Running up the score
Kamala Harris is taking the nation by storm, even as Donald Trump is melting down in press conferences and refusing to campaign in swing states. This race is rapidly becoming one sided, by every available measure. And that’s what I want to talk about.
Harris is now unquestionably ahead in the polls. Her best polls have her five or six points ahead of Trump nationally, and most of the other polls have her ahead by at least a small margin. But that right there is the caveat in every modern U.S. presidential election – the flaw, if you will, in our electoral process.
Joe Biden won the national popular vote in 2020 by five points. If he’d only won it by three points, he wouldn’t be in office right now, Trump would. That’s the kind of margin that it takes to safely win a presidential election – particularly for the Democrats, where the Electoral College math usually works against them these days. Five points is what a Democratic presidential candidate probably needs to win by just to fend off Electoral College flukes, voter suppression, and the never-ending Republican cheating methods. And in most polls, Kamala Harris isn’t even ahead by five points.
So as much as we are undeniably winning, and as much as it looks like we’re going to keep winning, it’s not enough. Not for me at least. And it should’t be enough for you either. Do you want to spend the week after the election biting your nails as the final swing state votes are counted, or do you want to win by such a large margin that the race is easily called on election night? Do you want Kamala Harris to win by such a big margin that she carries the House and Senate and can pass legislation and confirm Supreme Court Justices, or do you want to see what a Republican Congress looks like in 2025?
This is why it’s now more crucial than ever to focus on making Kamala Harris’ lead even bigger. Don’t sit back and just presume it’ll get bigger on its own. Remember the math: historically speaking, seven points is a blowout. And yet Kamala probably needs to win by five points just to safely win. It’s perverse. It shouldn’t be the system we’re dealing with. But it is. And there’s nothing we can do but win by a big enough margin to overcome it.
So I urge all of you to look at how you’re going to contribute to Kamala Harris’ margin of victory. Your one vote won’t change the outcome. Nor will your social media posts. But if you sign up to get involved, either directly with the Kamala Harris campaign or with any of the numerous respected activist groups out there, they can set you up to help change the minds of voters in the real world.
Remember, all the people attending Kamala’s rallies (and most of the people reading your social media posts) are already voting for her anyway. Those things are a great way to keep the enthusiasm going and to allow you to feel the joy about this campaign that you deserve to feel. But if you want to help Kamala get actual additional votes, the way you do that is with a volunteer shift.
So even as we continue to get good news about the campaign, and even as we continue to feel good vibes, let’s capitalize on it. Let’s not sit back. Let’s seize this moment and go do the volunteer shift thing and help run up the score, so that no one can take this joy away from us.
