Vice President Harris is entering the “negative” phase of the campaign.
With polls exceptionally tight in the seven swing states likely to decide the presidential race, Democratic sources close to the vice president's campaign say Harris is expected to step up her attacks against former President Trump in the final weeks of the campaign.
“They are definitely heightening the contrast,” said Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, who served as Harris’s communications director until last year.
“Democrats believe and have evidence that Donald Trump is a threat and there are voters that believe Donald Trump is a threat to their way of life. So the more you make him a threat, the more likely it is to get those voters to support Harris,” he added.
Simmons and other Democratic strategists and operatives point to the closing months of the 2022 midterms, when Democrats successfully closed that cycle making the threat to Democracy — along with other issues like abortion — among their top issues.
“And it turned out to be the right call,” Simmons said.
Another Democratic strategist said the campaign feels as though they need to close on the contrast between Harris and Trump and remind voters of Trump’s actions and his bombastic rhetoric.
“They’ve done a lot of her biography up to this point,” the strategist said. “But the fact of the matter is Donald Trump is still the biggest turnout machine for Democrats.
“If you're a Democrat trying to figure out how to turn your base out, focusing on Donald Trump is a good way to juice the numbers."
Harris, who has been the Democratic nominee since the late summer, spent much of the past three months introducing herself to voters as a longtime prosecutor and stepmom. In that time, she has had to produce policy papers, tailor her messaging while continuing to build the campaign apparatus that President Biden had begun.
Now, allies say, that phase is over and the shift in strategy is palpable: This week, Harris began to dial up the rhetoric on Trump during interviews, at campaign rallies and on the airwaves in ads.
The focus on Trump comes at a time when the Harris campaign has seen its poll numbers plateau and as she has struggled to secure the votes of key voting blocs including Black and Latino men.
As a result, Democrats have openly expressed worry in recent days that Harris runs the risk of losing to Trump, a nightmare scenario for Democrats who do not want a repeat of then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s 2016 defeat.
Harris allies say the best way of securing Democratic voters while also luring moderates and Republicans who are looking for the other options, is to home in on Trump himself.
Almost in real time, Harris has offered pointed critiques of Trump’s most recent controversial comments. At times, she has even played video of his comments at her rallies, as she did earlier this week.
During a rally in Wisconsin on Thursday, Harris pounced on Trump’s comments this week at a Univision town hall when he called the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol “a day of love.”
“So now, we here know Jan. 6 was a tragic day. It was a day of terrible violence. There were attacks on law enforcement — 140 law enforcement officers were injured, some were killed. And what did Donald Trump say last night about Jan. 6? He called it a ‘day of love,’” Harris said.
“The American people are exhausted with his gaslighting,” she added. “We are ready to turn the page.”
On Monday, while appearing in Pennsylvania, Harris lambasted Trump over his comments from earlier this week that the U.S. military should handle “the enemy from within” on Election Day.
“You heard his words, coming from him. He’s talking about the enemy within … he’s talking about that he considered anyone that doesn’t support him, or who will not bend to his will, an enemy of our country,” Harris said.
Later, she added, “He’s saying he would use the military to go after them … and we know who he would target, because he has attack them before: Journalists whose stories he doesn’t like, election officials who refuse to cheat by finding extra votes for him, judges who insist on following the law instead of bending to his will. This is among the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous.”
The Harris campaign also put out a new ad this week titled “Enemy Within” that highlights Trump using the phrase while also playing clips from former Trump administration officials.
“There will be no one to stop his worst instincts,” says Kevin Carroll, a former Trump Homeland Security official, in the ad. “Unchecked power. No guardrails. If we elect Trump again, we’re in terrible danger.”
Earlier this year, before President Biden dropped out of the race, he and Trump had sought to make this election a referendum on the other side. But that became increasingly more difficult for Biden as a sitting president struggling with poor approval ratings.
But Democrats say with Harris at the top of the ticket, she can focus on making the closing argument about Trump, telling voters she represents change while he represents the past.
“In many ways, it allows Kamala to be the Kamala that people saw when she served on the Senate Judiciary committee,” a third strategist said. “It’s Kamala the prosecutor making the case against the felon. And we know who will likely win that argument.”
