As we enter the fourth quarter of 2019, I wanted to provide an update on the state of our campaign and lay out some of our thinking about the path ahead. We are excited about the next four and a half months, as Kamala prepares to hit the trail hard and lay out why she’s the best candidate in this race to prosecute the case against four more years of Donald Trump and build a broad coalition to win and unite this country.
Where We Are
This summer has been an important period on two key fronts: building our campaign infrastructure, and raising the resources necessary to kick that infrastructure into gear in the home stretch of this primary.
Kamala has consistently been the candidate voters want to know more about and hear from more. There is so much interest in her historic candidacy, and when voters get to know her better, they really like her. Her favorability is strong and durable, and she’s well-regarded across a broad demographic coalition. She’s been rock solid in the top five in this historically large and sprawling field from the very beginning, and is well-positioned to break through and win the Democratic nomination.
When it comes to public polls, it’s important to remember where we are. In October 2003, John Kerry, who went on to win the Democratic nomination, was polling in fifth place, at around 8 percent. At this point in 2007, Barack Obama trailed both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards consistently in Iowa caucus polls -- and Clinton led national polls by an average of 18 points. (She led the national polls by double digits until the week after Iowa!) In 2015, Clinton led Bernie Sanders by 21 points in Iowa. She ended up only winning by less than half of 1 percent.
I say all that not to make any excuses. But there have been about 25 Democratic primary horse race polls in the past 30 days, and they go up and down. Even the NBC/WSJ poll this week revealed that only 9 percent of respondents say they’ve made up their mind in this race. The media is going to keep feverishly covering these polls, but we can’t get too high or too low. We are focused on executing our plan and winning this election.
October
This month is going to be important because it is really when we start to see the fruits of what we have been preparing for since the beginning of this race. October is when voters begin to really decide who they want to support in this primary, and we are hitting the gas.
Following the five-day Iowa bus tour in August that took her 650 miles for 18 events in 11 counties, Kamala will double down on Iowa, campaigning there each week in October. We will add over 60 more organizers in state and open 10 more offices. This is an extension of the marker we laid down there this summer, when we grew our staff to 65 people and began work in 7 offices including our headquarters in Des Moines.
Kamala has a unique message and appeal to caucus goers who have so often defied conventional wisdom and expectations in the previous two cycles. We are under no illusions: we are asking Democratic voters and caucus goers to do something that’s never been done before, to support a nominee that does not look like any nominee before now. That will take effort, energy, and resources up until caucus day. But this campaign is up for it, and Kamala Harris is up for it.
As someone who has lived and worked in California, I have seen Kamala’s electoral history up close and personal. Whether it was taking on the machine and running for district attorney or polling at 6% in polls when she ran for Attorney General, she has always proven she could build a broad coalition to win. A lot of people in that state have bet against Kamala Harris and lost.
Why Kamala?
Voters are still very much trying to decide who the best Democrat to beat Donald Trump is, and we feel strongly that Kamala will convince them it’s her over the next few months.
She is going to make the case that we will not defeat Trump -- especially in the critical states we must win to hit 270 electoral votes -- by going backwards or longing for a bygone era with nostalgia, saying that we just need to go back to a “normal” that, frankly, was not working for millions of people. Trump was not elected because this country was working great for everyone.
We also won’t get there by jumping headfirst into endless ideological fights that may further divide Americans at a time when so many people desperately want to bring the country together after three years of relentless division.
Kamala is going to argue that we win by uniting this country around the common issues we’re all facing - regardless of demography or geography. She believes that Trump’s constant division is preventing us from getting anything done, and focusing on the “3AM issues” she has talked so much about, like concrete actions to stop gun violence and a sensible plan to give working and middle class people $500 a month to make ends meet, is critical to defeating him and allowing us to write a new chapter where we actually achieve solutions to the problems we face.
And she will continue to focus on pursuing justice -- whether it’s against a lawless president, or companies who break the law and pollute our environment, or for women and people of color whose rights are being trampled by forces seeking to put them down.
That’s what Kamala is going to focus on as we criss-cross Iowa and show voters why she is the best person to prosecute the case against four more years of Trump -- and win.
Thank you for being a part of this incredible campaign. You’re the reason Kamala is in such a strong position to win this race.
— Juan
Juan Rodriguez
Campaign Manager
Kamala 2020
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