The 2024 presidential race reset, 1 month later...
In a word, 🤬!
It’s been exactly one month since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, and well, it’s not entirely clear that things have truly gotten better.
Sure, we no longer have two octogenarians (or near-octogenarians) running for the nation’s highest office this November. But it’s not like now-Democratic presidential nominee (and current Vice President) Kamala Harris chose a candidate that does much to widen her coalition in Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
When I last wrote about this race a few weeks ago, I hypothesized that Harris would choose a vice presidential nominee who would help her expand the Democratic coalition and ultimately bring her closer to the 50%+1 necessary to win in November. I figured she’d tap someone like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly for the nomination — both moderates from swing states who’ve established themselves as dealmakers willing to cross party lines to get things done.
Instead, like Trump did with Vance, Harris doubled down on her liberal base with Walz. Sure, Walz will help bring some additional voters to the fold — including your traditional “blue dog” Midwestern Democrats and pro-gun/pro-military voters, for example — but not nearly as many as a Shapiro or Kelly veep pick might have.
Yet if you listen to the media, you hear Republicans — and some in the Trump camp even — expressing buyer’s remorse over the Vance selection. You don’t have that on the Democrats’ side, and it’s not because Walz is still in the honeymoon phase, either.
During a controversial appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists in late July, Trump remarked that “[t]he choice of a vice president makes no difference.” And to some extent, Trump is 💯 correct.
Where Trump (and Vance) are wrong is in their strategy and messaging. Rather than attack the Democratic ticket for their progressive policies and/or records, they’ve chosen to belittle and castigate them. And when Trump and Vance aren’t bullying Harris or Vance, they’re picking on Biden and his senility — not his politics — even though he’s no longer on the ballot in November!
Over the last couple of weeks alone, Trump and Vance have collectively:
Poked fun at Kamala Harris’s unique laugh
Questioned Harris’s ethnic heritage (she identifies as both Black and Indian)
Defended past attacks related to her lack of naturally-born children (“childless cat ladies”)
That’s not even getting into the attacks that are blowing back on all parties involved, such as the questions over Walz’s military record or the revelation that second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s original marriage ended because of a scandalous affair.
NEWSFLASH: Personal attacks do not win you political campaigns. We’re not that far removed from a time when people literally voted for a candidate (George W. Bush) because they felt more comfortable grabbing a beer with him than they did his opponent (Al Gore). And that was after Bush’s consultants (including Karl Rove, one of the architects of the modern GOP political campaign) decided that the blue-blooded, Yale grad, son of a former President needed to change his entire demeanor to better connect with the average Joe while running for governor of Texas in 1994.
Sure, Harris has yet to release a full slate of policy initiatives as the Democratic presidential nominee (as of this writing, her only major statements have been on the economy). Nor has she had an official press conference or media interview since replacing Biden on the ticket. Yet Harris has been a public official for decades — including her time as a U.S. Senator from California — and is a current member of the Biden administration.
Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from my home commonwealth of Pennsylvania, released this genius video shortly after Harris jumped into the race in July.
While McCormick is using the video to tie his Democratic opponent — U.S. Senator Bob Casey — to Harris after Casey endorsed her for president, McCormick does so strictly by focusing on Harris’s record of liberal policies while in office and during her ill-fated bid for POTUS back in 2019. McCormick doesn’t call her names, or make fun of her ethnic heritage, or any of the other dirty smear tactics that Trump and co. have resorted to — he sticks to what the voters care most about.
They say that the Harris/Walz campaign is leaning into the concept of “joy” as it develops its messaging strategy — and who could blame them when all their opponent does is tear them down bit-by-bit, piece-by-piece? Americans are exhausted of all the negativity and in a “change” election, they’d rather turn to hope and optimism — even if it means more of the same policies — than anger and violence.
For much of this campaign cycle, Republicans have held the edge in polling when it comes to the issues — particularly when it comes to handling the economy and immigration. Yet recent polling suggests that Harris is gaining ground on several key issues, making the race more competitive as we head toward November.
It’s gotten so bad that many top Republicans, including former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have publicly urged the former president to stop the name-calling and get back to the issues. Instead, Trump’s taken to meandering press conferences at his lavish estates in Florida and New Jersey — under the guise of delivering policy speeches or major announcements, mind you — and even going so far as to assert that he thinks he’s “entitled to personal attacks."
He’s even hired additional senior staff for his presidential campaign, all of whom will continue to drive home the doubling-down message rather than mix things like his allies are begging him to do.
Meanwhile, Harris is out and about on the campaign trail, giving the voters exactly what they want to hear while simultaneously nailing the delivery. Wearing a powder blue suit to give a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina (home of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels) is 🧑🍳💋 — well, unless you’re a Duke Blue Devil, that is!
Maybe one day, society will be civil enough that we’ll be able to return to the days of Robert’s Rules debates and checks-and-balances and working together for a common good. Until then, 🤬.