Trump and Harris' campaign strategies differ as the election approaches

WASHINGTON (AP) — In battleground Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris warned on the campaign trail that democracy and reproductive rights were at stake alongside a former Republican congresswoman.

The day before, Donald Trump went to the same state serves french fries at a closed McDonald's.

As the 2024 presidential campaign comes to a close on November 5, Harris and Trump are pursuing starkly different strategies to strengthen the coalitions they need to win. Both make bets that will prove prescient or unwise.

Trump's team has largely abandoned traditional efforts to broaden his message to moderate voters and instead focused on energizing his base of heated supporters and low-leaning voters – particularly young men of all races – through tough speeches and events aimed at doing so to attract attention on the Internet, to track down.

Harris is leaning into a more traditional, all-of-the-above playbook, targeting the small group of remaining undecided voters, particularly moderates, college-educated suburbanites and women of all races and education. More than Trump, she has targeted Republican women who may have supported her rival Nikki Haley in this year's GOP primary and are unhappy with the former president.

“These are all pieces of a very complex puzzle,” Harris senior campaign adviser David Plouffe said this week. “The whole thing would be easier if you could just focus on one cohort of voters. You can't do that. And you have to make sure you do well enough with all of them so that you get 50% combined.”

Trump's team sees this as a much simpler equation.

His aides insist that efforts to maximize turnout from Trump's hardcore base does not mean he is ignoring swing voters, even if he has not tailored a different message to reach them.

“I just think there's a misunderstanding of what motivates these people,” said Trump political director James Blair. “I mean, the fact is that the economy motivates these people. These people overwhelmingly think they are worse off than they were four years ago…Then the question becomes: Who is better equipped to solve the problem?”

The different strategies underscore the stark differences between the candidates themselves, both in personality and in politics.

Harris, a former California senator who would be the first woman president, has pledged to add a Republican to her Cabinet while prioritizing efforts to protect democracy. reproductive rights and the middle class. Trump, a former president, has vowed to also fight for the working class. He has also promised a campaign of retaliation against his political enemies with a government full of loyalists.

Both camps agree on one point: the election will be decided fairly by the voters seven swing statesa political map that has not significantly changed or narrowed as Election Day approaches. These are Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

A Harris adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy, described the situation as “still shockingly difficult in all seven cases.”

Trump rejects the traditional pivot to the center

Trump appeals primarily to his loyal Republican base, at the expense of moderate voters, particularly suburban women. He peppers his rallies with obscenities, personal insults against Harris and threatening speeches about “enemies within.”

He has repeatedly said over the last week that Democrats like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff of California pose a greater threat to the United States than China and Russia.

Trump also turned down recent opportunities to speak to a more traditional audience, declining an interview with CBS's popular show “60 Minutes” and refusing to debate Harris a second time unless the discussion was by Fox News, home to several of his favorite conservative anchors.

Instead, his campaign plans to appear on podcasts and online shows aimed at young men — particularly working-class Hispanic and black men, who are typically less likely to vote and tend to favor Democrats.

He has competed in sporting events, including mixed martial arts fights and football gamesIn doing so, he presents himself to an audience that is not normally exposed to traditional media.

Josh Rouse, a 28-year-old Black man and registered Republican, said he only recently became drawn to politics. He didn't vote in 2016, but did vote for Trump in 2020.

“If anything, I think it's important to remember that we're all human, regardless of whether you're white or black,” said Rouse, who works as a roofer and attended Trump's rally in Greenville this week. North Carolina, participated. “It doesn’t matter who you are. He speaks to all of us.”

Trump's team has also created viral moments in non-political situations, such as his visit to McDonald's on Sunday, which was part of an extensive campaign to question Harris' career at the fast-food franchise. Trump also traveled to Coachella, California, and will hold a rally there Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday — both in heavily Democratic states, but where the associated media attention and online content would certainly reach swing state voters.

Trump has kept an aggressive schedule. He will visit every battleground state except Wisconsin this week.

Harris is making Republicans part of her persuasion strategy

Backed by an avalanche of campaign cash, Harris hosts in-person events but also launches a sprawling campaign Door knocking processhyper-targeted online ads and a carefully designed media strategy to reach specific voting blocs.

Harris' team estimates that about 10% of voters in battleground states are still persuasive, either because they are truly undecided or because they only weakly support Trump. The campaign promises to continue trying to convince these voters until the final minutes of in-person voting.

Her team sees the possibility of significant growth among college-educated suburban Republican women alienated by Trump's extreme rhetoric. Even small changes in swing states could have a massive impact on the election.

The Harris campaign quickly produced digital ads last week highlighting Trump's description of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection as “a day of love.” And Harris spent most of Monday campaigning in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin alongside Liz Cheney, a Republican House leader during Trump's presidency who turned sharply against him after Jan. 6.

Harris will visit Houston on Friday for an event with women affected by the state's abortion ban, which came into effect after the Supreme Court, including three Trump-nominated justices, overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. She will be going there after spending some time in Georgia, where abortions were banned after the sixth week of pregnancy.

Nicolette Milholin, 45, of Mont Clare, Pennsylvania, said she considered herself a political independent until Trump's election in 2016.

“To me, democracy is at stake,” Milholin said this week at a Harris event in Chester County, Pennsylvania. “We have a party built for a family and a dynasty. And then here we have a party, represented by Kamala Harris, that was built for our country.”

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Völker reported from New York. Colvin reported from Palm Beach, Florida. AP writers Colleen Long in Malvern, Pennsylvania, and Gary Robertson in Greenville, North Carolina, contributed to this report.