Kamala Harris’ most trusted pollster, David Binder, has revealed his insights into how the vice president should approach the final days of her campaign.
Binder is one of Harris’s longest campaign confidants, having worked with her for every race she has run, conducting qualitative research to help inform campaign strategy.
As Election Day nears, Binder said Harris should focus equally on promoting her strengths as she should highlighting Trump’s weaknesses.
“In my mind it has to be both, you cannot do one or the other,” he said, while appearing on an episode of the Pod Save America podcast broadcast on Sunday.
Binder said that Harris should focus on highlighting her “positive policy prescriptions that are going to help the middle class, bring down costs, make sure healthcare is affordable.”
Voters “do need to hear that, and they do need to know that she’s committed to fighting for those things every day,” Binder said.
He noted that many voters are still likely to be unfamiliar with the vice president’s policies, given that she has only been her party’s candidate since July.
The pollster added that it is also important for Harris’ campaign to maintain focus on abortion and reproductive rights, as this is an issue which Trump is seen as weak on.
“But at the same time you cannot ignore the threat that Trump poses as a potential leader of the free world for the next four years,” Binder said, citing critical comments made by people who have worked closely with the former president.
Newsweek reached out to Harris and Trump’s campaigns for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
Vice President Kamala Harris on October 23, 2024, in Aston, Pennsylvania. David Binder, who has worked with the Democratic nominee for a number of years, has outlined what he thinks Harris should focus on in the final days of campaigning.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Trump’s former political adviser John Kelly recently described him as a “fascist” who allegedly praised German dictator Adolf Hitler. More than a dozen former Trump administration officials signed a letter in support of Kelly’s comments.
And Trump’s former military chief Mark Milley also described him as “fascist to the core,” according to journalist Bob Woodward’s recent book War.
Binder noted that many of the former president’s ex-officials have warned that “we cannot trust Trump to have the country’s best interests at heart.”
This is because “he is focused on himself, he’s focused on retribution—and that their experience with him in the Oval Office, in the situation room, is he is one that doesn’t follow the norms that are needed for the president of the country,” Binder said.
Some Trump supporters have argued that it is an exaggeration to say that he has dictatorial qualities, as during his first term he did not turn into a dictator.
But Binder argues that if Trump is reelected, he would be more emboldened and less restrained than before.
“The people who were around him that kept him in check during his first presidential term, are now gone,” Binder said. “There are no guardrails.”
Binder named people like Kelly, Milley and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who served in Trump’s first administration but have since turned into critics. Binder also said he believes that this time, the former president intends to appoint people who are loyal to him to key positions.
In terms of how the election might pan out, Binder said that as things stand, it is a “toss-up,” with key polls within their margins of error.
Binder gave his insights while speaking with former President Barack Obama aide Dan Pfieffer on the latest episode of Pod Save America, which is the highest-charting political podcast in the U.S. on Apple Podcasts.
