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Pennsylvania is slipping out of Trump’s reach Vibes, not policy, will decide the race

Kamala Harris and Tim during their campaign tour in Pennsylvania in August 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

Kamala Harris and Tim during their campaign tour in Pennsylvania in August 2024. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)


September 6, 2024   5 mins

David Urban is worried — and he should be. The native Pennsylvanian knows the Keystone State. As a senior advisor to Donald Trump in 2016, he helped deliver Pennsylvania and, thus, the White House to his boss. But the veteran politico, who is now a senior strategist with the BGR Group, can smell the odour of a losing campaign.

Urban senses that Pennsylvania, the nation’s key tipping point state, is slipping away. He fumed to me: “Trump had the big positions, the vibes, and the themes. But with Harris there are no themes except: we are not Trump and abortion.”

Flipping the script, it is Harris who now leads Trump in Pennsylvania and a series of key battleground states. But some knew this before they saw the polls. Sam Talarico, chairman of the Erie County Democratic Party has the pulse of the swing county of the nation’s swingiest state. With Biden as the nominee, Talarico witnessed a trickle of volunteers. Once Harris topped the ticket, a flood commenced. Talarico told me: “People are calling and asking, ‘what can I do?’ Canvassing and phone banking are way up. And interest is way up. There was a lot of energy that was just released once the change [Biden to Harris] was made. It is exponentially different.” And as Erie goes, so goes Pennsylvania — and with it the White House.

With money and energy, Talarico now has eight full-time staffers and dozens of volunteers. And Erie is merely a microcosm of the fundamental vibe shift in American politics. I spoke with Joe Morris, an Erie-based political science professor, who sees in the polling what Talarico senses on the ground. He told me: “Harris has completely changed the dynamics of the race. At this time, the Trump campaign is at a loss for how to manage this.” Even more ominous for the Republican is Morris’s interpretation of the political mood: “To beat a movement, you need a movement. Harris is on the threshold of being a leader of a movement, like Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016.”

Urban’s political Spidey senses are tingling. A Harris movement, like Obama in 2008, would mean her candidacy has come to represent “change” to voters in what is most certainly a “change” election. Harris would then float above the political flotsam. This would spell political doom for Trump whose only chance at victory is an ugly slugfest in the mire. The race is still winnable for Trump. But the Harris vibe, immense crowds, record fundraising, and grassroots energy, has distracted the boss. And a distracted, sullen Trump is his own worst enemy. Urban griped: “Trump is one of the most gifted politicians, but he is also one of the most flawed. He is incredible at connecting with crowds, but he is also incredibly ill-disciplined.”

In the weeks since Biden left the race, Trump’s utter lack of self-restraint has been on full display. His rants about the Vice President’s racial identity and vulgar social media posts have merely fuelled the Harris momentum — and vibe shift. For Urban, Trump’s self-immolation is especially galling. He knows that Harris’s liberal record makes her politically vulnerable with Erie County and Western Pennsylvania’s normie voters. He advised, “All the Trump campaign has to do is focus on the issue. If we make this about the issues, Republicans win.”

Urban is surely onto something. In Harris’s truncated 2020 presidential campaign, she delighted the progressive fringe with gun buy-backs, fracking bans, and the Green New Deal. These positions, to Urban, loom as Harris’s political Kryptonite in Western Pennsylvania. A smart pol, the Vice President has pivoted to the centre. Urban said of this: “Those are some mental gymnastics that Olga Korbut would be proud of.” But he knows that Harris’s liberal centrism is good politics. That’s why he growled: “If we listen to her [now], she sounds like a fuckin’ Republican.”

And that’s important — because while policy obviously matters, “vibes” reign supreme. Years ago, Peter Hart, the veritable Yoda of Democratic pollsters, explained why George W. Bush defeated Democrats whom voters deemed more intelligent and knowledgeable: “voters value ‘I Like’ over IQ”. If vibes didn’t precede ideology, Hillary Clinton would be finishing her second term.

It is losing campaigns and candidates who cry “stick to the issues”. Winning presidential campaigns capture the vibe by the political alchemy of personality, first, and policy, later. Like a first date, a voter must get “the feels” before they entertain the wonk of inflation reduction or stories about your awkward brother.

“Like a first date, a voter must get ‘the feels’ before they entertain the wonk of inflation reduction or stories about your awkward brother.”

Urban’s “stick to the issues” steals a page from a long cast of liberal losers. In the Fifties, liberals noodled over the riddle of sustaining party loyalty in an era where old fidelities had faded. Southerners were no longer automatically voting Democrat. Northern white ethnics increasingly ignored political bosses. The liberal egghead answer was “programmatic liberalism”. In this equation, voters would decipher the meaning of issues to their own lives and vote accordingly. For the Democrats, voters were like Star Trek’s Spock or AI.

