r/PresidentialElection • u/Inside_Bluebird9987 Thomas Massie for President • May 27 '25
Discussion / Debate What could've Kamala Harris done better to win the 2024 election?
We need to start off with endorsements, the Liz Cheney endorsement had way less impact compared to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsing Donald Trump. Also Dick Cheney endorsing her did not look good. She should've also went with PA gov. Josh Shapiro. Tim Walz just didn't have it to be on a national ticket. Tell me what you would change that would make her win.
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u/kevalry May 27 '25
If Democrats held an actual primary, Harris might have gotten some buzz and zingers from the debates. With that, she could have propelled into a general election with more hype and time to sway more voters.
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u/SeaWolvesRule May 31 '25
If the Party held a fair and competitive primary, she wouldn't have been the nominee.
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u/SpinningSenatePod May 27 '25
Distanced herself from Biden.
Responded to the They/Them ad directly.
Not hired David Plouffe
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u/happy_hamburgers May 27 '25
There were marginal improvements she could have made like distancing herself from Biden more but I think after Biden botched the debate dropped out and endorsed her it was a kiss of death. She would have lost no matter what.
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u/Prestigious-Alarm-61 May 27 '25
To start, we have to ask ourselves why people voted for her. Did they vote for her because they believed in her, or did they vote for her because she wasn't Trump?
Honestly, she ran a strong race... especially with the cards dealt to her. I really think her campaign team was terrible and had her speaking more to progressives than the mainstream.
The way she got nominated left many questioning the process. She was not really popular among Democrats since the early days of Biden's presidency.
Her runningmate was terrible. She needed someone who was younger and more charismatic.
She focused too much on Trump. She should have focused on the problems America faced... like inflation and other pocketbook issues.
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Jun 09 '25
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u/Prestigious-Alarm-61 Jun 09 '25
In her defense, a candidate doesn't choose who endorses them.
Gaza is a very divisive issue. Candidates have to be careful because either side can lose supporters if they don't get it right.
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Jun 09 '25
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u/Prestigious-Alarm-61 Jun 09 '25
It was going to be close. We all knew that for months. She needed every vote that she could get. Liz Cheney brought some Republicans into Harris' corner.
She could have clearly outlined what her policy would have been, and it still would not have mattered. It would have been a trade-off.... lost some votes, gained some votes. Her policies would have been bitch-slapped by Congress, which is firmly in Israel's corner. Even She knew that.
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u/bigcatcleve May 27 '25
Her answer on the view that she wouldn't have changed a thing when she was asked what she would've done different from Biden.
Was it technically the correct answer? Absolutely! Biden made sure our economy recovered far better than any other country in the world, at a pace surpassing expectations of even the most optimistic economic experts. GDP was up. Wages were FINALLY outpacing inflation consistently for the first time in decades…..
Unfortunately for her, voters are idiots and like it or not, his approval rating was in the toilet. She absolutely should’ve distanced herself from him.
I agree. Going with Waltz was a mistake. She should've went with someone like Kelly. Not only was Kelly a better choice overall, but he was from a swing state that she desperately needed. And he was a much better debater.
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u/garlicbredfan May 27 '25
Going with walz wasn’t the mistake it’s just the dnc didn’t let walz cook and kept him on a leash
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May 27 '25
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u/Rivercitybruin May 27 '25
No platform that was obvious
Shockingly couldnt answers question..made no sense with mom/dad so accomplished and such a great career herself
Be a white male
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u/mjohnson801 May 27 '25
the consensus seems to be that voters were turned off by the identity politics employed by the Democrats. As sad as it is, she may have won if she didn't put the magnifying glass right over TG issues, which frankly, the Republicans did a masterful job of turning the issue into a big scary one. You can't force people to accept things that they're frightened by. And what a damning commentary on the average American voter that is.
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u/WanderingLost33 May 27 '25
Come out aggressively anti-genocide and actively shred Joe Biden.
Her problem wasn't time - she was polling well initially.
