It’s almost like she’s an albatross
Senate Democrats running away from Harris in ‘blue wall’ states
Democrats running for the Senate in “blue wall” states that will be critical to determining the outcome of the 2024 election are running away from Vice President Harris, signaling that they are hoping to win over some of former President Trump’s voters to keep their seats.
And Democratic candidates in those states have been careful about criticizing Trump during the high-stakes debates. They have focused on policy and their own records without taking many — or any — shots against the Republican nominee.
Pennsylvania incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D) has even embraced Trump’s tariff policies. His campaign launched an ad last week that described him as “independent” and touted how he “bucked” the Biden administration to protect fracking and “sided with Trump to end NAFTA.”
“There’s no party affiliation in Casey ads. I don’t recall seeing any that say ‘Democrat’ or anything like that. He’s running as an incumbent on his own record,” said Berwood Yost, the director of the Center for Public Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College.
“He’s trying to distance himself a little bit from an administration that is viewed negatively by the most part. He doesn’t want to be tied to that either through Biden or Harris,” he said.
He’s not the only one. And plenty of Democrats running for the House and state positions are avoiding Harris if they are in competitive races, because they know she won’t help them. This reminds me of how Democrats avoided Obama in 2012 and 2014, after they took a shellacking in 2010. In fairness, Obama was one of the best campaigners of all time. He was good. Really good. But, he was only good really for Obama. And Harris isn’t anywhere near as good as Obama. Obama had a PhD. Kamala is in 3rd grade.
Meanwhile, after hanging with Bruce Springsteen in Georgia on Thursday, here’s Friday
To what point? Kamala ain't winning Texas. People won't be there to see Harris, but, to see Beyonce lip sync. And, does the Harris campaign really think trotting out a big time celeb helps these days?
— William Teach2 ??????? #refuseresist (@WTeach2) October 24, 2024
Seriously, why waste time in Texas? It’s great for Trump if she’s wasting time, but, this is a really, really dumb move with less than two weeks to go.
One theory is that the Democrats know that Harris is going to lose. They have known it since Biden was going to lose. Their own poling makes it obvious that they cannot ignore it or wish their way out of it. Their candidate is a baloney sandwich. They are just doing what they can to salvage the down ticket races to retain some power in the House and Senate.
Also, there is some value in a major party to keep the machine oiled for next time.