WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is planning to more aggressively attack former President Donald Trump in the remaining weeks ahead of the November election, a new phase aimed at trying to move the small number of undecided voters her way, according to five Harris campaign officials.
The change is driven, in part, by internal campaign data showing that sharper messaging against Trump could persuade some still-unsure Americans to support Harris, according to three of the campaign officials. The effort is set to include new ads and harsher language on the campaign trail that highlights Trump’s past actions and rhetoric that Harris officials hope will tip these voters away from backing the former president.
“We are going to draw more contrasts everywhere we can,” Harris campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond said in an interview. Given Trump’s own rhetoric in the campaign, Richmond added, “I don’t think there’s any expectation that you criticize him with kid gloves.”
Leaning more heavily into negative campaigning is a strategic shift for Harris. While she has routinely been critical of Trump since becoming a candidate in July, and before that as President Joe Biden’s running mate, much of her campaign’s focus has been on defining her and explaining her record to voters.
Harris campaign officials said they intend to continue laying out her policy positions, background and plans if she were to win the presidency — and increasing negative messaging is oftentimes a natural evolution in a presidential campaign as the candidates make their closing arguments.
But emphasizing what Harris campaign officials view as Trump’s major vulnerabilities is seen as possibly one of the only ways to finally win over some voters who haven’t made up their mind in a static race that Democrats want to push in their direction.
“The numbers aren’t moving,” a Harris campaign official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
A second Harris campaign official, also speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy, said, “Fundamentally, with a month to go, our messaging is going to be much more about the choice in this election.”
“There’s going to be a shift,” the official said.
Indeed the Harris campaign has already begun to telegraph the approach, including in two new ads this week: one referring to his time in office as “erratic, destructive, and divisive” and another that raises questions about his fitness for office given he is 78 years old.
The campaign specifically cited internal research demonstrating that “showing that Trump is unstable in contrast to Harris” is “the most effective message for target voters” they are trying to reach and persuade in the closing stretch.
And on Friday in a campaign speech at the Redford Township Fire Department in Detroit, Harris tore into Trump as no friend of union workers.
“Donald Trump’s track record is a disaster for working people,” Harris said. “He’s trying to gaslight people all over our country, but we know the facts and we know the truth. He is an existential threat to America’s labor movement.”
While the vast majority of Trump campaign ads have been negative, according to the tracking firm AdImpact, for much of last month the Harris campaign ran an equal mix of positive and negative ads on broadcast television. Harris campaign officials noted that, with less than four months as a candidate, she had to compress what typically would have been a longer introduction of herself before moving more negative messaging to help persuade and turn out voters.
New Harris ads will zero in more of Trump’s record and rhetoric, but also further tie Trump to the Project 2025 conservative policy blueprint — a decision driven by public polling showing the plan is deeply unpopular and the former president’s continued insistence he has no connections to it, according to the second Harris campaign official. The goal, according to a third campaign official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy, is to “crystallize the choice for voters in the home stretch.”
Many of Trump’s allies helped create Project 2025, which is more than 900 pages long. In a Truth Social post Friday, Trump wrote that “Lyin’ Kamala has been informed, legally, that I have, and had, nothing to do with it.” When asked about the specific messaging the Harris campaign is planning, Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman, pointed to health care, immigration and retirement benefits for seniors.
NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
Richmond said he doesn’t worry about going too negative and believes Harris can both focus on her plans and point out why she believes Trump is not qualified to be president. He said he disagrees with anyone — including fellow Democrats — who thinks Harris might be hurt by going too negative on Trump.
“We can do both,” Richmond said.
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