David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the Harris campaign, said in his first post-mortem interview since President-elect Trump's victory earlier this month that it would be difficult for the party to win in battleground states.
In an interview on Crooked Media's “Pod Save America,” hosted by a former Obama aide, Plouffe and his campaign colleagues reflected on what went wrong during the campaign.
“What's always worth reminding people is that it's really hard for Democrats to win in battleground states. Look at Pennsylvania. Roughly 25 percent of voters are liberal; 34 percent are liberal. It’s conservative,” Plouffe said. “So in every battleground state, there are more conservatives than liberals.”
The Democratic strategist said Vice President Harris won over liberal voters and moderate voters by a wide margin over conservative President Trump, but not enough to close the gap in the state.
“In Pennsylvania, if secession is to be believed, Trump won 91-8 over conservatives. Harris won 93-6 over liberals. Harris, a centrist, won 56-43. But you have to win 60 percent, right?'' Plouffe said. “So, to Quentin and Jen’s point, it’s a false choice for Democrats to win in battleground states.”
He added that Democrats need to perform well across all demographics.
“Obviously we want to maximize our footprint. And that's where we've spent a tremendous amount of time and a lot of resources. That's extremely important,” Plouffe said, adding that turnout was strong in Milwaukee. However, he pointed out that it was not as good as Philadelphia and Detroit. “So that's not good, that's part of the equation.”
“We need to combine that with dominance in the middle,” he continued. “We don't just win a little bit. We have to dominate the moderate vote.”
Plouffe also said the Democratic Party “cannot afford to lose” any more of its support base in the coming elections.
“And as we look at '26 and '28, we clearly have to get some of that back, especially as we're seeing trends among non-college voters, especially voters of color. I think we can't allow any more erosion. The calculations aren't working, okay?”
“But I don't think this is a permanent realignment, but the point here is to win the battleground states. Yes, of course, if you're a Democrat, you want to maximize turnout and vote share among liberal voters.” ”, he added. “That was a big focus. We have to win center.”
Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon and other advisers also joined the podcast to discuss the loss. In a call with top donors on Tuesday, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), defended their nearly three-month campaign.
