Democratic, GOP strategists analyze Harris-Walz ticket and Trump's tactics against them

With only 90 days until Election Day, the candidates are focusing on the swing states that will decide this year’s race. To discuss the latest developments, including Kamala Harris picking Tim Walz as her running mate, Amna Nawaz spoke with Democratic strategist Faiz Shakir and Republican strategist Doug Heye.

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For more on the latest developments in the race for the White House, I’m joined now by Democratic strategist Faiz Shakir and Republican strategist Doug Heye.

Good to see you both.

Doug Heye, Republican Strategist: Good to be with you.

Amna Nawaz: Let’s talk about this newfound enthusiasm that we’re seeing in the last 24 hours in particular.

Doug, $36 million raised by this ticket in the last 24 hours. That’s on top of over $300 million that Harris raised in July. There’s an undeniable energy here.

Doug Heye: Yes.

Amna Nawaz: Is that worrying for Republicans?

Doug Heye: Well, it should be. But, also, I think Republicans should step back and be realistic about where things are.

Democrats are very enthusiastic. They’re united now, no doubt about it. Part of that is because they have moved from existential dread to happiness, right? So if you’re a team in basketball and you’re down nine points and you have hit two or three baskets in a row, you feel that you have the lead, even if you do or you don’t. And polling is still coming in saying both things.

And a lot of this fund-raising that’s come in, impressive numbers, absolutely, sort of low-hanging fruit, a lot of it from people who weren’t going to give money if Biden was at the top of the ticket. And once Joe said, I’m out, then Democrats were able to start doing that. They have also benefited from a tremendous amount of almost exclusively — exclusive positive media for Harris and now for Walz.

I think the hardest thing — and I’m being literal when I say this — the hardest thing about Kamala Harris in The Washington Post today was she has an unorthodox way of slicing onions, but otherwise she is an amazing cook. That was actually in The Washington Post.

So Mike Tyson taught us, everybody has a plan until they get hit in the face. This campaign at some point is going to get hit in the face because every campaign does. How do they react to that? Is Kamala Harris a good candidate, and in a way that she wasn’t when she ran for president the first time and didn’t really have much of a real Senate race first time? That’s what we have got to find out.

We’re not going to learn that in the next two or three days, but we’re certainly going to learn it in the next 90.

Amna Nawaz: Faiz, is this the honeymoon period for the ticket? Is that what we’re seeing in the surge of donations and crowds?

Faiz Shakir, Democratic Strategist: That’s certainly true, but also the tactics being employed by the Harris campaign, their operatives around them, they’re fantastic.

They — from the moment — the 30 seconds after President Biden put out his statement saying I’m not running and then proceeded to endorse Kamala Harris, from that moment on, execution has been A-level from the Kamala Harris campaign all the way through this vice presidential nomination.

They have given confidence that the tone is sharper. She is prepared to get on the road and make an argument. The words about how they describe Trump are very effective. They’re persuasive. And my only caution here, because I’m very excited — I’m like most of the Democrats right now. I’m very happy about the trajectory of it.

Caution is that Donald Trump has been on the ticket twice before, 2016, 2020. In each of those elections, he outperformed what people thought he was going to get on Election Day. The one that scares me the most is 2020. We were in chaos. The country was spiraling downwards. He had gotten COVID. Things were just not looking great.

You look at the election turnout on that day, we’re talking small margins in Arizona, small margins in Wisconsin. He exceeded expectations with his turnout. So I say to all Democrats who are excited now, you’re going to have to have that 81 million-plus number of votes, because he’s going to have a lot.

Doug Heye: And so I agree with all of that.

One, the Harris team, the aides, the job that they have done in sealing it all up for the vice president very quickly, no leaks, they have done an extraordinarily good job just tactically as political operators.

And then the second point is, though, if you’re a Democrat and you have got this rush of enthusiasm, a lot of it seems that they have come home from Halloween, they have ripped open the bags and they have had all the candy and that sugar high is there.

But, to your point, Donald Trump can win this. This race is not only not over. It’s so early to even be talking about it being over.

Amna Nawaz: So, let’s talk about where we are now then.

