Jen O’Malley Dillon, the chairwoman of Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, which became chairwoman of Kamala Harris’ race for the White House after the president’s resignation on Sunday, released a memo on Wednesday that offers the first clues about the plan with which the Democratic Party intends to defeat the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, who is still ahead in the polls.
The lengthy document, more than 2,000 words long, can be read as Harris’ wish list to become the first female president in US history. To achieve this, her strategists hope, the support of black, Latino, Asian-American and Hawaiian voters, as well as women and young people, will be crucial. The strategy also involves doubling ambition in states that Biden had given up for lost.
“With a popular message, a strong track record on the issues that matter most to undecided voters, a multiplicity of avenues to reach 270 electoral voters [que garantizarían la presidencia] and unprecedented enthusiasm [traducido en un récord de recaudación de 126 millones de dólares en tres días, provenientes de 1,4 millones de donantes]the vice president is in a strong position to take on Donald Trump and win in 104 days [los que quedan hasta las elecciones]“,” writes O’Malley Dillon.
The memo provides data from relevant polls chosen to illustrate the supposed preference of major minority voters. Not only do they lean more toward Harris over Trump, but they would also choose her over Biden, the polls say. The shift of Latino and African American votes to the Republican Party was one of the most pressing issues for Biden’s campaign before it came to an abrupt end on Sunday. Harris already has a majority of delegates to accept her own mandate at the Democratic National Convention in August, barring the highly unlikely event that something goes wrong along the way.
A Quinnipiac University poll indicates that the vice president has a 54-point lead over the former president among African Americans, while an internal party survey would confirm that Harris is now much more popular among Hispanics than Biden. According to the data provided by the document made public on Wednesday, the vice president’s “net favorability” over Trump is 21 points among women, and 25 points among young people.
“About 7% of voters remain undecided in this race,” the Democratic campaign chairwoman writes, “and these voters are disproportionately African American, Latino, and under 30. These [siempre según las encuestas que manejan] are twice as likely to be Democrats as Republicans.”
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In all these population groups, O’Malley Dillon believes that the issue of abortion will be crucial, and that the Supreme Court ruling that repealed it at the federal level two years ago will cause “many who did not vote for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020” to do so now, as they did, he says, in the 2022 elections “when the Republican Party became increasingly extremist. These voters supported the Democrats in 2022, and it will be essential to keep them in 2024.”
The right vice president
The memo also proposes expanding the battlefield in November and aiming to win decisive states that Biden had all but given up on. The president focused his electoral efforts before the withdrawal on what is known as the “blue belt” and which refers to Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, key to the Democratic victory four years ago. O’Malley Dillon is betting on not losing hope in other key territories, such as North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, and, to do so, choosing the right vice president will be essential: the list of finalists includes politicians such as the governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, or the senator of Arizona, Mark Kelly.
Another goal of Harris’ campaign is to get Trump to identify with Project 2025, a 900-page document that includes, among others, proposals to dismantle the federal government. It is promoted by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and the former president has distanced himself from it. “I know some of the people who have participated in writing it,” Trump acknowledged last week at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, “but I don’t agree with many of the things they advocate, some of which are absolutely ridiculous and terrible.”
The Democratic memo also insists on the strategy of presenting Harris’ fight against Trump as that of “the prosecutor against the convicted criminal.” “32% of the [votantes] Independents said the conviction [por los 34 cargos de los que fue hallado culpable el expresidente en el caso Stormy Daniels] makes them less likely to support Trump, with 21% saying this would be an important factor when casting their vote,” the document reads.
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