Harris’ persistent branding of Trump as ‘fascist’ falls flat; voters eager for policy solutions

Enough with the swastikas.

Democrats are warning that Vice President Kamala Harris has overplayed the Nazi card as she slips behind former President Donald Trump in the final days of the presidential race.

Ms. Harris is beginning to trail Mr. Trump in the seven key battleground states at the worst possible moment. Meanwhile, her campaign is ramping up its fearmongering by warning he would rule the United States like Adolf Hitler.

A week before Election Day, pollsters from both parties say the tactic isn’t resonating. They say the vice president will lose even more ground unless she talks about policy solutions to issues important to frustrated voters.

“It’s going to backfire,” Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin said. “This is panic politics and the politics of desperation.”

Democratic Party strategists and top donors worry that the Harris campaign is too focused on convincing voters that Mr. Trump is a modern-day Hitler. The message has strayed from the theme of “joy” and change that dominated her campaign when it launched in July.

After a summertime advantage, Ms. Harris is trailing Mr. Trump by about 1 percentage point in all seven swing states.

“She is losing ground, and over-the-top attacks linking him to Hitler only backfire,” Democratic Party strategist Doug Schoen said.

A memo from Future Forward, a top Harris super PAC that has raised millions of dollars for her campaign, called for a shift in messaging.

“Attacking Trump’s Fascism is Not That Persuasive,” a memo obtained by The New York Times told Democrats. The memo said other insults about Mr. Trump’s character “are less effective” than contrasting Ms. Harris’ policy positions to those of the former president.

Democratic polling provided to The Washington Times underscored the super PAC’s warning.

Blueprint, which conducts polling for Democrats, took a close look at how registered voters in battleground states, including those who were undecided, reacted to recent comments by John Kelly, who served as White House chief of staff from 2017 until 2019 after a six-month stint as homeland security secretary. In a news interview, Mr. Kelly said Mr. Trump is an authoritarian who admires dictators and is a fascist. He claimed Mr. Trump told him, “You know, Hitler did some good things too.”

The Kelly interview dominated the Harris campaign messaging machine. The vice president echoed Mr. Kelly, calling Mr. Trump a fascist who would rule like a dictator and throw out the Constitution.

Mr. Harris peppered her rallies and news interviews with those claims and gave a speech driving home the point.

“Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable, and in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions. Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there and no longer be there to rein him in,” she said.

Blueprint found Mr. Kelly’s claim about Mr. Trump had indeed penetrated. It was heard by 57% of all swing-state voters, and 47% said it was “a good reason to vote against Trump.”

The poll found the claim didn’t persuade voters as much as the Harris campaign’s anti-Trump messages about kitchen-table issues such as grocery prices, Social Security cuts and the national deficit.

Blueprint found the Harris campaign’s claim that Mr. Trump labels detractors as “enemies of the people” also landed with a thud. Pollsters said the line “did not work well” with swing-state voters.

Blueprint pitched Ms. Harris a winning closing message with undecided and swing-state voters: “Real talk on addressing prices, protecting Social Security and Medicare, taxing the wealthiest Americans, taking on big corporations, and emphasizing the buy-in her campaign has from business leaders like Mark Cuban.”

The Harris campaign so far is doubling down on equating Mr. Trump to a fascist.

Ms. Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, warned voters in the swing state of Nevada on Sunday that Mr. Trump’s massive rally in New York City’s Madison Square Garden was “a direct parallel” to a pro-Nazi rally held there in 1939.

Ms. Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, framed Mr. Trump as a threat to Jewish Americans in a speech Monday in Pittsburgh.

“Whenever chaos and cruelty are given a green light, Jew hatred is historically not far behind. That matters today because Donald Trump is nothing if not an agent of chaos and cruelty,” Mr. Emhoff said.

Ms. Harris will center her campaign’s closing argument Tuesday on casting Mr. Trump as the instigator of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. She plans to address up to 20,000 people at the Ellipse near the White House, the exact location where Mr. Trump spoke to supporters before they stormed the Capitol.

Ms. Harris told reporters Monday that she will highlight the “big difference” between her and the former president.

She said Mr. Trump’s sold-out Madison Square Garden rally was “intended to and is fanning the fuel of trying to divide our country.”

On the podcast “Club Shay Shay” with former pro football player Shannon Sharpe, Ms. Harris repeated her claim that Mr. Trump would terminate the Constitution and harm Black men in the process.

“In the Constitution of the United States is your Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure, your Fifth Amendment right, your Sixth Amendment right to an attorney,” she said.

Mr. Schoen, a longtime pollster and strategist who advised President Clinton’s reelection campaign, said Ms. Harris should stick to the issues voters care about.

“Policy-based attacks are far more effective and are the only way to turn around a race that is slipping away from Harris,” Mr. Schoen said.