Faiz, to that point that you raised, that we’re still in this really getting to know who Walz is phase in the first place, we have seen a very controlled message coming out, right? Just today, there was this “People” magazine feature of him talking more about his family, more personal side sharing, that his son, Gus, has a nonverbal learning disorder and anxiety, and something millions of Americans can relate to.

He and his wife, Gwen, have talked about using IVF to start their family. There’s a lot of personal ties here to what they’re doing, but it’s early. So where is this ticket vulnerable? Where do you see Republicans’ most potent attack against this ticket?

Faiz Shakir: Well, before we get into vulnerable, what a huge asset. He’s a unique political communicator, and not because he’s like Barack Obama or somebody who just knows how to deliver a fantastic address off a prompter. He’s a unique political communicator, in that he sits down at this table, he starts making you feel good.

He’s — I’m interested in what Tim Walz has to say about ice fishing. I’m interested in what he has to say about football. It just — there’s a unique — we know these people who are gregarious, outgoing, affable, who when in a room care about everybody else in the room. And it’s a weird in politics because we’re so used to narcissism.

That somebody would walk into a room and just be like, I care how you’re doing, Amna. That’s really great. I want you to succeed. And that’s Tim Walz, so I’m very fired up about it.

The liabilities are, of course, he’s new to a lot of people, and they’re going to define him. You saw this Bernie Sanders stuff, which I welcome, by the way. I ran Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Go ahead. The things that Bernie Sanders is known on, on honesty and authenticity of standing up to power, particularly corporate power, particularly standing on behalf of working people.

If that’s how they want to describe Tim Walz, I agree. Let’s go and define him, but they’re going to play some games to try to change how you view what is otherwise an amazing human being and an amazing ticket in Harris/Walz.

Amna Nawaz: We haven’t really seen a consistent line of attack against Vice President Harris. I think that’s fair to say so far.

Doug Heye: Yes.

Amna Nawaz: Does the addition of Governor Walz give Trump/Vance ticket a sort of more organized strategy, and what is that? How do they attack this ticket?

Doug Heye: Well, it can, because he’s certainly from more part of the left of the party. He’s certainly not a Blue Dog Democrat or even a moderate Democrat.

But, ultimately, vice presidential nominees can help in the margins. They can hurt in the margins to some extent. And this is a race that certainly will be in margins here or there. We’re talking about a few states. But this — we should remind ourselves, this is Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris. That’s it. It’s not J.D. versus Tim.

They may have a debate. They may not. We will see. We will all tune in. We will all overanalyze it. But we know what the main event is, whether we have a debate or not. And it goes down to those issues that voters are telling us the most loudly that they care about.

And, yes, the RNC has a big book on Kamala Harris. They’re still compiling theirs on Tim Walz, the DNC same thing. But voters care about what’s going on in their daily lives. That starts with what they spend on things every day and the anger that they have, very real anger, when they buy a sandwich, when they decide they’re not going to go to the movies because it’s too expensive, and all those things.

They’re upset about what’s happening at the border and how that’s affected their communities. Some of them are upset, especially suburban women, about access to abortion. That’s where Walz can be beneficial on IVF. But it goes down to those core issues. Those other things that we will sort of distract ourselves with…

Amna Nawaz: Yes.

Doug Heye: … they’re just distractions.

Amna Nawaz: In the few seconds we have left, the economy remains the most important issue, right?

Faiz Shakir: Yes.

Amna Nawaz: Is there another event of some kind like a debate that you think could open this beyond what we know will be a very tight election?

Faiz Shakir: You know, the economy, we have seen some signs in the market that, are recessions coming, are bad economic indicators coming? That would obviously change the nature of the race.

But, that said, I think the Democratic ticket wants a debate about the economy, because, if they’re cutting Social Security and Medicare, you want to privatize Medicare, I don’t think it’s going to work. But you have to engage that debate if those data come.

Amna Nawaz: Democratic strategist Faiz Shakir, Republican strategist Doug Heye, great to see you both. Thank you.

Faiz Shakir: Thank you.

Doug Heye: Thank you.