Since the Sixties, a bevy of well-intentioned liberals placed policy at the forefront of their campaigns. Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes, and Trump were the result. Liberals lose because they underestimate humanity’s frailties and foibles. Conservatives win because they don’t.

The latest political science affirms this reality. Voter behaviour is dictated by emotions just as much as rational choice. Even those of us with fancy degrees are influenced by “vibe” and “tribe” more than we admit. Obama’s healthcare-for-all and Iraq War posture mattered. But he, more than Sarah Palin or Chris Dodd, dressed, talked, and lived like your coolest professor from graduate school. Plus, Obama signalled a definitive vibe turn from the Clinton-Bush era. For upwardly mobile professionals, voting Obama was tribe and vibe first, policy came second.

That’s why David Urban is partly right but mostly wrong. Kamala Harris’s 2019 policy positions should cause West Pennsylvania normies to wince. This is why Urban is begging Trump to frame the race as a choice between policy visions. But he admitted to me: “[Trump] is terrible at talking about his policy accomplishments. When he is off-prompter he is much more fired-up about the hand-to-hand political combat.”

Trump wants the political combat because he knows, more than anyone, that vibes are key. In 2016, he tapped into the nation’s sour mood and launched a movement. He, like Professor Morris, sees a nascent counter movement on the Left. Trump understands what Urban knows is true but hopes is not. The vibe, like the Dude in The Big Lebowski, always “abides”.

But to boost the political feels you need campaign nuts and bolts. In 2016, the Clinton campaign ignored Erie County and Western Pennsylvania, while, in 2020, Covid prevented much face-to-face canvassing. So, for 2024, Talarico is touting a “coordinated campaign” that combines his staff with a recently opened Harris office, one of 14 across Pennsylvania. Terron Sims, who helps lead the Democratic National Committee’s vote mobilisation efforts, boasted to me: “When it comes to grassroots get-out-the-vote campaigns, no one beats the Democrats. We have professionals and super volunteers who have been doing this for decades.”

And the issue for Trump is, while he understands the value of vibes, he doesn’t see that they mean less without political organisation. A local Democratic strategist admitted that the GOP’s local dysfunction fuelled Biden’s 2020 win in Erie County. Four years later, the Erie County Republicans might have new leadership, but sources report “major beef” between Trump forces and area Republicans. Local Republicans pay rent to the Trump campaign for a bit of space at the local headquarters, an arrangement that a Democratic official described as “odd”. The Harris campaign, who have the opposite agreement with local Democrats, seem to have it the right way round.

Conflict is to Trump what the sun is to organic life. But as in 2020, dysfunction could prove decisive in a close race. Urban pointed to Trump’s disregard for mail-in early voting as greatly hurting the Republicans. In the 2022 US Senate race between Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrats banked 1.5 million early votes. The Democrats had won before election day. Urban, obviously frustrated with how “Trump derides early voting”, advised that “Republicans need to play by the rules in the commonwealth. We need to ensure that the voters of colour who are for us are registered.”

By mid-October, millions of Pennsylvanians will have cast their ballots. Trump has weeks to stunt the Harris vibe. In Erie and Pennsylvania, it is vibe and organisation, not the issues, that will decide this race. For now, both decisively point to Harris.


Jeff Bloodworth is a writer and professor of American political history at Gannon University

jhueybloodworth

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Paddy Taylor
Paddy Taylor
3 months ago

Anyone who can, with a straight face, think of Kamala, the incumbent VP, as the ‘change’ candidate immediately self-identifies as a gullible fool.

Lord knows Trump has his faults, but if you look at the world after 4 years of Trump in the White House and compare that with the state of the globe after the Biden/Harris term of office then Trump’s record starts to look pretty damn good.

Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson
3 months ago
Reply to  Paddy Taylor

She’s the “change” candidate if she can push that message successfully, which has worked so far. Makes no sense, but there it is.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

“Change” is like “equality.” As the term is used, it has literally no meaning, and as such appeals only to the vacuous.
Unfortunately, this means most voters.


Billy Bob
Billy Bob
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

In much the same way that Boris was the “change” candidate in Britain, despite being a high profile member of the government for numerous years previous to him becoming leader

Max More
Max More
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

Right, the change is from a Biden-Harris administration to a Harris-Walz one. Huge change there!

Demitri Coryton
Demitri Coryton
3 months ago
Reply to  Paddy Taylor

The state of the world after four years of Trump had little to do with Trump. Despite the bluster, he made very little difference although all his allies were relieved when he lost in 2020. The state of the globe since Trump also has little to do with Biden. The biggest events have been the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas attack in Israel. Biden responded strongly to both, but he did not cause either and is having difficulty reigning in Israel to bring that conflict to a close.

