What Harris Needs from October
How she can close the sale in these fraught final weeks.
FIVE WEEKS FROM TODAY, the harrowing presidential campaign of 2024 will be over. The election may not be over, as the results may not be known for days or weeks. A Kamala Harris victory could produce a second Donald Trump–led coup attempt—if Republicans refuse to certify local and state results on time, there could be a constitutional crisis. There could also be violence. But the vote-casting will be over, and the time for persuasion will end.
Trump isn’t in the persuasion business; he is trying to energize his base with a scorched-earth campaign. Harris has weeks left to bring more voters into her tent, but as sitting vice president, she will be navigating political landmines, including, this week, challenges arising from the devastation Hurricane Helene visited upon the South. Harris needs some help and some luck. Here is what she needs in October to be best positioned to win:
Harris Can Help North Carolina
The vice president must rally the nation to support storm victims across the South, particularly in North Carolina—a key battleground that was decimated by flooding. Harris should coordinate a rally with big stars to raise money for the citizens of North Carolina and Georgia who lost everything in Hurricane Helene. The emergency, at least in North Carolina, may preclude a visit there, but Harris should draw attention in the final weeks of the campaign to how the government—and individuals—can help displaced storm victims rebuild their towns and their lives. Harris canceled campaign events to be in Washington for briefings but should visit Western North Carolina as soon as is possible and practical.
Scripted Trump showed up to Valdosta, Georgia, Monday to deliver badly needed supplies and read from prepared remarks, pretending it was time to put politics aside—and then lying about how Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp couldn’t reach President Joe Biden for help after the hurricane, even though the two men had spoken the day before.
Trump will use Hurricane Helene to attack Harris. She must step in and lead on this issue, which includes explaining to voters how Project 2025 calls for cuts to funding for disaster relief and rebuilding.
While Persuading, Invest in Mobilization
Winning over Americans in the small universe of still undecided voters is critical to victory, but Harris will never be president if she cannot motivate enough members of her own coalition. Recent reporting in The Bulwark showed a panic has set in over inadequate expenditures targeting black voters online in the battleground states.
There is more than enough money to spend targeting these voters. The Harris–Walz campaign has raised more money than any previous presidential campaign in American history. No excuses here.
Harris Must Translate Tariffs for Voters
While campaigning on health care, childcare, border control, and cost reduction, Harris should maximize the political gift of Trump’s zeal for, and confusion over, tariffs. She must find a way to talk to voters about what a tariff of 10 percent across the board and 60 percent on Chinese products would cost.
Harris should call out Trump, explaining that no matter what crazy claims he makes about tariffs paying for child care and how he will rein in and incentivize good behavior from all foreign governments with tariffs, they will not foot the bill. We will.
Trump’s tariff plans are frightening, yet voters haven’t absorbed this. For Harris this is a layup.
More Republicans Must Rise to the Moment
Former Sen. Jeff Flake endorsed Harris Sunday, but she needs more high-profile Republicans to step up soon. George W. Bush and his brother Jeb are likely avoiding this because Jeb’s son George P. Bush has political ambitions. But like Mitt Romney and Chris Christie, the Bushes are helping Trump by refusing to endorse Harris. Let’s see if Liz and Dick Cheney, along with Flake and Adam Kinzinger and others, can convince reticent Republicans to come out for Harris this month.
There is a secret Kamala vote. It could be a lot bigger if more big-name Republicans like Romney get out there and encourage disaffected GOP voters in law enforcement or in the veteran community—who may never admit it out loud—to vote for Harris and help the country move on from Trump.
Republicans for Harris can talk tariffs too—they oppose them.
Surrogates Must Counterattack Trump
Harris has, in many ways, worked to ignore Trump. But the things he is currently saying, particularly about her, cannot go unanswered.
More Harris supporters—the ones who will be heard—need to be out talking every day about everything from Trump’s betrayal of his own country by saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is our fault, to his description of Harris as “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled,” to his call for “one really violent day” that he thinks will help cops deter crime. Ignoring the outrageous, personal, offensive, and dangerous statements he is making on campaign stages just normalizes him and helps him and MAGA further degrade our discourse and politics.
Mark Cuban, appearing on CNBC, Fox News, and podcasts like Theo Von’s can help reach the less politically engaged with critical messaging about Trump as a failed businessman who isn’t at all smart. But surrogates like Cuban should also address Trump’s vitriol and lies since they are likely to worsen in the days to come.
Also, it would be useful if the next time Trump said “Ukraine is gone,” someone like retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who just endorsed Harris, gave multiple interviews to speak about the danger a second Trump term would pose for the world order and our long-term security interests.
Harris Needs to Do More Talking
Harris just did the “All The Smoke” basketball podcast a few days ago and spoke about being a stepmother, and the normal-life sort of things that Trump can’t talk about.
She is choosing media appearances carefully, but she can’t let her caution cost her the election. There is only upside for her sharing more of herself, and the numbers prove it. The more voters learn about Harris the more they like her, and her favorability ratings have risen dramatically since July. Trump can’t share anything of himself at this point in the campaign that would change the way any undecided voter, still resistant to him at this point, thinks of him. He can only become their default choice, while Harris can better her chances with those voters by becoming more visible this last month. Saturday Night Live, The View—she should just get out there.
Celebrity Validators Have to Be Everywhere
Sorry. But celebrities get attention, so Harris needs to carpet bomb the final weeks of the campaign with big names who will make big headlines. From Barack Obama to Michelle Obama, who can do campaign stops in swing states, to Beyoncé, who can perform at a rally, Harris needs to deploy all the star power she has access to. Steph Curry, who has endorsed her, is from North Carolina, like Michael Jordan, whose daughter is a Harris supporter. Maybe a big-name get together in North Carolina for a Jordan endorsement? Or maybe they all show up to make remarks at a fundraiser for their home states’ storm victims?
How about The Boss? Bruce Springsteen performed at rallies for Obama in early October in 2008 and in late October in 2012. Perhaps he will consider the stakes of this election even higher. We need him. Willie Nelson endorsed Harris this past Sunday; can he make some videos? Hold some Zoom organizing events? They would go a long way.
Focus and Momentum Are Paramount
Harris has run an impressive, intentional campaign. She has addressed her liabilities, inflation and immigration, head on. She has not been derailed by Trump’s racist provocations, but he will likely escalate his attacks on her and will keep looking for ways to draw her into a fight.
Outside events will also make the closing weeks more difficult. She must avoid taking Trump’s bait while also passing the difficult tests ahead. From towns drowning in the South to supply chain disruption from a dockworkers strike and a ground war in Lebanon that threatens the broader Middle East—October could be full of bad news. Chaos is Trump’s friend, and will make Harris’s pitch more challenging.
All of this outside help—Republican support, celebrities making news, surrogates skewering Trump and his latest attacks—plus Harris’s leadership on storm relief will help build critical momentum in the final stretch.
Focus will keep Harris confident and strong as a candidate, and it will sustain the success of the smart campaign she is running. Momentum will ensure that she and her campaign, even if she isn’t leading the final polls, are the story.
Late undecideds broke for Trump in both 2020 and 2016. Harris needs to look like a winner.