The idea is that it gives moderate republicans a path to voting for her.
Without the endorsements, they would feel like they’re betraying their principles and their party to vote D. With them, they can make a choice: Lots of rank and file voters will stick with Trump, but if a few party leaders, recently respected within the party, can vote for Harris, maybe that isn’t such a betrayal after all.
Will it change the vote by 5-10%? Basically zero chance of that. But if it swings a few thousand voters in some strategic areas, it can make a difference. It’s not a strategy aimed at very many people, but those votes on the margins matter.
Its unclear how many “moderate republicans” will vote for her. In large part because it is unclear how many “moderate republicans” there actually are and it is worth remembering that folk like liz cheney and romney largely voted in lockstep with trump and the magats outside of MAYBE one or two issues that personally impact them. And it isn’t like any of the “former Republican leaders” have particularly strong support bases considering they lost to the magats years ago.
The reality is that this is just part of the republican party trying to prepare for a post-trump election. trump supported candidates consistently lost downballot and the primaries for this election were a shitshow. maga/tea party republicans die with trump so they are making sure they can go back to reagan/bush style “We are the party of decorum and church rights. You need to meet us in the middle and let us kill just a few trans folk per day”
The scary part is now they basically can’t ever be trusted with power again. Project 25 is their platform and they’re not going to turn away from it. How can there be any path forward besides not them and how long can that be sustained?
Can’t hurt.
However I don’t really care what Republican leaders say at all, hopefully Republican voters do.
In part it might be anticipating trouble during and after the election with Republican state officials interfering with the election process—they might be more hesitant if they see other Republican leaders supporting Harris.
We’ll know after the election.
It might be that these endorsements help bring in some more moderate Republicans to her side but there’s also a very real possibility that she disincentive the more left leaning voters from voting for her as well. Remember, Hillary lost because she didn’t do enough to incentivize people to vote for her. She just relied on people hating Trump and didn’t rely on people actually liking her. Regardless, this is all conjecture. It’s too early to tell and no one will have a definitive answer until the results are in and a winner is announced.
Hillary lost because she didn’t do enough to incentivize people to vote for her.
Hilary got more than enough votes. She received 2.9M more votes than Trump. Her problem was that her support was much too concentrated in a small number of states. The Electoral College math punishes candidates in that situation.
A big part of where she excelled in votes was because she spent too much time in safe states and didn’t spend a lot of time campaigning in the states that ended up being decided on thin margins.
Maybe. Republicans usually toe the line. DEMs individually fight about what the line is all the time, it’s a defining characteristic. Not so much with repubs. So, maybe.
Undecided voters aren’t undecided between Trump and Harris, they are undecided on leaving the couch to go vote.
So I don’t really think it’s changing the mind of voters and I don’t see it motivating people to go vote.
Just seems like an attempt at counter narrative for “Comrade Harris”. I don’t see it moving the needle.
They would there vote for “opposition” and provide her with platfrom than a third party alternative…
Regimes primary imperative is…
For me personally, no.