David Kingsworthy
David Kingsworthy
3 months ago
Reply to  Paddy Taylor

Well-said Paddy, but who on earth would downvote this comment? It seems UnHerd has gained some decidedly left-of-center readers recently.

Billy Bob
Billy Bob
3 months ago

Good. The last thing I want is for the site to descend into an echo chamber

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

….chamber….chamber….amber….mber.

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago

Nineteen downvotes and counting….

Michael Clarke
Michael Clarke
3 months ago
Reply to  Paddy Taylor

Maybe, but she looks to have momentum and will probably win.

Jim Veenbaas
Jim Veenbaas
3 months ago

Utter nonsense. Harris is leading Pennsylvania in the RCA by 0.1%. I have no doubt that Trump can shoot himself in the foot, but the idea of Harris creating a movement like Obama is unserious blather.

Graham Stull
Graham Stull
3 months ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

They’re going to rig this election hard, Jim. There is no way Trump can win it.

Philip Burrell
Philip Burrell
3 months ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

Nothing like getting your excuses for losing in early. I am reminded of the dumbest and most partisan football supporters who always blame the referee rather than the poor performance of their own team.

Philip L
Philip L
2 months ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

Actual voter fraud? Bill Barr’s DOJ couldn’t find it. By “rig” do you mean like the Republican controlled state assembly did with Act 77, which made mail in ballots easier to cast?

Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson
3 months ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

Harris has momentum, money, and the wind behind her sails. Trump is losing every swing state. He will lose by 100 EV.
MAGAMorons will pay for this.

T Bone
T Bone
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

Nice Deniro impression. You’re all robotic actors.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

And should Kamala somehow be dragged across the finish line, remember your role in creating the situation you will be living in.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

We’re in the 1850s, and comments like yours helped us get there.
The big difference is that this time, there is no Lincoln. The union may not survive.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

Thanks for proving the point Paul that “you just can’t fix stupid”

Y Way
Y Way
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

If MAGA supporters are morons, what term describes people who suddenly believe that our cackling, hand waving VP is our great leader of Change? Just curious.

B Joseph Smith
B Joseph Smith
5 days ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

Oops…got that wrong!

Y Way
Y Way
3 months ago
Reply to  Jim Veenbaas

She kind of already has. To go from being someone most people mocked, to leading anybody in a presidential election by any fraction of a percent, is,quite frankly, a movement.

T Bone
T Bone
3 months ago

The concept of “Vibes” is just the Theory of Reflexivity.  It’s one person’s behavior reflexively changing anothers.  All the activist investors talk about it.  It’s probably more true for markets than elections though.  The Democrat advantage is the organization not vibes.  Its machine politics. Mail voting creates a much better “get out the vote” situation with an urban voting base because of close proximity.

But let’s be real here.  Trump is the underdog.  He’s the one battling the obstacles.  He actually has to talk to the Media and get swing voters to respect that he’s actually trying to persuade them.  He can’t just float through and rely on the Media to articulate his positions. The Harris Vibes are contrived.  I don’t necessarily think swing voters are impressed by vibes, but I do think Dems turn out the vote is clearly superior.  Its not really a contest of persuasion but a vote maximizing competition.

Aldo Maccione
Aldo Maccione
3 months ago
Reply to  T Bone

I agree with you. “Vibes” work with the echo chamber press, as it reinforce their TDS.

Jim C
Jim C
3 months ago
Reply to  T Bone

The regime media, polls and pundits are all building the narrative that Kamala – who got exactly zero votes in the 2020 nominations – is now wildly popular.

She isn’t, but when they steal the election (again), this time they can claim the results match the polls.

Harris’ policies are ruinous, and I almost hope she gets in just so US voters can experience what happens when you vote for more leftism.

Y Way
Y Way
3 months ago
Reply to  Jim C

Not me. It is going to take a huge effort to undo the damage of all the education world changes in DEI and gender based policies. We are so far down that rabbit hole in K12 schools that ridding schools of this junk is like playing wack a mole. Even in deeply red states. As an educator, I kind of fear we are already too far gone to ever be able to bring sanity and academic content to American classrooms. I am not kidding. I beg parents to wake up and start demanding their kids have real textbooks by grade 3. If for no other reason so you all can read what is being taught (or not taught at all…like facts, geography and history, actual science, and grammar).

Simon Templar
Simon Templar
3 months ago
Reply to  Jim C

Jim you don’t get it. The last four years are exactly what you get when you vote more leftism. Uncontrolled immigration, drugs, inflation, censorship of speech, two-tier justice. But if you control the media, as the Dems do, and you can generate lawfare using the FBI, which they did, and create the narrative on everyone’s TV of Brave Kamala saving democracy from Trumpo-hitler, then it doesn’t matter if the price of eggs goes up tenfold, or the streets are full of drugs and gangs, and that Kamala and Walz did all that.
The media has shamelessly lied about how great the Biden/Harris White House has been, and half the country shrugs. So what?
We need an awakening. This is Solzhenitsyn-level self-censorship.

