Special Poll
- The Harris campaign is positioning the 2024 election as a choice between two distinct visions for America, emphasizing a future-focused approach versus Trump’s focus on the past.
- During a rally in Las Vegas, Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted this contrast, stating, “This campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. It is about two different visions for our nation: one — ours — focused on the future; the other focused on the past.”
- Democratic pollster Paul Maslin noted that Trump’s age is a significant factor in this narrative, describing it as the “cherry on top” of the argument for change. Maslin questioned Trump’s mental sharpness and overall health, pointing out that while Trump may still play a decent game of golf, that alone may not inspire confidence in his leadership abilities.
- The irony of Trump facing age-related criticism is that his own campaign previously focused heavily on attacking Biden’s age, framing the 2020 election as a battle between strength and weakness. Now, Harris’s campaign has turned that strategy back on Trump, throwing the GOP’s messaging into disarray, according to Celinda Lake, a lead pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign.
- Lake expressed surprise at the GOP’s struggle to counter Harris, stating, “I am honestly surprised that they can’t catch their stride. They have no idea how to run against her, at least to date.”
- Trump has inadvertently provided the Harris campaign with ample material to highlight his age. In a recent 90-minute press conference in New Jersey, Trump meandered through a range of topics, from criticizing Harris’s stance on “price gouging” to discussing unrelated figures like Hillary Clinton, Nikki Haley, and even Cheerios. This event followed a series of similarly rambling appearances, including an interview with Elon Musk and a lengthy speech at the Republican National Convention.
- Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly noted on her podcast that Trump’s tendency to speak at length during rallies and press conferences has led to a loss of interest and engagement, something she attributes to age-related changes.
- The Harris campaign has been quick to capitalize on these moments, issuing a mock media advisory before Trump’s press conference predicting that he would “ramble incoherently.” After the event, they described his speech as “quite boring” and lacking coherence.
- This line of attack is easier for Democrats to pursue now that Harris, rather than Biden, is at the top of the ticket. Biden’s own verbal stumbles and memory lapses made it more challenging to criticize Trump on these grounds in the past.
- Despite positioning herself as a fresh face, Harris is older than some recent presidents when they took office, though younger than Trump, Biden, and Reagan. She and Trump are technically from the same generation, with Harris at the tail end of the Baby Boomers and Trump at the beginning.
- Nonetheless, Harris and Trump represent stark contrasts in many ways: Trump, a nearly 80-year-old white male real estate mogul from New York, versus Harris, an almost 60-year-old Black and Indian American female prosecutor from California.
- Democratic strategist Pete Giangreco emphasized that many Americans wanted something different from the 2020 election and that the Harris-Walz ticket offers a generationally distinct choice, contrasting sharply with the repetition of the past.