Donald Trump’s lost capacity
When VP Kamala Harris held a packed rally at Georgia State University and then Donald Trump held a rally in the exact same venue just a few days later, it was clear that Trump was trying to prove he could outdraw Harris. Instead Trump didn’t come close to filling the arena, and it was so glaring that he ended up accusing the university of conspiring against him by refusing to let thousands of imaginary Trump supporters in. Now the discrepancy has become even more glaring.
There are only so many medium sized indoor arenas to go around in swing states, so when Kamala Harris held a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, it happened to be at the same Temple University arena where Trump held a rally two weeks earlier. The difference in audience size is stunning:
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Harris rally vs. Trump rally
Same arena in Philly pic.twitter.com/YqRiRIPRrW
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 6, 2024
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We’re going to hear arguments as to why this supposedly isn’t a fair comparison. They’ll say that this was only because so many people were excited to see Kamala Harris’ new running mate Tim Walz. But it’s not the Democrats’ fault that Trump’s running mate JD Vance has garnered no excitement at all. They’ll also say that there are more Democrats in big cities. But so what? Trump supporters used to travel in droves from rural areas to see his big city rallies. Now they just seem tired. Meanwhile Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are drawing rock star sized crowds.
I’ve long said that rally crowd size alone is not an indicator of voter turnout. This kind of popular momentum is one of three indicators of electoral success, along with polling and fundraising. But at this point all three indicators favor Kamala Harris. Trump’s only claim to fame was rally size, and now Kamala has taken even that away from him.
