Kamala’s Fruitless Pursuit of the Mythical Moderate

The Intercept Briefing

The Intercept

Politics, Unknown, Daily News, History, News

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There will be much analysis and innumerable postmortems of what Kamala Harris and her campaign got wrong about the electorate this election.

Already, the trends are becoming clear: She failed to reach Black and Latino men, who flocked to Donald Trump this cycle. She underperformed in cities, typically Democratic strongholds. And she even lagged among younger voters vital to her party’s present and future.

What’s behind this dismal showing? One explanation is Harris’s inability to put forth a distinct agenda that would appeal to disaffected Democrats. Instead, she held steady to the policies of President Joe Biden, despite general voter dissatisfaction and anxiety about the economy and the direction of the country.

“We see Democrats over and over turning to courting this mythical moderate voter,” says senior politics reporter Akela Lacy on this week’s episode of The Intercept Briefing. “We also see a big failure to account for the rightward shift among young people and figure out how to give young voters a reason to support the Democratic Party.”

Listen to understand what Intercept reporters were hearing at the polls in Georgia and Pennsylvania this week.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Imagine sweeping through green fields, floating five feet above ground, sun on your face as you slide by on track to your destination.
0:11.1	Not a care in the world as you simply lean back and before you know it, you're there.
0:16.7	Travel by train from London to Liverpool from just 25 pounds.
0:20.8	Avanti West Coast.
0:22.2	Feel good travel.
0:23.8	Exclusions and limitations apply.
0:25.6	Full terms and conditions can be found at avantiwestcoast.combe.
0:28.8	com.com.com.
0:28.8	Go.org.
0:28.9	..
0:29.9	plan.
0:29.9	Just as I did in my first term, we had a great first term, a great, great first term, I will
0:41.7	govern by a simple motto, promises made, promises kept, we're going to keep our promises.
0:49.9	While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.
0:59.1	Welcome to the Intercept Briefing, a new podcast from our newsroom. I'm Jordan Yule, your host
1:04.3	this week. Donald Trump clinched a decisive victory over Kamala Harris, gaining ground in almost
1:09.9	every state. The initial analysis is that
1:12.6	economic concerns, stubbornly high inflation and the rising cost of living, drove voters to Trump.
1:19.1	Do you want to know who I voted for? If you want to share it, yeah. Sure, I voted for Trump.
1:23.3	Mine's a secret. Okay. Do you want to say? No, I'm a secret voter. I don't know.
1:27.9	Okay.
1:28.6	I voted for Trump.
	...

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