Transcript: Angry Trump Starts Blame Game as Polls Reveal New Problem

As an African American political consultant, I’ll say, I think that’s good. I think it’s good that those voters are being treated as a persuasion universe, but that presents a challenge now for Democrats to not just retain those voters as a GOTV target, but to treat them as a persuasion target. They’re not just a turnout universe that you reach out to two weeks before Election Day and give them logistics about where to vote, but you actually need to be on a regular basis persuading and earning their vote. The good thing about Kamala Harris is she’s very clear about this. She has, on many occasions, publicly talked about the need to earn the votes of these communities and not take them for granted. You’ve got the right candidate with the right frame of mind to continue to be viable with those groups of voters.

It’s unsustainable for Democrats to expect, over the long term, that you’re going to have 90, 91, 92 percent vote share with African Americans. We know that, historically in recent elections, the Latino vote share has gone down a bit; depending on who you believe, Donald Trump may get anywhere from 35 to 40 percent of the Latino vote this time around. There’s evidence to suggest that Republicans are going to continue to be more competitive with Latino votes in the near future. So Democrats are gonna have to vie for those voters maybe a little bit more aggressively and, again, not just as turnout voters, but as persuasion voters.

Sargent: Absolutely right. To wrap this up, Joel, tell us how Harris gets to a victory, from point A to point B to winning on the ground. What has to happen on the ground? And what are the three things about the ground that keep you awake at night, that could go wrong?