A senior staffer on Kamala Harris’ campaign has admitted that he “knew something was wrong” in the weeks running up to the election, again underscoring that things in the Democratic camp were far from ‘joyful’.
Rob Flaherty, who also headed up digital outreach for the campaign explained in an interview to Semafor that it became apparent that the Democrats were quickly “losing hold of culture.”
“You don’t get a national eight-point shift to the right without losing hold of culture,” Kamala Harris’ digital chief tells @maxwelltani.https://t.co/P9eqo8Y2YN
— Semafor (@semafor) December 16, 2024
The report notes that when she was anointed as the nominee, “the campaign needed to introduce Harris quickly to people who aren’t obsessed with politics.”
In an effort to do this, Flaherty attempted to book her on sports shows and podcasts. But, in a telling trend, “the biggest personalities and shows politely turned them down,” the report notes.
“Sports and culture have sort of merged together, and as sports and culture became more publicly and sort of natively associated with this Trump-conservative set of values, it got more complicated for athletes to come out in favor of us,” Flaherty states.
“Campaigns, in many ways, are last-mile marketers that exist on terrain that is set by culture, and the institutions by which Democrats have historically had the ability to influence culture are losing relevance,” he further declares.
“You don’t get a national eight-point shift to the right without losing hold of culture,” Flaherty emphasises.
He also highlights how insignificant the media has become, saying that both campaigns knew that the election would be contested on YouTube, social media and podcasts.
“There’s just no value — with respect to my colleagues in the mainstream press — in a general election, to speaking to the New York Times or speaking to the Washington Post,” Flaherty asserts.
He also admits that some of Trump’s moves were genius.
“When Trump did the McDonald’s thing, it was smart, because it was a thing that obviously drove television coverage, but it also drove social media engagement too,” he said, adding “And those things often happen in tandem, but they don’t always, and so it was the sweet spot. It drove traditional coverage and nontraditional media.”
Flaherty notes that he knew something was deeply wrong in the Harris campaign when they were unable to gain traction because they were the embodiment of the establishment.
“The reason folks are seeking alternative sources of media and are turning away from political news is because they don’t trust our institutions. They don’t trust elites, they don’t trust the media, they don’t trust all this stuff. So the party of elites and institutions is going to have a hard time selling to people in these places,” Flaherty admits.
He further recognises that Trump “cultivated” a kinship with “cultural drivers” like Joe Rogan and Elon Musk, and that Musk owning X meant “an important central node” was titled directly to Trump.
The Democratic party has gong so far to the left that they make JFK look like an extreme MAGA conservative.
— Samuel Culper 722 (@politiwars) December 16, 2024
Plus Kamala simply isn't likeable in any way, shape or form. That's why they lost.
This continued focus on media channels still misses the point.
— JackalopeATX (@scotthar_tx) December 16, 2024
The real question is, why did former democrats like Joe Rogan, Bari Weiss, Elon Musk and Quilette – not to mention Donald Trump – continually say ‘the dem party left me’?
I still can’t believe poor white people don’t like being called “privileged” by progressives ?
— ??? (@tiancilaile) December 16, 2024
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Maybe that wicked wanton wench would be a good ambassador for Haiti.
Authentic. That’s the factor that cost her the election.
who cares trump got the part from his money cronies.
Well, you care or you would not comment. Of course, as you know full well, the Harris campaign was considerably better funded than Trump, yet he still won.
It never helps when suddenly your grocery order goes from 200.00 to 300.00, bearded ladies twerk in kindergarten and teenage girls are getting raped and murdered by illegals.
That wasn’t a culture war. Drunken pirates jumped from ship to ship.