Harris Campaign Goes on Offense With Plans To Highlight Trump ‘Tax Handouts to Billionaires’ and ‘Dictator’ Vow

Trump’s “tax handouts to billionaires,” proposals to “gut Medicare and Social Security,” and plans to “fulfill his promise to be a dictator on ‘day one’” are talking points Vice President Harris can use to win in November, a top Democratic party official says.The messaging recommendations are from the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Jamie Harrison, who released a memo on the party’s plans for the final hundred days of the presidential campaign Monday.The memo emerges as Ms. Harris’s campaign is charting out a plan to stay on the offensive through election day and deploy hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country.Monday, Mr. Harrison honed in on a strategy to keep Republicans on the backfoot and to leverage new excitement Democrats to deploy volunteers to organize voters.In a memo, Mr. Harrison describes a rhetorical strategy of “staying on the offense” against Trump and Senator Vance’s campaign, something that Ms. Harris’s campaign has been successful at, at least in its first week of existence.He also outlined a few topics that voters should expect to hear about throughout the campaign including abortion, tax cuts for the wealthy, plans to “gut Medicare and Social Security,” and Trump’s vow to “be a dictator on ‘day one.’”So far, an offensive campaign strategy appears to have caught Republicans off guard. When the campaign was between President Biden and Trump, Democrats had been on the back foot, overwhelmingly defending against attacks on Mr. Biden’s age and fitness for office.Last week, Republicans initially launched attacks against Ms. Harris based on her identity, though party leadership have warned members to refrain from such attacks with Speaker Johnson directing Republicans to “focus on policy, not personality.”The Trump campaign has also been reeling from Trump’s choice of Mr. Vance as his running mate, with Mr. Vance’s long history as a public figure and on social media making him a target-rich opponent for Ms. Harris’s campaign.One challenge Republicans face in wresting narrative control of the campaign back from the Democrats is the calendar. Over the next month Democrats will announce their party’s vice-presidential nominee and have their convention, two events likely to drive the news cycle in coming weeks.In addition to staying on the messaging offensive, Ms. Harris’s campaign is engaging with Democratic volunteers who had been reluctant to give their time to Mr. Biden’s re-election. Just last week, the campaign reported signing up some 170,000 volunteers.While volunteer efforts on the Democratic side don’t have the same splashy million dollar price tags as ad buys, volunteers have proven important for Democrats in past elections.In 2020, for instance, Democrats boasted 168,000 volunteers in Pennsylvania alone, a state Trump won in 2016 and Mr. Biden won in 2020.The Democratic get out the vote operation also lacks a clear analog on the Republican side. Earlier this summer the Republican National Convention announced it was aiming to recruit some 100,000 election day volunteers to work elections, watch polls, and potentially file lawsuits, though their efforts are self described as “working to protect the vote” rather than getting their voters to the polls.

Harris Campaign Goes on Offense With Plans To Highlight Trump ‘Tax Handouts to Billionaires’ and ‘Dictator’ Vow

More from the New York Sun

Collectivists Turn May Day Into a High Holiday

U.S. Floats Netanyahu–Aoun Meeting as Path to IDF Exit From Lebanon

Louisiana Lawmakers Advance Bill Protecting College Faculty Members’ Ability To Engage in the ‘Rigorous Exchange of Ideas’

More from the New York Sun

Collectivists Turn May Day Into a High Holiday

U.S. Floats Netanyahu–Aoun Meeting as Path to IDF Exit From Lebanon

Louisiana Lawmakers Advance Bill Protecting College Faculty Members’ Ability To Engage in the ‘Rigorous Exchange of Ideas’

Assassination Attempt Exposes Danger of Liberal Bias — and Outright Trump-Hatred — at America’s Universities

The Marriage Gap Is the Biggest Cause of Inequality in America, but Gets the Least Attention

Kentucky Derby Arrives With History, Heartbreak, and Change in the Air

Actress Takes a Beating From Harvey Weinstein’s Lawyers Over Secret ‘Love Note’: It’s Latest Example of Why This Rape Case Is So Hard To Prove

A Tale of Moral Courage in World War II, Chronicled Through Cartoons