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Jim C

She doesn’t have to be “wildly popular”. She just has to be “more popular than Trump”.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
3 months ago

This piece is propaganda, such as I’ve come to expect from Unherd. This reader will not be renewing his membership. I can subscribe to the New York Slimes to reach suchlike, except that I don’t.

David McKee
David McKee
3 months ago
Reply to  Samuel Ross

If it’s propaganda, it is singularly ill-directed. Most UnHerd readers are British. We don’t get to vote, so it’s pointless trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

I respectfully suggest you wait until early November before deciding whether or not to renew. By then, you’ll know who was telling the truth.

Graham Stull
Graham Stull
3 months ago
Reply to  David McKee

Seems about as many Yanks as Brits, at least judging by the comments section.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

Nah, the Yanks just blather more.

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

If you take out the paid Putin stooges, sure.

Martin Ashford
Martin Ashford
3 months ago
Reply to  David McKee

So propaganda has physical boundaries? Hmmm. I wonder why the UK has adopted so much US Marxist ideology over the decades? Pure coincidence I suppose.

Billy Bob
Billy Bob
3 months ago
Reply to  Martin Ashford

Seeing as the piece was about the two camps election strategies rather than promoting one sides policies over the other, I fail to see how it can be classed as propaganda

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 months ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

this piece seems mostly to be about the opinions of a guy named David Urban, who we are told is a Trump supporter.

Jim C
Jim C
3 months ago
Reply to  David McKee

America is part of an empire, and one of the key fictions it requires to maintain its reputation as some kind of Shining Beacon is that its “democracy” is not riddled with corruption.

When the Democrats steal the election (again), they’ll be able to point to articles like this showing how “experts” like Jeff Bloodworth predicted it would happen…

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  David McKee

Au contraire. Universalism is a global project, not merely national politics. The “propaganda” militates to that cause. National candidates are a sidebar.
Remember that “progress” is inevitable, a law of (human) nature. The “liberal” progressives and the Marxists has this teleological fallacy in common. They also both believe that “all men are created equal,” that there is only “one humanity,” etc.
When you view all academia and news media as propaganda in support of the 300+ year old fanatical mass movement called “Univeralism” (by Moldbug) then it begins to make more much sense. Remember, they want to eradicate nation-states. There is only a single, global audience for their product. One humanity, one truth — theirs.

Billy Bob
Billy Bob
3 months ago
Reply to  Samuel Ross

Translation: The author has aimed a mild criticism of Trump (in this case his election strategy) therefore I’m throwing a wobbly and threatening to walk off in a huff.
If you want an echo chamber then go elsewhere, I quite like the fact UnHerd offers differing points of view

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

Agree. You cannot know your enemy without reading his tripe. And you cannot defeat him without knowing him.
Any man that does not regularly read the opposition is living in ignorance.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
3 months ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

I appreciate opposite points of view, such as yours, Bob. Well-written, nicely-reasoned, courteous, based on truth, and with an appeal to righteous behavior.

The point of a propagandistic piece often is to create a reality as much as it is to paint a false picture in the reader’s mind, either of optimism or pessimism. Then, a self-fulfilling prophecy is created, and the author seems precient. This is the type of writing which makes me no wiser, and requires little work on the author’s part.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
3 months ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

Also, Billy, I feel a deep sense of sadness. If you think that I don’t feel a sense of camaraderie with those others on Unherd, in fact I do. But I subscribe to hear unheard voices, not those which are already widely heard and spread.

Marianne Kornbluh
Marianne Kornbluh
3 months ago
Reply to  Samuel Ross

I only continue to renew my membership because of the comments section. I learn far more from it than from the actual articles.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
3 months ago

Interesting …. 😉

Daoud Fakhri
Daoud Fakhri
3 months ago
Reply to  Samuel Ross

It sounds like your definition of propaganda is ‘any content I disagree with.’ Unherd is not supposed to be an echo chamber; there are many articles her that I disagree with, sometimes quite strongly, but that’s OK because I accept that the world does not revolve around my preferences.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
3 months ago
Reply to  Daoud Fakhri

Fair enough, Daoud. I do appreciate viewpoints which contradict mine, but I don’t enjoy reading spin. The article above qualifies as spin, not analysis.

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Samuel Ross

Bye.

