OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Several Democrats are furious about Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign strategy with two weeks until the final vote in the 2024 presidential election.
The final straw for some came Tuesday morning, when the Harris-Walz campaign announced that rather than visiting any of seven key swing states, which most polls show are shifting away from the Democratic ticket, Harris would travel to deep-red Texas to give an abortion rights speech and stump with the party’s Senate candidate, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas).
“They are not thinking ‘Blue Wall’ at all. They are just not thinking. Her press operation is that of a first-time congressional candidate running as a sacrificial lamb,” one Democrat vented to The New York Post about the Texas trip.
“I think her press team actually works for Trump,” the disgruntled Democrat added, noting that in their opinion Trump has “made a better case for himself than her.”
While Michigan has been one of the best-polling states for Harris, according to public surveys, NBC News reported Tuesday that anxiety is growing inside the Democratic camp that the veep could lose the state’s 15 electoral votes — in part due to backlash over the Israel-Hamas war among one of the largest Arab American populations in the US.
Just last month, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who is in a tight Senate campaign, was recorded assuring funders that Harris, 60, was “underwater” in Michigan.
Trump has made 13 visits to Michigan this year, while Harris has only made nine since President Biden’s reelection effort ended in July.
Most of Harris’ rallies have been held in Detroit and Wayne County, a Democratic stronghold, leaving people in other parts of Michigan feeling excluded.
“I tell you what, Trump is here like every weekend,” one voter, Stephanie Smith, told The Post last week at a Harris event in Grand Rapids. “I’m getting sick of it, frankly. I wish he’d stop.”
“This is [Harris’] first stop in Grand Rapids, and we’re just two weeks away,” Smith added. “We’re the second-largest city in the state of Michigan.”
The bad news may not end there for Harris.
The “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have provided the road to the White House for the last few elections.
However, with only 14 days until the November 5 election, there are fears within Kamala Harris’ team about the vice president’s ability to win all three states. Harris’s team also worries that North Carolina has “slipped away.”
“Recent discussions have centered on the possibility of an anomaly happening this year with just part of the blue wall breaking its way. The conversations have focused on whether Michigan or Wisconsin “fall” to former President Donald Trump while the two other states go blue, according to three sources with knowledge of the campaign’s strategy,” NBC News reported.
“Losing Wisconsin or Michigan would mean that even if Harris secures Pennsylvania — where both Harris and Trump have spent the most time and resources — she would not reach the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the White House without winning another battleground state or possibly two,” the outlet added.
“There has been a thought that maybe Michigan or Wisconsin will fall off,” said a senior Harris campaign official, who stressed that the bigger concern is over Michigan.
Two other campaign strategists — who, like others in this piece, were granted anonymity to talk freely — expressed great concern about Michigan. Those people continue to believe that all states are near and that there are alternate paths to victory.
NBC News added: “But also potentially troubling for Democrats: What Harris’ campaign had thought was one of its best insurance possibilities may also be in peril. Just a few weeks ago, several Harris advisers in interviews pointed to the combination of electoral votes from North Carolina and Nevada as a strong alternative path for Harris should Trump win Pennsylvania and claim its 19 electoral votes. While North Carolina is still in the campaign’s sights and Democrats maintain strong organization and leadership there, the Harris team is far less bullish about victory, four people with knowledge of the dynamics said.”
“Of all of the seven [states], that one seems to be a little bit slipping away,” the Harris campaign official said of North Carolina.
According to these sources, Hurricane Helene’s devastation and the widespread information that followed could work against Harris in North Carolina.
