Because the election attracts to an in depth, Vice President Harris has put abortion entry on the middle of her closing message, whereas President Trump is leaning into his personal well being care pitch: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will cope with the nation’s ills.
Democrats see abortion as a doubtlessly decisive issue within the race and have been leaning into the problem for the reason that Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade greater than two years in the past.
Trump’s well being care message is being pushed by his political marriage to Kennedy, an environmental lawyer with no medical or public well being levels who is among the nation’s main vaccine skeptics.
Observers say the distinction between the 2 messages is emblematic of the candidates themselves: the disciplined and on-message Harris versus the freewheeling Trump.
However the messages are additionally a possible ultimate play to rally the bottom.
Harris has made reproductive rights a central situation to her marketing campaign, hoping to copy Democrats’ success from the 2022 midterm elections, when the celebration carried out significantly better than anticipated due to voter anger over abortion.
Harris is searching for to maximise turnout amongst girls voters.
Throughout her closing remarks on the Ellipse exterior the White Home final week, Harris advised supporters she is going to “restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Court justices took away from the women of America.”
A KFF ballot in September confirmed the voters who cared most about abortion had been Democratic and Democratic-leaning unbiased girls voters of reproductive age.
In Trump’s case, his message may be a means to make sure he has the help of people that would have voted for Kennedy, an unbiased candidate earlier than he deserted his bid and endorsed Trump this summer season.
“The RFK Jr. message is receptive to many a Trump voter due to the skepticism about Dr. Anthony Fauci and how Covid was handled by the federal government,” stated Stan Barnes, a veteran GOP strategist.
Barnes stated it’s unlikely there are any undecided voters in his residence battleground state of Arizona who’re being swayed.
Whereas Trump may danger alienating a number of the extra reasonable GOP voters, Barnes famous that hasn’t been a serious concern of the marketing campaign.
“As we know, there is very little traditional strategic thinking about the Trump approach to campaigning and accumulating supporters,” he stated.
Kennedy is brazenly angling for a high place in command of well being businesses throughout a possible Trump administration, pushing what the marketing campaign has dubbed a “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) platform.
Trump has pledged to let Kennedy “go wild” on meals and medication.
Talking at a rally in Pittsburgh on Monday, Trump stated he would let Kennedy “pretty much do what he wants.”
“I want him to do something really important for our country, make people healthier,” Trump stated.
“Do no matter you need. You simply go forward, work on the pesticides, work on making girls’s well being. He is so into girls’s well being, and , he is actually unbelievable. He, it is such a ardour,” Trump stated.
Trump’s embrace of Kennedy has catapulted public well being points into the highlight. Kennedy’s MAHA agenda focuses on points that typically garner bipartisan help, like eradicating dangerous chemical compounds from meals and combating power illness.
However whereas public well being specialists agree the U.S. is affected by elevated charges of power illnesses, some have expressed concern that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views would affect how he approaches the issue.
Trump himself has expressed doubts about vaccines and echoed Kennedy’s rhetoric.
Just lately, Trump has proven an openness to letting Kennedy ban sure vaccines and expressed at the least some measure of help for Kennedy’s pledge to take away fluoride from America’s consuming water.
Trump’s give attention to Kennedy’s fringe points has pressured surrogates to go on the defensive.
“I’m laughing because I can’t believe that we’re having a conversation about fluoride,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) stated Sunday on CNN.
The Harris marketing campaign has spotlighted Kennedy’s position within the Trump camp. With out mentioning him by title, Harris stated Kennedy “is the exact last person in America who should be setting health care policy for America’s families and children.”
GOP strategist Keith Naughton stated the Trump camp’s elevation of Kennedy is one other in an extended line of missed alternatives on well being care messaging. If he loses, Naughton stated ceding the problem to Harris might be seen as a serious cause why.
“Harris ran on abortion because she has a simple message, ‘safe and legal,’ and that position has support by a solid majority of voters,” Naughton stated.
“Trump could have won on health care if he had run on price inflation and proposed even a minimal plan to cut prices. But he ignored the issue. Nobody cares about fluoride in the water except RFK and a sliver of oddballs on social media.”