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
3 months ago

Will the election be changed by Hunter’s guilty plea to tax charges?
Probably not. After years of the media telling us that accusations of crime in the Biden family were all conspiracy theories, I’m sure they will just ignore the way the Democrats gaslight the American people.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Hunter just pleaded guilty to all charges. That said, everyone knows that this immoral deviant will get a pardon from his father even though Joe Biden is on record saying he won’t do that. After all, Joe Biden is using his senility to cover for lots of mishaps and omissions.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

I think he’s actually senile, which means he’s not using his senility for anything.
However, others are probably using it plenty.
And when Harris is in, they’ll be using her vacuity the same way they used Biden’s senility. Both are basically Deep State puppets.
The Deep State cannot contain Trump, which is why they are deadly afraid of him and will keep him out at any cost.

Y Way
Y Way
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

She is not just vacuous, IMO. Using an alias to join a wine club is generally not an action taken by someone who drinks in true moderation. Just sayin. Even politicians don’t have to hide if they drink one or two regular sized glasses of wine everyday. That a certain VP needed to use an alias for her wine consumption habits is curious. Why? I know that there have been videos that have been faked to show our VP as a drunkard. And those are wrong. People shouldn’t make deep fakes of politicians. It’s kind of scary actually. But the fact is, she did use an alias when signing up for her wine club membership. Usually that means someone has something to hide.

Philip Burrell
Philip Burrell
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

The so called Deep State if it actually exists apart from in fevered imaginations, has contained and survived 4 years of Trump already.

Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

Yawn. Tedious and utterly vacuous concatenation of words. Elections mean nothing – except suddenly, they do when Trump “wins”. (Actually he hasn’t won, or led the Republicans to win, in any election, based on the popular vote.

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

I think a lots of us the world over are deadly afraid of Trump.

Y Way
Y Way
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

And it is far worse than just taxes. Burisma and energy companies have more to do with the deadly disaster going on in the Ukraine than most know. Evil people.

Bernard Brothman
Bernard Brothman
3 months ago
Reply to  Steven Carr

Just like they covered for President Biden’s mental fitness.

Graham Stull
Graham Stull
3 months ago

Frankly, I don’t believe the polls anymore. I also don’t believe thinkpieces like this that talk about the polls. It feels like a campaign to do what everyone on the inside knows they are going to do: rig the election hard.
They have the mail-in ballots, they have the voting machines. This election has already been decided.
Tag this comment and tell me on Nov 6th I was wrong.

Billy Bob
Billy Bob
3 months ago
Reply to  Graham Stull

So if Harris wins it’s rigged, if Trump wins it’s legit?

R.I. Loquitur
R.I. Loquitur
3 months ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

Yes.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

Almost.
If Harris wins, it’s rigged. If Trump wins, it’s rigged, but not quite rigged enough.
Bottom line: American no longer believe their elections are legitimate. Since public perception of legitimacy is the only legitimacy that matters, I’d say American “democracy” is terminally ill.

Christopher Barry
Christopher Barry
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

How very self-fulfilling…
You believe the election is rigged. Perception of legitimacy is all that matters. Therefore, it is rigged.

Graham Stull
Graham Stull
3 months ago

Well, that and the fake mail-in ballots.

Simon Templar
Simon Templar
3 months ago

There has been daily exposure of election fraud in the swing states. Litigation is ongoing as we speak. Even Left-wing Time Magazine gloated about how the 2020 election was rigged. Everyone knows elections have been rigged. The question was whether any of it was prosecutable.
So it is perhaps the major campaign issue of 2024. How might States prevent cheating?
An honest response to major voter concern of election fairness (Nearly 8 in 10 Americans are at least somewhat concerned about potential hacking according to left wing PBS) , would be to tighten election security, enforce Voter ID, signature validation, require proof of citizenship. All these measures are vehemently opposed by Dems. Why?
The response has been “Losers always protest”, and “Opposing an election result is a crime punishable by jail.” If one Party is vehemently on the side of the cheaters, what does that tell you? They know that enforcing stricter laws would cause them to lose. Does that make them defenders of democracy?

Christopher Barry
Christopher Barry
3 months ago
Reply to  Simon Templar

And that Donald Trump phone call trying to “find” 10,000 extra votes in Georgia!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump%E2%80%93Raffensperger_phone_call

That Time Magazine article sounds pretty serious. Is there a link?

Anyway, thank you for providing some evidence rather than simply asserting your belief.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
3 months ago

To “find” something, means to locate something which exists. To “create” means to create something that does not exist. I presume you know the difference …..

Christopher Barry
Christopher Barry
3 months ago
Reply to  Samuel Ross

So, no one can “find” that link I requested then?

Tina Rose
Tina Rose
3 months ago

https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
Took me 10 seconds to find it. Not so hard if you really cared

Christopher Barry
Christopher Barry
3 months ago
Reply to  Tina Rose

Goodness me, why is everyone so rude and patronising? Are you happy to brood in a sidelined minority or do you want to win people round to your viewpoint? I didn’t know what to put in the search bar.

Anyway, I’ve read it – very interesting.

