Democratic Party members and analysts worry that Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is facing a "tremendously huge problem" following Monday’s stock market plunge driven by mounting fears of an imminent U.S. recession.
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Democratic Party members and analysts worry that Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is facing a massive problem following Monday’s stock market plunge and mounting fears of an imminent U.S. recession.
"We cannot win if people think we’re headed into a recession," William Owen, a DNC member from Tennessee, said, calling Monday's market slide a "tremendously huge problem" for Harris.
Owen's warning came just days after a Morning Consult poll found that nearly four in five voters think the economy is very important in deciding their vote in November and that, despite Harris's recent gains, 50 percent of voters favor Republican nominee Donald Trump's handling of the economy, with 42 percent favoring Harris.
A number of Democratic strategists also expressed concerns over how the public perceives Harris's economic record after the financial market tumbled Monday, with global equities plummeting and the CBOE Volatility Index, known as Wall Street’s "fear gauge," surging to its highest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We, as Democrats, need to be honest. There are still voters out there who are concerned about [the] cost of living," said Mark Longabaugh, a top strategist for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). "Prices are the challenge we’ve faced all year. That hasn’t gone away."
Longabaugh described the economic challenge facing the Harris campaign as "surmountable" but conceded that "to a large degree, the economic elements are already baked into the feelings of the electorate."
Analysts attribute the market's downturn to the Labor Department’s disappointing jobs report on Friday and the Federal Reserve’s repeated interest rate hikes, both of which have heightened fears of a recession.
"Certainly [the market upheaval] is creating some instability now in our understanding of where the economy is going," Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg said. "But I think the American economy is strong and robust and can weather this little bumpy storm."
Trump, meanwhile, slammed Harris on his Truth Social platform shortly after the economic turmoil started on Monday. "TRUMP CASH vs. KAMALA CRASH!" the former president wrote. "Voters have a choice—Trump prosperity, or the Kamala crash & great depression of 2024."
"Negative news about the economy is going to weigh down the Harris campaign," pollster Micah Roberts told the Wall Street Journal. "This could usher in a precipitous end to the honeymoon period she was experiencing."
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