Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign never saw internal polling that showed her leading Donald Trump, senior adviser David Plouffe revealed in a joint interview with senior Harris campaign officials Jen O’Malley Dillon, Quentin Fulks, and Stephanie Cutter on the Pod Save America podcast.
“We were hopeful. I don’t know how optimistic we were, but we thought, OK, this is tied, and if a couple things break our way, [we could win],” Plouffe said. However, he acknowledged the campaign “didn’t get the breaks we needed.”
Instead, the decisive Election Day results surprised millions of Harris’s supporters, especially given public polls in late September and early October suggesting she held a lead—something their internal data never reflected.
Plouffe also pointed to the difficulty of defending Harris on contentious political issues, including her prior support for gender transition surgeries for inmates—a political minefield that proved impossible for her campaign to navigate.
Hearing top Harris advisor David Plouffe describe the challenge of defending her when she had so many crazy positions *on video* is wild:
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) November 26, 2024
“There’s a fact pattern here. If we could have said ‘that’s a lie – it’s not anything sets ever believed’ but it was on tape! Surgery for… pic.twitter.com/haPMZLYxKY
Huffpost further reports:
There’s no doubt that voter anger over high prices hurt Harris, just as it has hurt incumbent politicians all over the world. Since Trump’s victory, however, Democrats have debated the relative impacts of other factors, such as the campaign’s muted response to Trump’s anti-trans TV ads and Harris’ decision not to say how she’d be different from Biden.
During an early October appearance on “The View,” Sunny Hostin, one of the hosts of the daytime talk show, asked Harris if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden, whose approval rating had been underwater since 2021.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said, in an answer ready-made for a Trump TV ad. “And I’ve been part of most of the decisions that have had impact.”
Many Democratic pollsters and strategists have questioned why Harris didn’t give some example of how she’d be different, such as by saying she would have acted faster than Biden did to reduce migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Plouffe, who served as President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, contrasted the Harris campaign’s struggles with his own past.
Notably, as Trump made headlines in 2011 as the leading spokesman for the discredited birther conspiracy, then-President Obama’s team—advised by David Plouffe—seized the opportunity to make Trump the face of the entire Republican opposition.
“Let’s really lean into Trump,” Plouffe recalled thinking at the time. “That’ll be good for us.”
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I couldn’t see how the voters could possibly elect that moron but, then again, who am I? I’m so glad Plouff & I were both correct! Now, let’s dance in the streets!!!