OPINION:
It’s the Trump policy agenda, stupid. That’s how to beat Vice President Kamala Harris — with policy arguments, not gratuitous personal attacks.
Over 90% of voters have made up their minds. The 2024 presidential election will be determined in a handful of battleground states by a few hundred thousand votes, and Ms. Harris’ best chance of winning will be to consolidate Democratic women, successfully woo independent women and peel off a fraction of Republican women.
Republican politicians, TV commentators and radio talk show hosts who play the Willie Brown card ridicule the Harris cackle or demean Ms. Harris as a diversity, equity and inclusion hire, which will only advance her strategy. Such personal attacks build a misplaced sympathy for Ms. Harris, particularly when the invective comes from men — like it or not, it’s a Mars vs. Venus world.
To successfully woo swing women voters — along with independents up for grabs and the traditional Black, brown and blue-collar portions of the Democratic base — the best Republican strategy is to run hard on the Trump policy agenda. Polls tell us that on the top salient issues likely to move undecided voters, the Trump policy agenda provides huge leads.
Inflation tops pollsters’ list. “Bidenomics” is behind it, and Ms. Harris has given it a full-throated endorsement. Former President Donald Trump runs away with the election on this issue alone — voters vividly remember that in Trump’s America, you didn’t have to choose between food on the table, prescriptions you need and a roof over your head.
The border chaos is in a dead heat with inflation. Despite the efforts of the mainstream media to scrub this fact, President Biden did assign Ms. Harris in 2021 to serve as border czar. Yet a dangerous crew of murderers, rapists, drug cartels, human traffickers, terrorists and Chinese spies have swarmed into our country.
Across the Rio Grande, millions of illiterate illegal aliens have also flooded our labor markets, stealing jobs and depressing the wages of Black, brown and blue-collar Americans. As Mr. Biden’s missing-in-action border czar, Ms. Harris owns this border chaos, and polls here give Donald Trump a double-digit lead.
On the crime issue, Ms. Harris helped lead the “defund the police” movement even as she cheered on violent protests in American cities by radical groups such as Black Lives Matter and Antifa. In contrast, Mr. Trump has the endorsement of every major law enforcement organization and enjoys double-digit leads in the polls.
On foreign policy, voters likewise remember Mr. Trump had four years in the White House free of conflict with China, Russia, North Korea and Iran because their leaders both fear and respect him. And Mr. Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in a show of support for Israel.
In contrast, Ms. Harris has ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket with the least foreign policy experience of any major party presidential candidate in the last 100 years. Under Biden-Harris, Russia invaded Ukraine, Hamas and Hezbollah attacked Israel, China is threatening Taiwan and North Korea has resumed its missile and nuclear weapons testing.
The one foreign policy issue Ms. Harris has infamously distinguished herself on is that of the war in the Gaza Strip, where she has sided with “river to the sea” Palestinian activists while all but snubbing Israel’s president. The American electorate is watching, and it does not like what it sees from Ms. Harris.
Beyond Mr. Trump’s polling advantage on issues including the economy and inflation, illegal immigration, crime and foreign policy, there is also Ms. Harris’ “woke” agenda. It runs strongly against the grain of Middle Americans, including many men and women in the traditional Democratic Party base.
Here, parents are uncomfortable with (and often outraged by) K-12 “woke” indoctrination at the expense of reading, writing and arithmetic. There is equal outrage at the participation of men in women’s sports. There is also widespread bewilderment (and equal outrage) across America at how and why the Biden-Harris regime is facilitating gender surgery on children.
As a further twist, in what can only be described as a twisted version of “prison reform,” Ms. Harris is also on record fervently supporting gender reassignment operations for men in federal prisons. No wonder Ms. Harris garnered the most liberal voting record in the Senate during her tenure there.
The one polling issue where Ms. Harris leads is abortion. This issue, however, runs significantly behind inflation and the economy, the border chaos, foreign policy and crime as salient to most swing voters.
Of note, Ms. Harris’ view on abortion is far more extreme than that of Mr. Biden. If Republicans more effectively message that extremism, Ms. Harris’ polling advantage should narrow or even disappear. Here, even mainstream Democrats oppose the ate-term abortions supported by Ms. Harris.
Given this polling chessboard, it is indeed the Trump policy agenda, stupid. If Republicans are smart, they will follow this advice. To lose this election is to lose this country.
• Peter Navarro served for four years in the Trump White House and is the author of “The New MAGA Deal: The Unofficial Deplorables Guide to the Trump 2024 Platform.”
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