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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
US Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign team is concerned about some states that make up the so-called Blue Wall, an area of the country with a long history of Democratic preferences. However, things could be different in the upcoming presidential elections on November 5, especially as Harris must contend with voter perception of the current state of the economy.
Less than two weeks before the next US presidential election, the team of the Democratic candidate fears that states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the so-called Blue Wall, will support the Republican candidate Donald Trump this year, which could make the race even closer, according to people close to the Democratic vice president and who were consulted by NBC News.
These three states have paved the way for the two most recent Democratic presidents (Joe Biden and Barack Obama) to win the White House, but this time, at least two of them are in doubt only days before the election. Harris’s campaign aides, who asked to remain anonymous, told NBC News that there is a chance that Wisconsin and Michigan could break through the Democratic “wall” and be swept away by Trump.
“There has been a thought that maybe Michigan or Wisconsin will fall off,” said a senior Harris campaign official, who stressed that the bigger concern is over Michigan.
Members of the vice president’s team calculate that losing Wisconsin or Michigan would mean that even if Harris secures Pennsylvania, she would fall short of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election. Although Harris’ team has some concerns about at least three states, NBC News adds, they have not yet talked about a possible loss to Donald Trump, but they do perceive a closer competition than a few weeks ago.
The NBC cited Democratic pollster Matt Baretto as saying: “Right now, Harris has an advantage in all three states — not a huge advantage — we know the election is going to be close. It’s going to be 1 or 2 percent in any of these states.”
Harris is evidently worried about losing the Blue Wall, which is why she visited Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin on October 21, which have traditionally voted for the party, instead of visiting other key swing states. According to FiveThirtyEight’s daily election poll tracker, as of October 21, in the key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada — which have a total of 51 votes in the 538-strong Electoral College — the two candidates are effectively tied, with less than half a percent separating them.
At the same time, the Kamala Harris campaign has been dealt another blow after it was revealed that 52% of adults believe that they and their families are currently in a worse financial situation than before Joe Biden assumed the presidency.
Gallup’s research data confirm that this is the highest number of citizens dissatisfied with the economy since 1992. That year, 46% of the electorate disapproved of then-President George Bush’s economic management, partly explaining why the Republican failed in his re-election bid and his opponent, the governor of Arkansas and Democratic standard-bearer, Bill Clinton, comfortably won.
Gallup’s survey of US citizens’ opinions on the country’s economic situation found that only 39% of respondents said they were better off than four years ago, and 8% said they were about the same as in 2020. In this sense, the survey confirms that a majority of Americans disapprove of Biden’s economic management, whom they blame for the rising cost of living and the increase in the price of goods and services.
This explains why the economy appears in all polls as the main concern of voters in this election cycle, ahead of other issues such as rising crime, reproductive rights and illegal immigration.
Gallup also found that 46% of Americans describe their current economic conditions as “poor” and 29% as “only fair,” compared to 25% who say their conditions are “excellent” or “good.”
Supporting the public’s discouraging view of the country’s direction, 62% of respondents believe the economy is “getting worse,” while 32% said it is “getting better.” Gallup concludes that this scenario will weigh heavily on voters’ minds when choosing the new president.
“As inflation persists and economic concerns dominate voters’ minds, the upcoming election may hinge on which candidate can best address these pressing issues,” wrote Mary Claire Evans, a researcher at Gallup.
While all polls show a virtual tie between the two candidates, in recent weeks, Donald Trump has shown slight growth in several main battleground states. This is largely due to voters’ belief that the tycoon would be better at managing the economy than Harris and that his four years as president were more prosperous than the current Biden-Harris term. It might be this very factor that will allow Trump to knock down the so-called Blue Wall.
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“kamala harris fears”… it’s not true. she is not able to fear anything. it would require at least some degree of thinking and reasoning. she’s just a walking stupid clucking hen. at least the hen can lay eggs, this kamala-hen can do nothing at all.
oh apparently she has good oral abilities
harris has the british labour party campaigning for their moron. running on the biden/harris destruction of the country the british like this moron better than the other to run their colony.
yes they do. they want their colony back. and they said they would win it back using economics.
trump will win simply because he is netanyahu’s favorite and also putin’s favorite. basically the two worst war criminals of the 21st century will have the “strongman” they want in the white house.
joe the used toilet paper biden is gone and kamala legsup harris is a useless, annoyingly loud call girl.
trump-vance in2024. they will not replace. russia is our friend. nato and ukraine are kaput.
you havent been keeping up joey and co already put acts into place ensuring trump will not be able to end the ukraine war without extreme difficulty from within. extreme.
you think? may be trump and his deplorables can shut down the government to avoid more wasteful spending.
tweedledum and tweedledummer. corrupt aipac stooge 1 or corrupt aipac stooge 2. you might as well vote for a stuffed animal. this whole tawdry degrading spectacle makes no difference whatsoever to ordinary americans as they watch their country collapsing around them.
aren’t you transparent.
as if she d give a s*it. as if she doesn’t know her mob have set up 30 million fake votes as reported on alternative news
she really wants nothing to do with any of it because she only signed up for the coup position of vice president. with promise she would need limited effort in order to have indo woman in the whitehouse, as number two. she was not planning to have potus dumped in her lap. she knows she has zero credibility and track record but most of all lack of strength or courage.