A leading Democratic super PAC warned that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign’s strategy of characterizing former President Donald Trump as fascist could be a mistake as election day draws near, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Harris referred to Trump as a fascist during a CNN town hall Wednesday, following comments from former chief of staff John Kelly claiming Trump expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler. Now, Future Forward — a Democratic super PAC that raised hundreds of millions this election cycle — is urging Democrats to not focus too narrowly on claiming Trump is a fascist after internal testing revealed the line of attack is not very effective, according to the NYT.
“Attacking Trump’s Fascism Is Not That Persuasive,” a Future Forward email obtained by the NYT states. The report discussed what messages have been most effective in internal testing.
More broadly, the Future Forward analysis found attacks on Trump’s character were less persuasive than concentrating on Harris’ economic policies and pro-abortion stance, the NYT reported.
“Purely negative attacks on Trump’s character are less effective than contrast messages that include positive details about Kamala Harris’s plans to address the needs of everyday Americans,” the email obtained by the NYT said.
Following the Democratic National Convention, Harris’ team said they planned to shift away from the “threat to democracy”-argument President Joe Biden frequently used against Trump, according to the NYT. However, as Harris has slid in the polls in recent weeks, her campaign has revived some of the attacks on the former president’s character, issuing an advertisement describing him as “unhinged” and “unstable.”
Harris also plans to deliver her closing argument address at Ellipse park near the White House — the same place where Trump delivered a speech on Jan. 6, 2021 — in an apparent reference to the Jan. 6 capital riots, according to CNN.
Future Forward is the single largest super PAC in American politics, controlling a $700 million war chest that includes multi-million dollar donations from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The group, founded by a team of Obama campaign veterans, aims to use data science, political science and testing to improve advertising performance.
Trump currently leads Harris by approximately 0.5% in Pennsylvania, 1.5% in Arizona and 2.3% in Georgia, according to RealClear Polling averages from early-mid October. Trump leads by 0.1% on a national basis after being down by nearly 2 full percentage points in the category in September.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
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