Kamala Harris makes it a point to attract GOP support (NY Times)
As Donald Trump's campaign is hitting one snag after another, a growing horde of Republicans is jumping on the "Good Ship Kamala Harris" for the 2024 presidential election, according to a report at The New Republic. (TNR). Under the headline "Flood of Republicans switching to Kamala Harris," TNR CEO Michael Caruso explains:
It’s unheard of in modern politics, especially in an era driven by fierce partisan division, for prominent members of one party to rush to support the other party’s nominee.
This week, a legion of former GOP officials came out with a full-throated endorsement of Kamala Harris—110 former members of Congress, defense secretaries, CIA directors, and many others.
Their letter makes clear that "any potential concerns" they would have about voting against the GOP "pale in comparison" to the threat posed by a second term from a man who "has violated his oath of office and brought danger to our country."
The co-signers of the letter join 17 officials from the Reagan administration who have endorsed Harris and 230 former George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney staffers who threw in for Harris in August.
That leaves Sarah Palin as the only living Republican who has been nominated for president or vice president who is still supporting Donald Trump’s reelection bid.
Talk about putting things in stark perspective. To repeat, Sarah Palin is the only living Republican who has been nominated for president or vice president who is still supporting Donald Trump’s reelection bid. In other words, Trump's support among the big names in his own party extends to the least qualified GOP candidate of the modern era -- and goes no further.
These appear to be grim times in Trump Land, and Harris is taking advantage by reeling in boatloads of Republican support. Caruso writes:
The new Republican supporters are part of a recent surge of support for the vice president. One week after her debate with Donald Trump, polling models show Harris has made incredible gains.
Shortly after the debate last week, polling expert Nate Silver’s prediction model had Harris at a 38 percent chance of winning the presidency; this week, she jumped to 47.6 percent—making the race a toss-up in a polling model that’s been bullish on Trump for months. The polling firm that Silver founded, FiveThirtyEight, has even better news for Harris, projecting that she will sweep all the swing states and has a 61 percent chance of sweeping the electoral votes.
Thomas Miller, a data scientist at Northwestern University who correctly called the last election using a prediction model based on election betting markets, currently has Harris taking 55 percent of the vote.
Despite this recent good news, the election could go either way. Many polls still predict Trump has an Electoral College advantage, and many pundits say the Supreme Court is ready to help him out if the results are close.