Progressives warn Harris needs to change closing message as election approaches

NEW YORK — Progressive Democrats warn Kamala Harris Unless he immediately changes his campaign’s closing message and heralds, he risks losing the support of a small but significant part of his political base.

Specifically, many progressive leaders believe the Democratic candidate has been too focused in recent days on winning over moderate Republicans at the expense of his own party’s passionate liberals. And they say Harris’ closing message is increasingly focused on Republicans. Donald Trump and the threat it poses to US democracy ignores the economic struggles of the country’s working class.

Some far-left leaders are also uncomfortable with Harris sharing the stage in recent days. Liz Cheney, former Republican leader of the House of Representatives and progressive icons like billionaire businessman Mark Cuban, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were relegated to low-profile roles.

“The reality is there are a lot more working-class people who would vote for Kamala Harris than conservative Republicans,” Sanders said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday.

Sanders stated that he did everything asked of him to help Harris win. He’s attended two dozen events related to Harris’ campaign this month alone, though mostly in rural areas. None of them ended up with Harris.

“He needs to start addressing the needs of working-class people more,” Sanders said. “I wish this had happened two months ago. Whatever.”

less than two weeks ago Election DayHarris is trying to build a sprawling coalition of voting groups with conflicting priorities.

He relies on the traditional Democratic base: African Americans, Latinos and overwhelmingly left-leaning young people. Harris’ team is aware that some liberals are disappointed with her approach, especially her support. Israel’s war against Hamas. But the campaign sees a huge opportunity to expand its coalition by winning over disaffected Republicans, especially college-educated voters in the nation’s suburbs who are uneasy about Trump.

From the Harris campaign’s perspective, focusing on moderate Republicans right now is just a matter of math.

The Democrat’s campaign rates 10 percent of undecided voters as still undecided or persuadable, according to an aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy. Of that 10%, about 7% are considered “Cheney Republicans” receptive to messages attacking Trump, the aide said.

At the same time, Harris’ campaign believes her primary political liability is the perception that she is far-left. Trump’s allies are slamming publications that accuse the former California senator of being a “radical left liberal.” That’s why he’s been reluctant to appear alongside progressive icons like Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist.

Harris instead made three separate appearances this week with Cheney, a staunch conservative who is an ally of Trump and has staunchly opposed him in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Harris is scheduled to give a major speech next week; This speech was a kind of formal closing statement focusing on the danger Trump poses to US democracy. He will give his speech Tuesday at the Ellipse in Washington, where Trump hosted a rally ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Frustrated progressives aren’t dismissing the need to warn voters about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, but some wish his closing message would focus more on addressing voters’ overwhelming pessimism about the state of the economy and the direction of the country.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, praised Harris’ ad team for “smartly” investing hundreds of millions of dollars behind ads focused on grocery prices, taxing billionaires and Social Security — “things that both win over and pump up swing voters.” above the base.”

But Green said: “There is a strange disconnect between the campaign’s economic populist advertising strategy and its event strategy, which focused almost entirely on Liz Cheney kumbaya optics and pushed the base to the right as voting got underway, and which has proven to win no more undecided voters than bread.” -and-butter problems.”

Others are disappointed that the Harris campaign does not include progressive leaders like Sanders or Ocasio-Cortez in high-profile spots.

Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the progressive group Our Revolution, suggested that as many as 10% of progressives may not vote for Harris out of frustration. He said some may not vote at all, and some may even support Trump. The former president called Cheney, a supporter of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a “stupid war hawk” trying to win the support of Arab Americans in Michigan who are angry at the more than 42,000 Palestinians killed in Israel’s Gaza offensive.

“We just want to raise a red flag. Do not underestimate the progressive movement,” Geevarghese said. “At the end of the day, there needs to be an economic debate. “That’s the No. 1 thing that matters to voters.”

Indeed, nearly 4 in 10 likely voters a recent CNN poll The economy was the most important issue when deciding how to vote, and nearly 2 in 10 said preserving democracy was important. About 1 in 10 cite immigration or abortion and reproductive rights.

Of course, Harris isn’t ignoring the economy or other progressive priorities.

In addition to lowering the cost of prescription drugs, he outlined plans to crack down on companies’ price gouging practices to help reduce the cost of groceries, increase taxes on billionaires while lowering taxes on the middle class, and offer a $25,000 tax credit for the first time. helping homebuyers lower their housing costs and expanding Medicare to cover vision and hearing insurance, among other things.

Ocasio-Cortez made three stops in Pennsylvania on behalf of Harris last week. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, a key Harris ally, has also been a steady presence on the campaign trail.

Former President Barack Obama, still beloved by many progressive voters, was active in the closing days of the campaign. He headlined an event with Harris for the first time in Georgia on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to lean into the issues his campaign sees as his strongest: the economy and inflation, immigration, crime and foreign policy.

The Republican candidate is preparing to outline his official closing message at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday, which is expected to focus on average Americans’ dissatisfaction with the direction of the country. He starts nearly every rally with some variation of: Are you in better shape now than you were four years ago?

“Kamala Harris disrupted the economy. He broke the limit. “President Trump is very clearly going to fix the economy and fix the borders,” Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said, arguing that because Harris was focusing on Trump, she wasn’t talking about how she would make life better for the vast majority of Americans.

Harris acknowledged at a CNN town hall this week that some progressives may be unhappy with her leadership, especially on Israel.

“But I also know that a lot of people who care about this issue also care about lowering food prices,” he said. “They also care about our democracy and not having a US president who admires dictators and is a fascist.”

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Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Zeke Miller in Washington and Jill Colvin in Tempe, Arizona, contributed to this report.