on deck,” the former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman said. “Raising money is important, but right now it’s about making sure all that money you invested in ensuring that the people that wanted to vote for Kamala Harris actually go vote.”
As part of her last-ditch appeal to undecided voters, many of whom are Republicans who do not support former President Donald Trump and are considering voting for the vice president, Harris granted her first interview with Fox News this week, sitting down with Special Report anchor Bret Baier for 25 minutes, during which he grilled her on her record and President Joe Biden.
“Let me be very clear: My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” she said. “I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresher new ideas. I represent a new generation of leadership.”
Fox News conducted the interview in the battleground state of Pennsylvania after Harris held an event with Republicans who have endorsed her, including former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger. There in Washington Crossing Historic Park, where George Washington crossed the Delaware River during the American Revolutionary War, the vice president encouraged other members of the GOP to put country over party.
“America must heed this warning, because anyone who tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has, anyone who has called for the quote termination of the Constitution of the United States as Donald Trump has, must never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States,” she said.
Then on Thursday, the campaign launched three new television ads “cementing the choice for undecided voters,” according to a Harris spokesman.
Republican-turned-independent Dan Schnur, who was communications director of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain‘s 2000 presidential campaign, withheld judgment regarding Harris’s strategy, contending it is a “little early to see the impact of this new approach.”
“But it’s clear that the Harris campaign has decided that a play-it-safe strategy was not going to work,” Schnur told the Washington Examiner. “We’ll see if getting more aggressive can help.”
Republican strategist Duf Sundheim, who will likely vote for Harris over Trump, agreed the vice president’s decision to grant an interview to Fox News was driven by polls that indicate “she’s trailing.” Harris and Trump are within the margin of error in national and battleground state polling averages, per RealClearPolitics.
“It’s too soon to gauge the impact, but before her blitz-lite, most of my female ‘canaries in the coal mine’ from swing states were saying they either planned to vote for Trump or not vote at all,” Sundheim told the Washington Examiner. “I don’t see her campaign shift having a significant impact.”
But unlike Harpootlian, Sundheim did admit “the cake isn’t baked” because some campaigns experience “late-stage momentum” that polls do not capture, particularly after a so-called October surprise.
“As people discuss how they’ll vote, there’s a tendency for a herd mentality to take hold,” Sundheim said. “In summary, we’re in the fourth quarter of this political game. While I can tell you the current score, the outcome remains unpredictable. However, unlike a football game, this contest won’t be decided ‘on the field’ — it will be decided in the stands.”
For Democratic strategist and pollster Stefan Hankin, it is “an impossible task” for Harris to completely upend the election’s dynamic “at this point,” especially because Trump supporters are “fairly motivated people” and there are no more debates.
“I mean, what could Trump do to lose supporters at this point in time that he hasn’t, right?” Hankin told the Washington Examiner. “Harris’s job for the next three weeks is just to remind all the less likely or on-the-fence voters how important this is.”
Of Harris’s strategy, Hankin argued, “When you lose, everything was a bad idea” and “everything you did was wrong or could be the thing that screwed it up.”
“I’m not seeing anything like what we saw in 2016 of, like, complete head in the sand. Like, ‘Everything’s fine, we’re gonna win this without having to go to Wisconsin’ or anything like that,” he said.
While Republicans criticized Harris’s performance on Fox News, specifically for not answering questions about how many illegal immigrants the Biden administration released into the country and when she recognized the border was a “crisis” situation, Democrats, including party strategist Christopher Hahn, praised the interview as a “great move.”
“There are a lot of Republicans who are tired of Trump but are skeptical about Harris,” the former aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told the Washington Examiner. “She has an opportunity to convince them she’s not the radical that so many of Fox’s opinion hosts paint her as.”
Harpootlian did say that Harris has only had “90 days to educate people about who she is and what her policies are, where she differs with Biden and where she agrees.”
“There’s a tremendous number of people in this country who believe whatever Donald Trump is peddling,” he added. “Having said that, I don’t believe a majority of Americans are buying it. And I believe, based on the data I’m hearing from the internal data from the campaign, and knowing what I know about their ground game, I think it’s going to be close, but I think Harris will prevail.”
Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh similarly defended Harris’s strategy, asserting the criticism “is largely misplaced” and sexist and contending, “This is a fight, and the best thing to do in a fight is fight.”
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“She’s doing everything and 10 times more than Donald Trump,” Marsh told the Washington Examiner. “Donald Trump is not running a campaign himself or appearing in places that is geared to win an election. Most of his rallies, frankly, of late, in particular, but in general, [are] like pouring gasoline on the country and then throwing a match after the election if he doesn’t win.”
“It’s more to keep his base engaged, and revved up, and pumped up for the election,” she said. “He’s not growing his vote share. He’s been at the same place for the better part of a year. He’s got a ceiling. He hasn’t moved.”
