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Posts tagged ‘Harris Walz Campaign’

Harris Campaign Adviser Admits Poll Lead Over Trump Was Misleading


American Patriot | October 18, 2024

Read more at https://libertyonenews.com/harris-campaign-adviser-admits-poll-lead-over-trump-was-misleading/

A senior adviser to the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz presidential campaign has admitted that the perceived lead Harris held over former President Donald Trump in recent polls was not as significant as it appeared. David Plouffe, a veteran political strategist and adviser to Harris, made this revelation during an interview on the popular podcast Pod Save America over the weekend, sparking concerns about the direction of the campaign. Plouffe’s comments revealed that the comfortable lead over Trump that had been reported in recent months was, in fact, misleading. “This is the race we have; it’s the race we expected,” Plouffe said, explaining that the race between Harris and Trump is much closer than earlier polls suggested. He added, “I don’t think it’s going to open up for either candidate. I think it’s going to be close all the way in.”

Plouffe discussed how a string of polls over the past month had shown Harris with a comfortable lead over Trump, but this lead quickly evaporated as more recent data became available. He explained that the earlier polling numbers did not reflect the true state of the race, leading to what he described as a “freakout” within Democratic circles.

“I think the freakout is because there were a bunch of polls, I’d say in the last month, that showed a lead for Kamala Harris that was not real,” Plouffe said during the interview. “It’s not what we were seeing. We’ve seen this thing basically be tied, let’s say, since mid-September.”

According to Plouffe, Harris never had a commanding lead over Trump, and the race has been neck and neck for some time. The perceived lead, which some media outlets and polls suggested was in Harris’s favor, was not backed by internal campaign data. Instead, both candidates have been running in a tight race that will likely stay competitive until the election day.

Plouffe emphasized that the Harris campaign anticipated a tight contest from the beginning and was not counting on an easy victory. He reminded listeners that, in key battleground states, the race will likely be decided by a very slim margin. “This thing’s going to be decided on the margins in these few numbers of states,” he said.

Drawing parallels to the 2020 election, Plouffe warned that the Harris campaign must prepare for another razor-thin outcome. In 2020, Trump lost to President Joe Biden by narrow margins in several swing states, and Plouffe suggested a similar dynamic is at play in 2024.

While the Harris campaign holds hope for broader support, Plouffe noted that Trump appears stronger this election cycle than in 2020. “We have a higher ceiling,” Plouffe said of Harris’s potential to win over undecided voters, “but I also think Trump is stronger than he was in 2020.” This statement acknowledges the possibility of Trump gaining ground among voters who previously voted against him or were undecided in the previous election.

For the Harris campaign, the challenge lies in mobilizing voters, particularly in key battleground states. Plouffe’s comments suggested that Harris’s path to victory will require a combination of energizing her base and winning over swing voters in states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin.

Pollsters and political analysts have echoed Plouffe’s sentiment, predicting that the 2024 presidential election will hinge on turnout and voter enthusiasm. While Harris may have a “higher ceiling,” her campaign must work harder to tap into that potential, especially as Trump’s base remains energized and highly motivated.

Plouffe’s remarks also highlight the growing strength of Trump’s candidacy. Despite facing legal battles and controversies, Trump has maintained strong support among his base, and recent polls indicate that he is competitive in key states that he narrowly lost in 2020. This newfound strength has made the 2024 election even more challenging for the Harris campaign.

Former President Trump has remained a formidable opponent in the political landscape, and his influence over the Republican Party is stronger than ever. Plouffe’s comments suggest that the Harris campaign is well aware of the challenges ahead, particularly as Trump continues to rally his supporters with promises of a return to power.

David Plouffe’s candid assessment of the Harris campaign’s standing in the race against Trump offers a sobering look at the reality of the 2024 election. While earlier polls may have shown Harris with an edge, the truth is that the race is far closer than previously thought. As both campaigns gear up for the final stretch, the Harris team faces an uphill battle in maintaining momentum and ensuring high voter turnout.

With Trump’s growing strength and the narrowing of the polls, the 2024 election promises to be a tightly contested battle that could once again be decided by just a few thousand votes in critical swing states. Both sides are bracing for a fierce fight to the finish, as the stakes for both parties could not be higher.

