Through the Finish Line
Anyone’s race: “The candidates are statistically tied among likely voters in each of the seven swing states in the Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, with the razor-thin margins in these battlegrounds underscoring how the final blitz of advertising, rallies and door-knocking campaigns could decide who claims the White House,” reports Bloomberg. “Across all seven states, the candidates are in a dead heat, with 49% support each among likely voters. The poll’s overall statistical margin of error is 1 percentage point.”
In Arizona and North Carolina, Donald Trump is leading by a tiny margin, still very much within the margin of error so it doesn’t even really mean much; in Georgia, Trump and Kamala Harris are tied, per Marist College polls released overnight. Quinnipiac polls released yesterday show that Harris leads Trump 49 percent to 46 percent among likely voters in Michigan. In Wisconsin, the two are tied.
Though the economy is still the No. 1 issue for voters, they’re becoming a bit more bullish: “About two-thirds of swing-state likely voters say the economy is on the wrong track, down 5 points from a year ago,” notes Bloomberg. Fewer swing-staters say that they’ve noticed price increases over the past month compared with how many noticed price increases when asked a year ago.
No concessions: On Tuesday, NBC News’ Hallie Jackson asked Kamala Harris what “specific concessions” she would be willing to make with the GOP in order to pass nationwide abortion legislation if she’s elected president—for example, not forcing Catholic hospitals to provide abortions and other religious exemptions for those who oppose the procedure. Harris responded: “I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body.”
“It’s a question that’s out there because it’s not a guarantee that Democrats will win control of Congress,” followed up Jackson. Harris again declined to answer. “I’m not going to go down that rabbit hole with you right now,” she said, saying at one point that she wouldn’t entertain hypotheticals. “Let’s start with the fundamental fact. A basic freedom has been taken from the women of America, the freedom to make decisions about their own body. And that cannot be negotiable, which is that we need to put back in the protections of Roe v. Wade, and that is it.” There’s something very Biden-esque about how Harris seemed almost pissed off at the question itself.
Regardless of your thoughts on abortion, this answer is bad for two reasons: One, she’s failing to extend olive branches to moderates, and two, she’s already a bit harmed by the correct public perception that she lacks legitimate policymaking experience. Embracing pragmatism and signaling that she’d be able to work well with a Republican Congress might be a smart move for Harris.
Does Harris have a closing pitch? I’ve been searching far and wide for what Harris’ pitch to voters is as early voting starts and election day nears. Though her campaign has been short, spanning basically three months (August, September, and October), she’s struggled to formulate a clear message other than that she’s the candidate of joy. At times, she’s distanced herself from her earlier run for president and the progressive causes du jour she championed back then; she has mostly pitched her policy priorities as a continuation of Joe Biden’s agenda, just more, while also emphasizing that she’s pretty law-and-ordery and a champion of abortion rights.
Her pick of Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, showed she wanted an attack dog able to go after the Trump/Vance ticket, versus a pragmatic pick like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who could’ve shored up a swing state, but then her campaign mostly…hid the buffoonish Midwesterner from the media, with him doing very few cable news hits following his sele
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