> Three weeks into her presidential run was the first time the Biden campaign’s pollsters — now hers — held a deep-dive call with Kamala Harris’ inner circle to discuss what she’s been saying on the stump.
> Over the line came a lot of praise, but also some suggested tweaks. First, said veteran Democratic numbers man Geoff Garin, summarizing their analysis, stop saying, “We’re not going back.” It wasn’t focused enough on the future, he argued. Second, lay off all the “weird” talk — too negative.
> Harris’ advisers listened. They considered the arguments. They decided to stick with what the crowds were chanting in the arenas.
> When advisers who had been on the call briefed the vice president on the suggestions, according to CNN’s conversations with close to a dozen people involved with internal campaign decisions, she told them she wasn’t going to listen to the pollsters herself and would instead trust the instincts she had buried under self-doubt for so long.
> Harris has shocked even people close to her with how she’s been coming across in the just four weeks since she became a presidential candidate. Many political obsessives who had largely written off the vice president can’t understand how a woman whose early struggles they still keenly remember is now projecting as succinct and punchy, comfortable onstage and in her own skin.
Acentooate on
″Too negative″
″Not focused enough on the future″
I think these people froze their political instincts in the late 90′s/early 2000′s and have been thawing them out for use bit by bit ever since.
jaiwithani on
Unpopular hot take: the Biden campaign people have a point. “We’re not going back” and “weird” are base-optimizing messages that empirically don’t move the needle for swing voters. But the base is very activated now and there’s not much more to be gained by pressing the “make people who were already going to vote for you anyway feel good” button. The overwhelmingly most important priority from now until the end of the campaign is to appeal to cross-pressured swing voters.
3 Comments
> Three weeks into her presidential run was the first time the Biden campaign’s pollsters — now hers — held a deep-dive call with Kamala Harris’ inner circle to discuss what she’s been saying on the stump.
> Over the line came a lot of praise, but also some suggested tweaks. First, said veteran Democratic numbers man Geoff Garin, summarizing their analysis, stop saying, “We’re not going back.” It wasn’t focused enough on the future, he argued. Second, lay off all the “weird” talk — too negative.
> Harris’ advisers listened. They considered the arguments. They decided to stick with what the crowds were chanting in the arenas.
> When advisers who had been on the call briefed the vice president on the suggestions, according to CNN’s conversations with close to a dozen people involved with internal campaign decisions, she told them she wasn’t going to listen to the pollsters herself and would instead trust the instincts she had buried under self-doubt for so long.
> Harris has shocked even people close to her with how she’s been coming across in the just four weeks since she became a presidential candidate. Many political obsessives who had largely written off the vice president can’t understand how a woman whose early struggles they still keenly remember is now projecting as succinct and punchy, comfortable onstage and in her own skin.
″Too negative″
″Not focused enough on the future″
I think these people froze their political instincts in the late 90′s/early 2000′s and have been thawing them out for use bit by bit ever since.
Unpopular hot take: the Biden campaign people have a point. “We’re not going back” and “weird” are base-optimizing messages that empirically don’t move the needle for swing voters. But the base is very activated now and there’s not much more to be gained by pressing the “make people who were already going to vote for you anyway feel good” button. The overwhelmingly most important priority from now until the end of the campaign is to appeal to cross-pressured swing voters.