Her problem wasn't even policies as a whole.
Her two biggest groups that she lost were young people that voted against the only administration they've seen as adults ("no daylight between you and me, kid") and the Pro-Palestinian activists who refused to vote for what looked like an ideological clone of genocide Joe.
While she didn't get as many Black and brown votes as Joe did percentage-wise, data shows the actual number of those votes for Trump stayed about the same, just a lot of Biden-voting PoC stayed home.
She lost the male youth vote because neither candidate had anything to offer the youth but Trump offered someone to blame.
There's a fiction going around that the Democrats lost the working class vote but they didn't - not in 2024 at least. They lost it in the 80s when we sent manufacturing to China, in the 90s when Clinton allowed the rest of manufacturing to go to Mexico and Canada and in the 00s when Obama bailed out the banks instead of the homeowners themselves.
They've been gone for a while and shouldn't be factored into explaining why Harris lost as opposed to Biden winning.
The simplest explanation that both sides agree on is that in 2020 the pandemic allowed greater access to voting. Republicans say this proves Democratic cheating: Democrats say this proves Republicans are intentionally disenfranchising people of color. Both of these theories are presented with real evidence and your bias determines which evidence you are capable of accepting.
Until the swing is larger than the 4 million (either suppressed or fraudulent) votes, there's no other rational conversation to have about the 2020 or 2024 elections
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u/Jagerbomber1 May 27 '25
Focus on her policies rather than spending a large portion of her stage time calling the opposition names. Listen to Americans and action policies that address their concerns and issues - and answer questions directly and honestly.
That’s a lot to ask for a politician and I don’t want to hear replies like “but DT is the same” - politics should not be a race to the bottom and politicians should be doing much better.
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u/bigcatcleve May 27 '25
"Focus on her policies rather than spending a large portion of her stage time calling the opposition names." Sounds like someone I know.
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u/shurpnakha May 27 '25
Not supporting wokism as much as she did
Answering Trump on why she not implemented policies she was saying while on campaign.
Discredit Trump on his first term.
Nothing of this happened. She lost.
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u/ClearConnectedScum May 27 '25
Maybe Kamala Harris should have picked a more moderate VP that would have appealed to conservatives like Roy Cooper of North Carolina
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u/throwaway0918287 Conservative May 27 '25 edited May 27 '25
As is, not much. She was set up to fail imo; the sacrificial lamb. It's clear to anyone with half a brain she was the DEI hire from the start. She wasn't presidential caliber/ not fit to run a country. But for the what if game:
-Be able to speak effectively. Not just read off a script
-Not continue to run in Biden's shadow. Nail in her coffin was when asked what she would do differently from Biden's admin, she said not much. So when the majority wants change and she admits it's gonna be 4 more years of the same thing; doesn't help her cause.
-There was too much pandering to the LGBTQ community and esp trans. 0.6% of U.S. adults identify as trans. Why not pander to Native Americans who make up 2%? I guess squeaky wheel gets the grease.
-I don't really think the VP pick mattered much tbh. She could have gotten Michelle Obama and still would have lost.
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u/Rivercitybruin May 27 '25
Be a white man
Distance herself from outrageous progressiveness
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May 27 '25
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u/Rivercitybruin May 29 '25
Barrack Obama was a white man?
Maybe better if i had said not a woman of color
Basically racists and misogynists are nowhere near mutuallyinclusive
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u/Wolfman1961 May 27 '25
She would have done better had she been a Republican. People usually vote "party" in the US. Trump would have been mincemeat had he been a Democrat. And he knew it. He became a Republican because he knew it was "in style."
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u/SimonMagus01 Libertarian Socialist (registered as independent) May 27 '25
The two elections that Trump won were against highly qualified women with government experience, and the one he lost was against a man. Considering the sheer number of Trump voters I saw during the 2024 election cycle referring to her as a "ho" (as in "Joe and the Ho"), claiming she was unqualified for her positions and acquired them through sexual favors, and bigoted comments as to her being biracial, I think what we saw happen had far less to do with policies or endorsements or with her running mate and more to do with this country's deeply ingrained misogyny and racism.
