Democrats are sounding the alarm over Vice President Kamala Harris losing voters after making risky decisions this late in the race.
Progressive Democrats told the Associated Press that Harris’ closing campaign message is costing her voters, and unless she changes her deliverance, it will also cost her the election. The outlet claimed that in recent weeks, the vice president is more concerned with winning over moderate Republicans than she is with her own party’s liberals. This comes after Harris took the stage with anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney (R-WY).
According to the outlet, some Democrats are frustrated that Cheney got VIP access to several events with Harris, while long-time party members feel they have been sidelined.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) feel Harris should focus on diehard Democrats rather than try and appeal to Republican voters who may be on the fence.
“The truth of the matter is that there are a hell of a lot more working-class people who could vote for Kamala Harris than there are conservative Republicans," Sanders told the AP. “She has to start talking more to the needs of working-class people. I wish this had taken place two months ago. It is what it is.”
With a little more than a week before the November election, Harris has seemingly stopped trying to rally support from the traditional Democrat demographics such as Black voters, Latinos, and young people. Instead, the vice president has taken a different approach in the days leading up to the election and tried to muster up the energy from undecided voters.
“The campaign sees a major opportunity to expand her coalition by winning over disaffected Republicans, especially college-educated voters in the nation’s suburbs, who are uneasy about Trump,” the AP noted. “From the Harris campaign’s perspective, the focus on moderate Republicans at this moment is simply a matter of math.”
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, slammed Harris’ tactics, saying that the vice president’s “Liz Cheney kumbaya optics” won’t shift the vote in her favor among swing states unless she begins talking about issues that are most concerning to voters.