Former President Donald Trump’s appeal in the “Blue Wall” states might be too strong for Vice President Kamala Harris to overcome, Democrats indicated this week in fear of losing the presidential election.
Seven states — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina — will decide the president, political experts believe. If Trump wins one or more of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Harris’s chances of obtaining 270 electoral votes become narrower.
“She’s done an amazing job not only uniting the base but exciting the base, but the key question right now is, can she appeal to the voters Democrats have always needed to put us over the top?” a Democrat strategist told the Hill of Harris’s challenges in the Midwest. “I think there is still some concern that she can do this.”
Trump leads Harris in Pennsylvania and Michigan. He is tied with her in Wisconsin, the most recent Emerson College poll found Thursday.
“Everything I’ve always heard is she doesn’t have that many relationships in Pennsylvania, and she hasn’t established any kind of identity here,” another Democrat strategist based in Pennsylvania acknowledged on Monday. “Obviously, it’s a very big difference with Joe Biden.”
To shore up Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) appears to be on the shortlist as Harris’s pick for a running mate. “We need to keep that exuberance going, particularly among young people, but we can never forget we don’t win the presidency without probably Pennsylvania, and you don’t win Pennsylvania without doing okay in western Pennsylvania,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) told MSNBC’s Morning Joe last week.
“We also need to appeal to that guy who’s a hunter in west Pennsylvania who doesn’t like Donald Trump and just be conscious of that fact that our job is to expand the coalition, not to do and say things which will turn off, by and large, and I hate to stay this [sic] your union-oriented blue collar folks in the Midwest,” he added.
Another shift Harris appears to be making to not lose the Keystone State is an alleged flipflop on fracking, a process that fuels American energy independence and boosts Pennsylvania’s economy. Despite the flipflop by an anonymous campaign source, Harris said multiple times in public that she opposes fracking.
“There’s no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking,” she said in 2019.
“Even in this short period, the vice president still has time to reintroduce herself to voters and to redefine what people think of her,” Democrat strategist Rodell Mollineau told the Hill. “As she talks more about her vision and her record of accomplishment as attorney general, senator and as VP, some of these voters will come towards her.”
Fracking is not the only policy Harris allegedly tried to reverse. Citing anonymous campaign officials, the New York Times reported Monday that Harris wants to increase funding for the border and does not want to require people to sell their assault weapons back to the government.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