I can see why people might interpret this as a conspiracy against Trump. But the article isn’t gloating, as Simon states, because it doesn’t itself interpret it as rigging. It is framed as a war of information against Trump’s supposed voter suppression. I’m not arguing either side, just commenting on what the article’s stated purpose is.

It says:
“They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.”

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Samuel Ross

You actually think Trump thought that 11,000 votes had slipped behind the cushions of the sofa?

K H
K H
3 months ago
Reply to  Simon Templar

Doesn’t Hunters guilty plea verdict tell you anything. If the media and the government will lie by omission about that, why would I believe anything they say. No apology, explanation nothing. Take that you peasants.

Martin Ashford
Martin Ashford
3 months ago

Nice to see UnHerd joining the establishment push. Subtle, but if you look closely you’ll have noticed the stitches for a while now. Subscription cancelled when those stitches became all too obvious after Southport.

Billy Bob
Billy Bob
3 months ago
Reply to  Martin Ashford

Another one throwing a hissy fit because the article doesn’t match up with his preconceived opinions

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

“preconceived opinions”
Is there another kind of opinion? I doubt it, in 2024. People that can be influenced can be reconciled, and we are irreconcilable.

Christopher Barry
Christopher Barry
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

There is theoretically! But I agree that open minds are hard to come by. If UnHerd can’t attract open minds, then maybe they really are very rare. Then again, maybe they’re the ones not commenting.

Martin Ashford
Martin Ashford
3 months ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

If you didn’t smell a rat over their coverage of the Southport aftermath, then you never will. If you didn’t see a problem, which I’m assuming you didn’t, then your simply a cheerleader for the state. My “hissy fit”, as you put it, is simply a refusal to support the agenda of the establishment. But you carry on fella, it’s people like you they depend on to keep the truck moving.

Billy Bob
Billy Bob
3 months ago
Reply to  Martin Ashford

I read all the articles, and I don’t recall any being particularly partisan or copying the governments lazy messaging trying to dismiss the rioters as far right. In fact UnHerd was one of the few publications that actually delved into the different backgrounds and motivations of the rioters, as well as the underlying causes of the riots for which the Southport murders proved to be the final spark. The only one I can recall that was openly critical was from a disabled lad (apologies I’ve forgotten your name) who was concerned about the safety of his carers.
If you see reporting of that nature as copying state propaganda then I fear you’ve truly fallen down the rabbit hole of online nonsense

Philip L
Philip L
2 months ago
Reply to  Martin Ashford

I’m sticking, as it’s UnHerd and not The OtherHerd.

Addie Shog
Addie Shog
3 months ago

Trump did not rant about Harris’ racial identity. He was pointing out her cynical chameleon-like playing to the gallery. Of course the media went berserk and misrepresented him, as always.

Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson
3 months ago
Reply to  Addie Shog

What a pile of worthless nonsense. Like EVERY “issue” he raises, it’s both stupid, useless, and done badly. He wasted 2 weeks talking about her racial identity. No one cares about that. MAGAMorons like you should shut up.

Jim C
Jim C
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

Pointing out that Harris has only just started primarily identifying as Black is a useful strategy to remind Black voters that… she ain’t.

As for your claim “no one cares”: the Democrats universally went ape over it, misquoting him left and right… to the point I suspect more Blacks went to view the video and discovered what he said – and what they said he said – were entirely different.

The Democrats are losing their grip over PoC and it’s about time.

Philip L
Philip L
2 months ago
Reply to  Jim C

A politician will identify as a baked potato if they think it helps them. If one wants to talk about identity, Trump was of Swedish ancestry (he made this up to not be German in the NYC real estate market) until he wasn’t.

David Giles
David Giles
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

Now this is a definite theme of the election – and a growing theme in the UK as well. Your opponent, say Kemi Badenoch or Donald Trump – should, quote, “Shut Up”. And if they don’t shut up, you’ll shut them up, won’t you!

Slopmop McTeash
Slopmop McTeash
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

What crass and utterly pointless comment.

Paul Thompson
Paul Thompson
3 months ago

Trump’s campaign has no energy, no vision. Trump is a downer on the stump.
The MAGAMorons are going to pay for this. This was winnable, but the MAGAMorons pushed for Trump, and now we have him. It’s gonna be 4 more years of terrible Dem policies.

Jim C
Jim C
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

What’s Harris’ vision, exactly? More Blacks in prison for minor drug offences?

And Walz? More tampons in boys bathrooms?

Anyone doing ten minutes research on these clowns’ “achievements” will know they’ll be a disaster.

Not that Trump is any kind of saviour, but at least he’s more anti-war and might pull the US out of the power-grabbing WHO and ruinous Paris Agreement.

