Because the election attracts to a detailed, Vice President Harris has put abortion entry on the middle of her closing message, whereas President Trump is leaning into his personal well being care pitch: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will cope with the nation’s ills.
Democrats see abortion as probably decisive issue within the race and have been leaning into the problem ever because the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade greater than two years in the past.
Trump’s well being care message is being pushed by his political marriage to Kennedy, an environmental lawyer with no medical or public well being levels who is among the nation’s main vaccine skeptics.
Observers say the distinction between the 2 messages is emblematic of the candidates themselves: the disciplined and on-message Harris versus the freewheeling Trump.
However the messages are additionally a probable remaining play to rally the bottom.
Harris has made reproductive rights a central problem to her marketing campaign, hoping to duplicate Democrats’ success from the 2022 midterm elections, when the get together carried out significantly better than anticipated due to voter anger over abortion.
Harris is searching for to maximise turnout amongst girls voters.
Throughout her closing remarks on the Ellipse exterior the White Home final week, Harris advised supporters she is going to “restore what Donald Trump and his hand-selected Supreme Courtroom justices took away from the ladies of America.”
A KFF ballot in September confirmed the voters who cared most about abortion have been Democratic and Democratic-leaning unbiased girls voters of reproductive age.
In Trump’s case, his message may additionally be a means to make sure he has the help of people that would have voted for Kennedy, an unbiased candidate earlier than he deserted his bid and endorsed Trump this summer season.
“The RFK Jr. message is receptive to many a Trump voter because of the skepticism about Dr. Anthony Fauci and the way Covid was dealt with by the federal authorities,” mentioned Stan Barnes, a veteran GOP strategist.
Barnes mentioned it’s unlikely there are any undecided voters in his house battleground state of Arizona who’re being swayed.
Whereas Trump might threat alienating among the extra average GOP voters, Barnes famous that hasn’t been a significant concern of the marketing campaign.
“As we all know, there’s little or no conventional strategic serious about the Trump method to campaigning and accumulating supporters,” he mentioned.
Kennedy is brazenly angling for a high place in control of well being companies throughout a possible Trump administration, pushing what the marketing campaign has dubbed a “Make America Wholesome Once more” (MAHA) platform.
Trump has pledged to let Kennedy “go wild” on meals and medication.
Talking at a rally in Pittsburgh on Monday, Trump mentioned he would let Kennedy “just about do what he needs.”
“I would like him to do one thing actually vital for our nation, make individuals more healthy,” Trump mentioned.
“Do no matter you need. You simply go forward, work on the pesticides, work on making girls’s well being. He is so into girls’s well being, and you recognize, he is actually unbelievable. He, it is such a ardour,” Trump mentioned.
Trump’s embrace of Kennedy has catapulted public well being points into the highlight. Kennedy’s “MAHA” agenda focuses on points that usually garner bipartisan help, like eradicating dangerous chemical compounds from meals and combating persistent illness.
However whereas public well being consultants agree the U.S. is affected by elevated charges of persistent ailments, some have expressed concern that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views would affect how he approaches the issue.
Trump himself has beforehand expressed doubts about vaccines and echoed Kennedy’s rhetoric.
Lately, Trump has proven an openness to letting Kennedy ban sure vaccines and expressed at the very least some measure of help for Kennedy’s pledge to take away fluoride from America’s consuming water.
Trump’s concentrate on Kennedy’s fringe points has compelled surrogates to go on the defensive.
“I’m laughing as a result of I can’t consider that we’re having a dialog about fluoride,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) mentioned on CNN on Sunday.
The Harris marketing campaign has spotlighted Kennedy’s function within the Trump camp. With out mentioning him by title, Harris mentioned Kennedy “is the precise final individual in America who
needs to be setting well being care coverage for America’s households and youngsters.”
GOP strategist Keith Naughton mentioned the Trump camp’s elevation of Kennedy is one other in a protracted line of missed alternatives on well being care messaging. If he loses, Naughton mentioned ceding the problem to Harris may very well be considered as a significant purpose why.
“Harris ran on abortion as a result of she has a easy message, ‘protected and authorized,’ and that place has help by a strong majority of voters,” Naughton mentioned.
“Trump might have received on well being care if he had run on value inflation and proposed even a minimal plan to chop costs. However he ignored the problem. No one cares about fluoride within the water besides RFK and a sliver of oddballs on social media.”
