‘$1 billion disaster’: What went wrong for Harris’ campaign

Vice President Kamala Harris’ luring of celebrities out of their mansions to perform songs for middle-class voters struggling to afford groceries and rent was symbolic of an attitude that ultimately doomed her $1 billion presidential campaign.

It’s not clear that these endorsements had any impact, but strategists say they cast Ms. Harris as an out-of-touch elitist dismissive of voters’ concerns about the economy.

“She rolled out Taylor Swift and all these people to talk about the decline of democracy, but she didn’t address the No. 1 issue, which was inflation, and that is what did her in,” said Brad Bannon, a Democratic Party strategist. “She never drove home the issue of inflation. She talked about other things.”

Democrats persisted in finger-pointing and soul-searching over the weekend as the magnitude of Donald Trump’s comeback win reached its conclusion. Mr. Trump captured Arizona and Nevada, the last two states to be decided, giving him wins in all seven battleground states and 312 electoral votes to Ms. Harris’ 226.

Mr. Trump also won the popular vote, and Republicans gained control of the Senate by a 53-47 margin. Republicans are on track to keep their majority in the House, although some races have not been called.

As Mr. Trump prepares to visit the White House on Wednesday at President Biden’s invitation, his transition team has moved into high gear on personnel decisions.

Mr. Trump said Sunday that Senate Republicans’ next leader should accept “recess appointments,” or temporary appointments when the Senate is not in session, without the chamber’s formal approval.

“Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner,” Mr. Trump wrote on X. “Sometimes the votes can take two years, or more. This is what they did four years ago, and we cannot let it happen again.”

Senate Republicans will vote on their new leader this week. Mr. Trump has not endorsed anyone. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, one of the candidates for majority leader, seemed to embrace Mr. Trump’s demand.

“We must act quickly and decisively to get the president’s nominees in place as soon as possible, & all options are on the table to make that happen, including recess appointments,” Mr. Thune posted on X. “We cannot let Schumer and Senate Dems block the will of the American people.”

Mr. Trump announced late Saturday that he wouldn’t ask two Cabinet members from his first term, former Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join his new administration.

“I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he posted on social media.

Mr. Trump’s convincing win and gains with voters who traditionally favor Democrats have some top Democratic officials wondering how Ms. Harris’ campaign squandered its war chest.

Democratic National Committee finance committee member Lindy Li called Ms. Harris’ loss a “$1 billion disaster.”

“The truth is, this is just an epic disaster,” Ms. Li said of the Harris campaign on “Fox & Friends” on Saturday. “They’re $20 million or $18 million in debt. It’s incredible, and I raised millions of that.”

Sen.-elect Dave McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican who defeated three-term Democrat Bob Casey, said the election was ground-shifting. Mr. Casey has yet to concede.

“The old lines between Democrats and Republicans are becoming very blurred,” Mr. McCormick told host Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News Channel. “We really are the party that’s representing working families, and it’s no surprise that people want change because, under the failed leadership of Harris and Bob Casey and others, the economy, the border, crime, it’s all gone in the wrong direction.”

Headed into Election Day, voters consistently cited inflation and the economy as their top issues. Of the 31% who listed the economy as their top issue, 79% voted for Mr. Trump, according to CNN exit polling.

Among voters who earn less than $50,000 annually, roughly 50% voted for Mr. Trump and 48% voted for Ms. Harris. Ms. Harris fared better with voters earning $100,000 or more, 51% to 46%.

The Democratic ticket dropped 16 percentage points from 2020 among voters of color without a college degree. A CNN exit poll found that Mr. Trump maintained his advantage among White men and women without a college degree in the 2020 and 2024 races.

“Millions of hardworking, middle-class families donated to Kamala’s campaign,” said Republican Party strategist Jimmy Keady, but instead of connecting with those voters, she brought out pop stars in a move that showed Democrats are “out of touch with middle America.”

Even some in the Democratic Party establishment concluded that Ms. Harris’ campaign failed to appeal to working-class voters.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class abandoned them,” Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, said in a scathing statement. “First, it was the White working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she “respectfully” disagreed with Ms. Sanders’ assessment. Democratic National Committee Chair Jamie Harrison rebuked the senator’s claims.

In a post on X, Mr. Harrison said Mr. Biden was the “most pro-worker president of my lifetime” and Ms. Harris’ economic proposals would have “fundamentally transformed the quality of life and closed the racial wealth gap for working people across the country.”