Stephanie Surface
Stephanie Surface
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

RFKennedyJr, Tulsi Gabbard, JD Vance are Mega Morons? I think Trump has a pretty big tent this time. There are many polls out, which show that Trump is slightly ahead or even in all Swing States.This time in 2016 Clinton was ahead by 7% and Biden in 2020 by 4%. Clinton lost the Swing States and Biden just scraped by.

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago

Well, RFK Jr is a complete lunatic, and JD Vance is a deeply unpleasant misogynist. Can’t say I know that much about Gabbard.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Paul Thompson

You sound like you believe that “democracy” could work properly, if only we had the right candidate.
Here’s an alternative view. It can’t be made to work properly. It never has, and never will. Rather than bicker about which flavor of poison to swallow next, we should be investigating alternatives with vigor.

michael harris
michael harris
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

Interesting. But what alternatives do you think we should be investigating? (genuinely curious).

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
3 months ago

I’m not buying this, only because there have been murmurs from Harris operatives that she’s not doing well in PA and recent polls show the state even or even tilting Trump…

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Cathy Carron

As a form of statistics, “polls” are one of the three types of Lies.

John T. Maloney
John T. Maloney
3 months ago

You’re in for a YUGE surprise. Trump wins handily in the prediction markets (people that bet real cash on election outcomes).

https://www.realclearpolling.com/betting-odds/2024/president

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago

What all of this really reveals is the utter hopelessness of “democracy.”
Think about it: we may elect an absolutely inane woman to high office, merely because she’s “not Trump.”
This system termed “democracy” cannot be made to work properly or rationally. It must be completely abolished. For those of you that ask, “what comes next?” I recommend to start here to consider neocameralism.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

“Change” is like “equality.” As the term is used, it has literally no meaning, and as such appeals only to the vacuous.
Unfortunately, this means most voters.

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
3 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

Trump supporters suddenly don’t like inane? Wow, that’s a big change!
Except, of course, Harris is highly intelligent and accomplished while Trump is a complete moron as he proves every time he opens his mouth.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
3 months ago

What has she said that is “intelligent”? Also, what has she “accomplished”, which was worthwhile, valuable, or meaningful?

Champagne Socialist
Champagne Socialist
3 months ago
Reply to  Samuel Ross

Attorney General of California. Senator for California, Vice President of the United States.
There’s just a few for starter, kiddo!
Maybe go and check out her evisceration of Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearings. Oh boy!!!
I don’t think you want Harris and Trump to get into a debate about intelligence and accomplishments – fatso loses that one, big!

Brett H
Brett H
3 months ago

The positions she’s held is not proof of accomplishments. The evisceration of Kavanaugh, that’s her accomplishment? That’s really grasping at straws. Try to come up with something that made a change for good that was her work, not the party carrying her along like driftwood in a river.

Andrew D
Andrew D
3 months ago

Well Trump got to be president, so by your reasoning that would make him the most accomplished man alive

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Andrew D

He lost after one term, so that makes him the equivalent of Jimmy Carter.

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago

Don’t sell him short! Trump is more than just a complete moron! He is a convicted felon too!

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

When the alternative is “Trump”, surely “not Trump” is a valid position?

martin ordody
martin ordody
3 months ago

And UnHerd is a willing aide of the useless Kamala. Reason not to extend the subscription.

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  martin ordody

Bye.

Alex Lekas
Alex Lekas
3 months ago

Kamala Harris’s 2019 policy positions should cause West Pennsylvania normies to wince.
Either those normies are ignorant of her positions or the media has done a fine job of telling them that positions do not matter, and there has been a healthy dose of the latter. These people would rather burn down the country for the sake of ruling over the ashes than admit that Kamala is the same empty suit that Dem voters rejected four years and kept on disliking until Joe was shoved aside and the party commanded its subject to give their blind loyalty.

Joe Dirkes
Joe Dirkes
3 months ago

According to RCP polling averages the race is literally tied in Pennsylvania. And the polls have been massively skewed towards Democrats in the last 2 election cycles. So it’s a fairly safe assumption that Trump has a small lead.

Adam McIntyre
Adam McIntyre
3 months ago

The biggest danger to all of us in this election is not that Harris will win, or that Trump will win; but that there is a sizable contingent on either side that simply will not accept the result.
When enough people view the election as illegitimate, it is actually illegitimate. The “law” or whether it was conducted “properly” simply doesn’t matter. Those that would insist otherwise should observe that perfectly legal elections are carried out in virtually every totalitarian state, and that in many of those states, the citizens actually deem them legitimate. Whether they do so is a question of the quality of state propaganda, not anything inherent to the election or the law itself.
Americans in large numbers no longer believe their electoral process is legitimate. This is the primary fact. You will not understand what is happening in November and afterward if you do not assimilate this fact into your model of reality.