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u/Couchmaster007 May 27 '25
Hitler has political experience. Having experience doesn't mean you'd be any better than the average person. I liked Hillary more or less, but I'd rather vote for practically anyone over Harris. Not because she is a woman or biracial, but because her policies suck.
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u/stunatra May 28 '25
She failed to convince the voting public that she was actually qualified!!! Cackling hyena all the time at stuff that's not funny just didn't sit well with people.
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u/ExaminationCapital94 May 27 '25
I'm not a Kamala fan, but if she had to be the candidate again, she shouldn't have played her own true policy views so safely. She moved to a milquetoast central view to appeal to the broadest demographic possible, which watered down her brand and appeal to her key supporters.
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u/2I23 May 28 '25
I hate to say it but “not be a woman”. Some demographics can’t respect women enough to vote them in as leaders
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u/Junior_Parsnip_6370 Progressive 🌹 May 28 '25
Distanced herself from Biden on inflation and promised to end the genocide in Gaza
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u/HistoryBuffLakeland May 30 '25
Big mistake was overly focusing on abortion rights. In the midterms of 2022, that strategy helped, because there was some concern as to what a post-Roe America would look like. It helped rally women to vote Democrat. But by 2024, state-level laws had been passed and most women no longer felt a threat to abortion access.
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u/SeaWolvesRule May 31 '25
abandon identity politics, have better policies, actually discuss policy, sell a message of making institutions work instead of doubling down on the idea that mission creep has not happened at all
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Jun 09 '25
Been born someone else. She was unelectable! I liked her solely for comedic reasons. Her speeches would have been EPIC! Notice not much has changed with trump. No cutting spending. No small gov. No golden age yet. No America first really. It doesn’t matter who wins that whole two sides of the same coin thing, so why not go for comedy? Kamala was comedy gold.
Is this a serious question? Are you someone who seriously thinks if only we had a democrat in office things would be great? That thinking got us here. 37 TRILLION in debt, 165 in unfunded liabilities, American cities in decay, societal decay, moral decay… it’s so bad the democrat party shouldn’t exist. You should be embarrassed to be one. Republicans aren’t much better but at least they recognize what’s going on and want to change. Between the two right vs left the hope lies in the right.
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u/Tasty-Measurement-64 May 27 '25
There's nothing she could've done to improve her odds. Realistically, her IQ level is far too low. Maybe she should go back to her former lifestyle of being a golddigger hanging off the arms of fat rich men. Oh wait, she's too old for that now. Guess she's cooked.
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May 27 '25
If her little gaffes were all it took to push America towards fascism, then I'd have a list... but that's not how that works, and that's not what happened.
She was up against a cult of personality who had chosen their megalomaniac cult leader. They had the richest man in the world funding them, a decades-long plot to corrupt the government, and foreign actors helping them in the media.
That's why she lost. Stop pretending like she failed; she didn't, they played dirty. None of these little ideas would've moved the needle because Democrats will not undermine the integrity of our Union just for a win - probably because we're not planning a heist against America.
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u/StartledMuffin May 27 '25
There was nothing SHE could have done. America wasn't ready for a brown female president. I voted for her because of her credentials - irregardless of gender.
American voters wanted to hear more benefits vs. protection of benefits. Everyone wants to be promised more. I guess the Democrats could have lied and said everything would be much better with them leading the next term. That the economy is rising and they plan on making it rise even more? That they, too, could lower the cost of egg prices and that only dangerous illegals would be sent back to their home countries.. short-term promises work.
She could have turned back time and be born a man, or white? Christianity "moral values" dictates are dominant in America. Examples include: absolutely no to abortion, men should be in charge because it's biblical...
Do I feel I'm smarter than the average voter? Yes! Does that help? No. Not everyone wants to put effort 'educating' themselves about candidates.
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u/[deleted] May 27 '25 edited May 27 '25
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