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Political

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Are UK Labor Party and Harris Campaign Headed for Legal Jeopardy?


By: Hans von Spakovsky | October 18, 2024

Read more at https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/10/18/are-uk-labor-party-and-harris-campaign-headed-for-legal-jeopardy/

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks Sept. 12 at a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The United Kingdom’s Labor Party and Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign may be marching into the same legal jeopardy as the Australian Labor Party and Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president did in 2016: violating federal law that bans foreigners from financial involvement in American political campaigns.

Various news sources report that Sofia Patel, head of operations for the Labor Party in the U.K., is recruiting members to campaign for Harris in swing states such as North Carolina, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

As a former member of the Federal Election Commission, the agency responsible for civil enforcement of federal campaign finance laws, I can tell you that the law on this is quite clear:  52 U.S.C. § 30121 prohibits any foreign national from making “a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value” in connection with a federal, state, or local election.

As the FEC’s website explains, that ban doesn’t prevent a foreigner from participating in “campaign activities as an uncompensated volunteer” although even as a volunteer, the foreigner cannot “participate in the decision-making process of the campaign.” But this also means that if the members of the U.K. Labor Party who are interfering in our 2024 election process aren’t really volunteers, then Patel, her party, and the Harris campaign are potentially in a lot of trouble. 

If Patel and the Labor Party are paying any expenses for party members, including travel costs to get to the U.S. or any kind of salary or stipend, then they are violating the law. And if the Harris campaign accepts their help, then the campaign also is violating the law. That is exactly what happened in 2016 to the Australian Labor Party and Sanders’ campaign for the U.S. presidency. 

As the 2018 agreement to settle the enforcement action (MUIR 7035) filed by the FEC against the Labor Party explains, the Sanders campaign accepted “seven delegates” from the Aussies to work in four locations. These individuals were part of “an international program that sends delegates around the world to engage with progressive, social democratic, and Labor parties,” the document says. The so-called volunteers not only had travel expenses covered by the Australian Labor Party, but they also received a stipend from the party.  In other words, they were being paid by the Australian Labor Party to work for the Sanders campaign. Those payments constituted a “prohibited in-kind foreign national contribution in violation of” federal law, as the settlement agreement outlines.

The Australian Labor Party claimed that the purpose of the program “was to learn best practices and skills in progressive policy and campaign development” and that the party “did not intend to influence any election.” That claim obviously doesn’t pass the laugh test.

In order to settle the case, the Australian Labor Party agreed to pay a civil penalty to the FEC of $14,500 and to “cease and desist” from violating federal law. The Sanders campaign— “without admitting liability”—agreed to pay a similar civil penalty of $14,500 and to stop violating the law. Why? Because it is also a violation of the law for a campaign to accept a foreign financial donation or in-kind contribution. By accepting the assistance of foreign-paid staffers, the Sanders campaign broke federal law.

By the way, even if the U.K. Labor Party were to work independently of the Harris campaign without any coordination or communications between them, it still potentially would violate the law.  An FEC regulation, 11 CFR 110.20, explains that foreign nationals also are banned from making any “independent expenditure, or disbursement in connection with any federal, state, or local election.”

It seems a bit far-fetched to believe that the U.K. Labor Party would send “volunteers” to the U.S. without paying their way, or that these volunteers would know what to do in a foreign country without any communications or coordination with the campaign they are here to assist. But even if that is true and the foreign nationals are engaging only in independent campaign expenditures, they are still breaking the law. In any event, the U.K. Labor Party is going down a dangerous road that may result in legal action against it.

Apparently, the party hasn’t learned the lesson from its brethren in Australia, who discovered that interfering in a U.S. election has consequences. Patel, as the party’s operations chief, might want to give the Aussies a call.

The Harris campaign should publicly reject this assistance and inform the U.K. Labor Party that its members aren’t welcome to play in American politics. Otherwise, the vice president’s campaign will be saying that it welcomes foreign interference in our election process—as long as it’s progressive interference that helps Harris’ side of the political aisle.

Hans von Spakovsky is a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, but Heritage is named in this commentary for identification purposes only. The views expressed are the author’s own and don’t reflect an institutional position either for Heritage or its Board of Trustees.

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