We have 49 days until the 2024 Election and it’s time to kick off Slick’s very own campaign: a weekly round-up of all the biggest election news in the past seven days. This election is no small deal, no matter your political persuasion or interest level in politics. There is simply so much content to sift through, and thus, the Slick Campaign Chronicles will be a place to catch up on headlines, check polling numbers, and be an impetus for further research.
Without further ado, let’s start off with the numbers.
Polling Data
Numbers cut through the spectacle of elections; they are what sends one candidate walking down Pennsylvania Ave. while the other concedes.
In the general election poll from Project 538, Vice president Kamala Harris is leading by 48% against former President Donald Trump, who is at 45.4% as of Sept. 16. The project (from ABC News) averages data from YouGov, TIPP Insights and Ipsos (among others) and is sponsored by Yahoo!News, The Economist, Reuters, etc. That is to say, Project 538 is regularly updated and is transparent about the companies conducting each poll.
In another 538 poll, the favorability of the candidates and their VPs goes as follows: Gov. Tim Walz (+3.7 favorable), VP Harris (+0.3 unfavorable), Trump (+9.6 unfavorable), and Sen. Vance (+10.4 unfavorable).
The Debate
Hosted on Sept. 10 by ABC, the presidential debate marked the first meeting between Trump and VP Harris. The results from a CNN Flash Poll of 605 registered voters reported that Harris outperformed Trump by 63% to 37%. Favorable views of Trump held steady while Harris saw a 6% increase (45%) in favorability post-debate. While quotes and visuals from the debate remain in the minds of many, let’s observe the performances as a whole.
Trump did not have the best night according to the flash poll. His answers were not to the point and the former president’s performance took a hit after seemingly being provoked by the VP’s comments; these include statements about attendees leaving his rallies “early out of exhaustion and boredom” and that Trump was “fired by 81 million people”. Trump’s insistence on the occurrence of post-birth abortions—which are illegal in the United States—and remarks on Haitian migrants “eating the pets” of citizens in Springfield, Ohio did little to highlight Trump’s polices, which his allies urged him to focus on.
Harris had a better night, but large amounts of progress were not made on issues she is not already leading on. In the post-debate CNN poll, she leads on the topics of abortion and protecting democracy while Trump maintained his leads on immigration and the economy. The VP gave responses that were closer to the questions ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis were asking. The composure Harris maintained throughout the debate helped her in terms of the optics. However, some of the VP’s statements were not entirely true. For instance, Trump did not “[leave] us with the worst employment since the Great Depression” (COVID unemployment was similar to levels in 1948 at 14.8%, years after the depression) or used “bloodbath” to describe what would happen if he does not win this election. The former president used “bloodbath” to describe tariffs hurting the auto industry. Context matters. That being said, Harris fared well during the debate.
Harris’s First Post-Debate Interview
The VP had her first televised solo interview after the debate on Friday. In her time with Brian Taff of Philadelphia’s 6abc Action News, Harris did not provide many specific policy details to sway Pennsylvanian voters; she gave personal anecdotes on growing up middle class.
Harris’s focus on the optics of the race continued. She said, “I also believe that I am accurate in knowing that most Americans want a leader that brings us together as Americans and not someone who professes to be a leader who is trying to have us point our fingers at each other.”
Vice-Prospects: A Check-in with Vance and Walz
Minn. Gov. Tim Walz kicked off the Harris-Walz campaign’s visits to Wisconsin on Sept. 14. Walz criticized Trump’s statements on “having concepts of a plan” for replacing the Affordable Care Act. In light of that, the governor emphasized that he and Harris will improve the living conditions of Americans.
“Donald Trump talked a tough game on infrastructure, Kamala Harris got it done,” Walz said.
Ohio Sen. JD Vance had a contentious interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday about the Haitian migrants Trump-Vance claimed to be abducting and eating local pets.
Vance posted about the migrants on Sept. 9 via his X account; the senator states that he popularized the issue of Haitians “draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio” months prior. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he wrote.
Bash criticized Vance for using provocative rhetoric that has led to schools, government buildings, and hospitals getting shut down amid bomb threats in Springfield.
“Why not actually be constructive, in helping to better integrate them into the community?” Bash questioned.
Vance denounced the violence before finally admitting that his comments about Haitians and Springfield pets were lies.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do, Dana,” said Vance.
Breaking: Second Trump Assassination Plot
For the second time in nine weeks, the FBI confirmed that Trump was the target of an assassination attempt on Sunday, this time at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla. The suspect was identified as 58 year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, who was spotted in the bushes holding an AK-style rifle 300 to 500 yards away from Trump before the Secret Service opened fire. The suspect drove away in a black Nissan before getting chased down on Interstate 95. Trump was not harmed and taken to a safe location.
Routh spent much of his life in North Carolina before relocating to Hawaii. He was charged with a hit-and-run offense, possessing stolen goods and a concealed weapon (along with several other felonies and misdemeanors) from 2001 to 2010.
He is currently unaffiliated with any political party; however, he noted in his 291-paged self-published book (Ukraine’s Unwinnable War: The Fatal Flaw of Democracy, World Abandonment, and the Global Citizen—Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, WWIII and the End of Humanity) that he formerly supported Trump.
Routh is an avid supporter of Ukraine, as seen in the previous book title.
There will be, without a doubt, more updates on the Routh case in the next Campaign Chronicles.