Philip L
Philip L
2 months ago
Reply to  Adam McIntyre

And this delegitimization is exactly what Mssr. Putin wants…and why he’s backing the man who claimed that Ted Cruz’s victory of him in the Iowa Caucuses in 2016 was rigged, and that his father may have conspired to kill JFK. Doubt everything about democracy….

Umm Spike
Umm Spike
3 months ago

Nonsense.

Bloodworth needs to vet out of the Erie bubble.
Harris has to win Philly, and she ticked them off by shunning Shapiro.

PA voters are tired of her no-interview crap, which is souring her vibe fast.

RCP has PA as a tie – the momentum may be hers to lose, but she’s losing fast.

Chris Maille
Chris Maille
3 months ago

A Harris movement, like Obama in 2008, would mean her candidacy has come to represent “change” to voters in what is most certainly a “change” election.

Harris is part of the current administration and democrats have been in power for 12 out of the last 16 years. Now the democrats are making this election about change ? Never mind, it closely fits the democratic candidate who seems like a phony to the point where she is almost a caricature of the term itself.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
3 months ago

The only wonder is how could so many intelligent people be in thrall to a criminal, rapist, sociopathic, chronically-lying, morbidly-obese, salvation pretender, who tells his voters to drink bleach for their health.

Simon Templar
Simon Templar
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

It’s Emmanuel Goldstein!! Baaaaaa!

Brett H
Brett H
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Still trotting out the bleach line. Why would you do that when you know it’s untrue? Never been charged with rape. Morbidly obese, hardly. Salvation pretender? What politician isn’t? Sociopath? What politician isn’t? Why do you feel the need to exaggerate? Don’t you have anything more substantial? If you’re afraid just say so then you can get help.

Samuel Ross
Samuel Ross
3 months ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

Who said to drink bleach? Really? 🙂

Steven Carr
Steven Carr
3 months ago

How did a Black woman like Kamala Harris become so successful?
Easy. She had an Indian mother.

Max More
Max More
3 months ago

This conflicts with the latest from the top expert, Nate Silver. After a very small post-convention bounce, Harris is not doing well in the crucial states.

J Arthur Rank
J Arthur Rank
3 months ago

The writer is Jeff Bloodworth a professor of American political history at Gannon University. Gannon University is a private Catholic university with campuses in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Ruskin, Florida.
So one gets the feeling this “Professor” is not right of centre in his politics although he probably agrees with Trump on one issue – that of abortion.
This criticism of Trump and his administration is valid as it was in 2016. There are no surprises here.
The Professor paints Harris as “having a grassroots” who support her current campaign. This is what is known as “astroturfing” the modern day way of saying any grass roots movement of someone is as false as astroturf having any “grass roots” at all. Nothing could be further from the reality that Harris was an extremely unlikeable candidate, until all this re-branding” started the cost of which is eye-watering for sure. Exactly how much the Democrat Party are spending in this manner we shall probably never know.
The suits of the Democratic party have spent billions “re-branding” Harris, and are up to their necks in lying to and gaslighting the American electorate, to the extent that her campaign refuses to acknowledge her total failures – e.g. being the Czar of The southern border of America fiasco -which she never even visited when appointed to this position. This re-branding includes denying all her cackling persona, her word salad answers to questions, and her vacuous utterances which she thinks are so very funny but no one else feels the same way.
She is a poor public speaker, of limited intellect and fails miserably when she strays from the tele-prompter.
All that doesn’t say she won’t be elected. But the real question for the American electorate is “Who are they really electing?”
The Democrat suits want her elected because those puppet masters of the Democratic party, just like they did this past year with Zombie Biden, they include Obama and other heavyweights, want only a carboard cut out of a “leader” so that they can not only influence but dictate American domestic and foreign policy for the next four years using Harris as their mouthpiece.
Then there is of course the irrational fear, greed and ambition to hang onto power and prevent Trump becoming the POTUS again.
A toxic political mix to be sure.

SIMON WOLF
SIMON WOLF
3 months ago

Actually the 2024 election may be decided by ‘path’ rather than the persons ‘vibes’.Organisation did not help Hilary win in 2016 although she was unlucky she got more votes.If Kamala can make clear that she is pro law and order and not against fossil fuels she can win by a landslide.If there is a confusion about what Kamala’s ‘path’ is then she might lose despite better organisation and Trumps negatives

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  SIMON WOLF

Hillary Clinton was hampered by the fact that she was fundamentally unlikeable on a personal level.

Neil Ross
Neil Ross
2 months ago

The article reads like wishful thinking. Harris received a boost after being appointed and there is plenty of time for the boost to go into reverse! Will she be able to remember her lines?

Martin M
Martin M
2 months ago
Reply to  Neil Ross

Surely her line is “I’m not Trump”? It can’t be that hard to remember.

Mr Brien
Mr Brien
17 days ago

This aged well.