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Political strategists Karl Rove and David Axelrod analyze presidential campaigns leading up to Election Day

As Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris “stagnates” and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump faces criticism for failing to lay out key elements of his platform, two former senior aides spoke about the final push any candidate needs to secure the 270- to secure a majority of votes on election day.

Karl Rove, a former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff in the administration of President George W. Bush, and David Axelrod, a former senior adviser and chief strategist in the administration of President Barack Obama, spoke about the upcoming American election at a Duke Program event on Tuesday Grand Strategy, POLIS: Center for Politics and Department of Political Science.

Rove and Axelrod claimed that while Harris was nominated for the nomination at the last minute and her strong performance in the debate had raised enthusiasm for the Democratic Party, she would have to work exceptionally hard to maintain the momentum of the campaign in her abbreviated candidacy to maintain.

“It kind of drifted off around September, and then it plateaued in late September, early October,” Rove said. “She ran out of that momentum and hasn’t found a way to get it going again through her own activities.”

Rove also pointed out that Trump must prove that he has a “second act” in him and that he must “initiate a case against him.” [Harris] better than he is,” acknowledging that Trump would be better off spending his time spelling out exactly what he plans to do as president rather than blaming Democrats.

Both Axelrod and Rove provided an analysis of the current state of the race that shows a razor-thin gap between Trump and Harris. Axelrod found that the largest gap between candidates in the battleground states is 2% in Arizona.

“When you look at early voting, the question becomes: Which party is getting more irregular voters and new voters?” Axelrod said, pointing out that while there is not enough data at this early point in voting to judge that but he thinks the numbers are closer together than they were four years ago.

Both agreed that the parties' changing voting dynamics will impact the outcome of the November election.

“Former President Trump spent a lot of time telling people that mail-in voting was not a legitimate thing, but his campaign worked hard to get people to do it,” Axelrod said. “And so you see more Republicans participating, voting more, both in person and [by] Post. That will change the dynamic a little bit.”

However, the target groups have also changed. Rove pointed out that the small number of undecided and “poorly connected” voters will become “significantly more important” in the race. He added that the strongest campaign efforts are those aimed at identifying and targeting these voters.

At the end of the evening, both Rove and Axelrod indicated that Americans had “had enough” of the current state of polarized politics and that they wanted to “see something different,” especially after seeing the significantly friendlier tone of the vice president debate compared to two previous presidential debates.

“The vast majority of people … want to accomplish something constructive, and we have to say, 'Good for you for doing that,'” Rove said.

Axelrod concluded by emphasizing how important it is for young people to take part in the democratic process.

“[Young people] are skeptical but not cynical, and they understand on some level that we are being given tools to try to make the world a better place, to make our community stronger, and they want to know how to do that can do that,” he said. “And I believe that too [have] to encourage them because their time will be up to them to move forward with this experiment and we want them to be hopeful enough.”

Claire Cranford
| Functions that guide the editor

Claire Cranford is a sophomore at Trinity and Editor-in-Chief of the News Department.

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