Trump Campaign Scrambles as Harris’ Surge Alters Election Strategy
A little more than two weeks ago, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign had big plans for a nationwide strategy that would secure a landslide win in November.
Now, as they work to counter a rising Kamala Harris, who recently replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate, campaign advisers are adjusting their focus to defend states once considered safe and narrow their electoral strategy.
Previously, top Trump advisers were optimistic about an electoral landslide, targeting traditionally Democratic states like Minnesota and Virginia. However, with Harris now in the race, Republicans are shifting their focus to a more traditional path to victory through battleground states like Pennsylvania and Georgia.
“The race has shifted,” Corey Lewandowski, a long-time Trump adviser, told Reuters, though he maintained that the race still leans in Trump’s favor. “Many of us were eager to run against Joe Biden. We felt confident about our chances.”
Publicly, Trump and his team have aggressively portrayed Harris, a Californian, as an out-of-touch liberal, tying her to unpopular Biden policies on immigration and inflation. They claim it makes no difference whether they face Biden or Harris.
Privately, however, nine sources told Reuters they consider Harris a much tougher opponent than Biden, who has faced doubts about his mental acuity and falling poll numbers for months.
“It doesn’t change the map as much as it shrinks it. We no longer need to discuss states like New Jersey,” said a Trump campaign insider who spoke anonymously to discuss internal matters.
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Reuters spoke with 12 campaign staffers, advisers, and donors who described a campaign scrambling for a new strategy as it faces a younger, more dynamic Democratic candidate who has energized the base and raised hundreds of millions in just days.
“It’s clear to everyone that she could win,” said a senior Trump adviser, speaking anonymously to discuss internal deliberations more freely.
When asked about the prospects of a shrinking battleground map, the Trump team insisted their strategy remained unchanged since Harris became the Democratic candidate.
“Team Trump has ads running in every battleground state. We’ve expanded the political map to include traditional ‘blue states’ like Minnesota and Virginia, with staff on the ground,” said Republican Party spokesperson Anna Kelly.
Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Harris’s campaign, said Trump and Vance are taking the country backward, while Harris is moving it forward. He did not address the electoral map directly.
Trump campaign sources cited three main issues: delays in launching attack ads against Harris, which are seen as crucial for highlighting her perceived weaknesses; concerns among some Republican leaders and donors about the selection of Senator JD Vance as Trump’s running mate; and unease over Trump himself, as he undermines his advisers’ efforts to define Harris based on her policies.
One source noted that the anti-Harris ads were slow to air because they had to be tested with focus groups first.
The campaign also wanted to see whom Harris would pick as her running mate, according to a source briefed on the plans.
This week, Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a plain-speaking Midwesterner, as her vice-presidential candidate.
MAY MEMO
By late May, the Trump campaign began preparing for the possibility that Harris or another Democrat might replace Biden as the nominee, according to an internal memo from campaign staffer Austin McCubbin shared with senior advisers.
The 12-page memo, reviewed by Reuters, outlined the Democratic Party’s rules for replacing a presidential candidate and possible scenarios, including Biden stepping down voluntarily or an “insider rebellion.”
The memo did not detail how to respond to a Harris candidacy.
Tony Fabrizio, a Trump campaign pollster, predicted in a memo released last month that Harris would get a short-term polling boost, but the race would soon stabilize. “Harris’ ‘honeymoon’ will end, and voters will focus again on her role as Biden’s partner,” he wrote.
Leading up to Biden’s exit, the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc super PAC prepared a TV ad accusing Harris of covering up Biden’s infirmity. The ad began airing in four swing states on July 21, the day Biden announced he was ending his reelection campaign.
At the same time, the campaign found itself on the defensive over Trump’s choice of Vance as his running mate.
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Vance has faced backlash for past comments referring to some Democrats, including Harris, as “a bunch of childless cat ladies,” an insult seen as misogynistic and dismissive of people without children.
The Republican National Committee and the campaign have been fielding calls from donors worried that Vance has become a distraction and is dragging down the ticket, according to two sources familiar with the calls.
As the campaign shifts its focus to a smaller map, Vance is expected to spend more time in relatively conservative and rural areas, especially in Rust Belt states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, where his rural roots and concerns about industrial decline are likely to resonate with voters, according to four sources close to the campaign or the vice-presidential candidate.
This week, Vance held press conferences near Harris-Walz campaign events in Wisconsin and Michigan.
TRUMP ATTACKS HARRIS – AND HIS ALLIES
Meanwhile, Trump has resorted to name-calling instead of focusing on Harris’s policy positions. He has cycled through a series of personal insults against Harris, generating negative headlines about Trump, rather than Harris.
At a National Association of Black Journalists event last week, Trump questioned whether Harris—whose mother was born in India and father in Jamaica—was Black.
This left donors and aides baffled and alarmed, according to a Republican donor, a pro-Trump super PAC operative, and a Trump-supporting union leader.
Three days later, Trump criticized Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, at a rally, potentially alienating a popular figure in a key battleground state where Trump may need help to mobilize voters.
Trump has also been firing off multiple, often convoluted posts on his Truth Social app, including one on Tuesday in which he speculated about Biden returning to the top of the ticket.
Earlier this year, as polls showed Trump expanding his lead over Biden in battleground states, the former president held events in what were considered safe Democratic areas—Minnesota, Virginia, and even New York City—in an attempt to broaden the electoral map.
By last Saturday, Trump had returned to basics, campaigning in Georgia, where polls showed the race had tightened since Harris entered the fray.
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The state is set to be fiercely competitive, with Trump clinging to a slight lead thanks to support from some Black voters, said Mark Rountree, a Georgia pollster unaffiliated with either campaign.
Trump is also being outspent on campaign ads in battleground states, according to AdImpact, a firm tracking campaign ad spending.
Since July 22, Harris and affiliated committees have outspent Trump and his allies $112 million to $70.1 million on ads, according to AdImpact data, although Trump has matched Harris’ spending in Pennsylvania, possibly the most crucial state for both campaigns.
When it comes to future TV ad reservations, Harris and her allies are far outpacing Trump, $172.4 million to $71.8 million as of this week, though these figures are likely to change in the coming weeks.
Perhaps the most telling sign was the Trump campaign’s significant new ad purchase in North Carolina, which seemed likely to remain Republican until Harris’s rise energized Black and young voters.
“They’re putting money in there now in hopes she’ll leave it alone,” said Justin Sayfie, a Republican lobbyist and Trump fundraiser.
However, the Harris campaign is already running ads in the state.
Trump Campaign Scrambles as Harris’ Surge Alters Election Strategy