In August, Ms. Harris proposed banning “price-gouging” by grocery stores and food suppliers to lower the costs of housing, medicine and food. Under the plan, Ms. Harris would have authorized the Federal Trade Commission to impose “harsh penalties” on corporations found to have fixed prices.

She never defined the plan or explained how it would lower prices. Some economists said it would have the opposite effect because it would reduce competition by artificially lowering profit margins. They argued that competition is what keeps prices low in the first place.

Republicans compared the idea to Soviet-style price controls. Once the criticism mounted, Ms. Harris downplayed and distanced herself from the idea.

“I kept waiting for her to follow up on her [anti-price-gouging] proposal, but she never did, and I think that’s an issue that could have won her more support among voters concerned about inflation,” Mr. Bannon said. “She never drove the issue home. Instead, she rolled out Taylor Swift to talk about the decline of democracy. She didn’t address the No. 1 concern of the voters.”

Ms. Harris also proposed building more housing to reduce residential costs and expanding the child tax credit, which she said would offset higher prices, but she offered few details.

In her “closing argument” speech on the Ellipse in Washington, Ms. Harris never uttered the words “inflation” or “economy.” Instead, she mentioned Mr. Trump 27 times and either “abortion” or “reproductive rights” five times.

During his closing argument at Madison Square Garden, Mr. Trump mentioned “inflation” once and the economy 12 times.

David Dix, a Democratic strategist, said the party shouldn’t be surprised that it has been perceived as out of touch. He said Democrats haven’t had a real primary process since Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008. Since then, the party elites have pushed Hillary Clinton, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris in front of voters, he said.

“It’s been an elite group of folks picking these candidates for over a decade, and that disconnects you with the grassroots voters,” he said. “Vice President Harris didn’t have to go through the party primary to be the nominee. The problem with that is it helps you message test what resonates.”

Mr. Dix said the campaign’s overreliance on celebrity endorsements from Beyonce, Cardi B, Oprah and others showed it was “disconnected from the grassroots.” He said it was striking that none of the celebrities attended Ms. Harris’ election night watch party at Howard University.

“It says that they weren’t in it for the campaign; they were in it for the appearance. That made them ring hollow,” he said. “When you are trying to connect with the American people, you need to show some empathy and say, ‘I have a path.’”

Voters held Ms. Harris responsible for inflation, a residual effect of Mr. Biden’s unpopularity. Poll after poll showed that the economy was the main issue. Most voters had a favorable opinion of Mr. Trump’s economy, and voters trusted Mr. Trump more than either Mr. Biden or Ms. Harris on the economy.

Mr. Biden remains one of the least popular presidents in modern history because of his age and the soaring cost of living. Ms. Harris couldn’t blame Mr. Biden for inflation without raising questions about her role in his policies. She was left flat-footed and unprepared when asked how she would differentiate herself from the president.

When asked on ABC’s “The View” what she would have done differently than Mr. Biden, Ms. Harris said she couldn’t think of anything. The unprepared answer gave the Trump campaign the chance to tie her to the president’s unpopularity.

It also left her without a scapegoat for soaring inflation, primarily linked to Mr. Biden’s rampant government spending. During his first three years in office, Mr. Biden approved several massive spending bills, causing the national debt to jump by $6.25 trillion. Rising debt reduces business investment and slows economic growth, increasing inflation.

Other economists say global supply-chain shortages during the acute pandemic period also drove high prices.

Instead of blaming her boss, Ms. Harris pointed the finger at corporate greed. As the campaign continued, however, Ms. Harris turned to billionaire surrogates such as Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and J.P. Morgan’s Jamie Dimon. An analysis by Forbes found that 83 billionaires supported Harris, compared with 52 who backed Mr. Trump. Many came from Silicon Valley.

With those surrogates firmly entrenched in her camp, Ms. Harris dropped the argument about corporate greed and looked even more out of touch and elitist.

Mr. Keady, the Republican strategist, said cozying up to billionaires made it hard for Ms. Harris to connect to working Americans.

“From the lack of union support to the loss of manufacturing jobs, working middle-class families are abandoning the Democratic Party for the business and worker-friendly policies of the Republican Party,” he said. “We saw this firsthand in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan that flipped on Tuesday.”

• Mallory Wilson and Alex Miller contributed to this report.