Tipsheet

Politico's Headline About Kamala's Campaign Right Now Says It All

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  October 07, 2024 11:25 AM

We’re in the thick of it now: less than a month from Election Day, and Kamala Harris’ campaign schedule is featherweight light. This should be when a presidential candidate is expected to do multiple rallies and interviews. We know that will not happen with Kamala being a serial disaster in front of the camera. Donald Trump is everywhere, and the energy emanating from Republicans is reportedly making everyone in the Harris orbit consume excessive amounts of Pepto Bismol (via Politico): 

Democratic operatives, including some of Kamala Harris’ own staffers, are growing increasingly concerned about her relatively light campaign schedule, which has her holding fewer events than Donald Trump and avoiding unscripted interactions with voters and the press almost entirely. 

In interviews with POLITICO, nearly two dozen Democrats described Harris as running a do-no-harm, risk-averse approach to the race they fear could hamper her as the campaign enters its final 30-day stretch. 

[…]

“There’s a time at which you just have to barnstorm these battlegrounds,” said David Axelrod, the longtime Democratic operative who helped lead Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and was an early critic of President Joe Biden’s campaigning style. “These races are decathlons, and there are a lot of events, and you have to do all of them because people want to test you.” 

“It’s the most difficult oral exam on the planet for the most difficult job, and part of that is just that spontaneous — town halls, all kinds of interviews, and not just friendly interviews. OTRs where you interact in a substantive way with people, all of those things are valuable,” he continued. “And I would be doing them if I were her.” 

[…] 

Democrats acknowledged Harris is performing better than Biden and the excitement surrounding her candidacy has increased the party’s cash advantage. She’s also put the Sun Belt swing states back in play. But they’re also growing more distressed that a campaign insisting Harris is the “underdog” is running like she’s protecting a lead. 

While the plan is for Harris’ travel to ramp up in October, the vice president has spent more than a third of days since the Democratic National Convention receiving briefings from staff and conducting internal meetings, or without any scheduled public events, according to a POLITICO review of her travel. That excludes days with known official side business, like her late September meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates, at the White House, last week’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and briefings she received at FEMA’s headquarters in Washington earlier this week. 

Of the remaining days, the vice president spent just a little more than half of them holding rallies, policy-focused speeches, events with labor unions and other in-person, public-facing events, including stops at small businesses, in swing states. And she has spent nearly half of her post-DNC days in Washington. 

She has planned some of the interviews with people who publicly endorsed Harris. She’s also not in the lead. The Trump vote will be underestimated again; a two-point lead will not be enough to win. Joe Biden had a 4.5-point lead over Trump in 2020—it was barely enough to win. Kamala is nowhere near that margin.