Why Isn’t Harris Winning More if Trump is So Bad? By J.E. Dean

I heard less about Kamala Harris’ momentum this weekend. This morning, I read that Trump is leading in four of the seven battleground states. All this follows a three-week period that should have been an election disaster for Donald Trump. He is getting crazier in his name-calling. He flip-flopped on reproductive rights. And he just is not looking well. I read one tweet on X that questioned whether he would “make it” to November.

What is happening? Shouldn’t the Harris-Walz ticket be surging? Younger, low-income voters who favored Trump before President Biden’s exit from the race now support Harris by double digits. Does that mean that Trump is picking up support elsewhere to partially offset other losses in support?

I do not know the answers and am not sure I want to know them. I frequently question the choices of Trump voters, but I am not ready to call them idiots, “deplorables,” or suggest they should not have the right to vote. I wonder about the enthusiasm for Trump demonstrated by many of the ex-president’s followers. What are they enthusiastic about? In interviews, these supporters do not seem to be the type of people who have read all 900+ pages of Project 2025.

One explanation for Trump’s resilience in the polls is that Harris’ economic message is not what many voters want to hear. Promises to tax corporations and billionaires, for example, often fall on deaf ears. People do not believe that taxing Bill Gates or Elon Musk will solve their personal problems. Instead, many believe the new taxes will be evaded or, worse, wasted by the government before benefiting people that could use help. Many voters still believe Reagan’s claim that “Government is not the solution to our problem; it is the problem.”

Many voters, especially White males, also remain skeptical of Harris, which is to say they do not trust her. Some simply do not want a woman in the White House. But others believe Trump when he says that she is a communist bent on destructing America. By destructing America, he means imposing new rules and regulations meant to create a more equitable society. These voters assume some of those rules and regulations will change their lives. One claim I have heard many times is that employment opportunities will go to “minorities” (who is the minority these days?) at their expense.

Trump appears confident that a combination of “destroying the brand” of Harris and Walz while promising to close the border and end inflation (isn’t inflation already ending?) will be enough to win the election. He may be right.

The Harris agenda should be attractive to most voters. A more equitable society is a safer one. And most of us do not like housing shortages that result in homelessness, school-age children not being properly fed, unavailable health care to many, failing schools, and more. The problem, I think, is that it is difficult to communicate proposal details to skeptical, sometimes lazy, voters.

 A call to stop millions of undocumented immigrants from entering the country is simpler to understand than a detailed plan to expand housing opportunity by tax credits, promoting denser housing in cities, and other similar regulations. Harris is not yet trying to educate voters on her proposals, apparently believing that slogans like “We won’t go back” are all that is needed to win in November. For example, she is not attempting to explain how her proposal to address the housing shortage would work, how it would impact individuals. All I hear is that it will be easier to buy a house if you are a low-income person.

So, what is my advice to the candidates? If I wanted Trump to win the election, I would tell him to visit a hypnotist who would help him focus. Without the craziness, Trump’s message, racist as it is, would reach more voters who might support it. Trump, in other words, is his own worst enemy. His base is fine with his simple MAGA agenda, but they are starting to worry about his age and sanity.

I, of course, do not want Trump to win. My advice to Harris is to get comfortable talking policy in greater details while being careful not to offer policy proposals that lend themselves to Trump’s demagoguery. Moderate and independent voters are hungry for a candidate who is not Trump, but they also need to be comfortable with that candidate. They hunger for an intelligent discussion of policy alternatives.

Harris has the first part nailed. She is the antithesis of Trump in likeability, ethics, energy, and more. The second part requires stronger performances in interviews, a better-than-expected showing at the September 10 debate, and the ability to not succumb to Trump’s attacks on her gender, ethnic background, and history as a California progressive.

Can Harris do it? Our future may depend on it.

J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant. He writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects.