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 | | By Eli Stokols,
Lauren Egan, Emilio Casalicchio and Ben Johansen | |
Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration and Harris campaign. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren
When SOFIA PATEL, head of operations of the U.K. Labour Party, posted on LinkedIn last week that 100 current and former party staffers were headed to the U.S. to campaign for Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, tech billionaire ELON MUSK and other pro-Trump figures pounced. “This is illegal,” Musk wrote in an
X post he deleted after it was slapped with a community note pointing out that there was no law preventing foreigners from participating in unpaid door-knocking. That didn’t stop the faux outrage on the right. Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) wrote on X that “foreign nationals are not allowed to be involved in anyway in U.S. elections,” and Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.)
said it was “yet another reason” to vote for DONALD TRUMP. “It says a lot about the current level of political discourse on both sides of the Atlantic that an innocuous LinkedIn post from a party staffer has turned into a diplomatic event,” said a Labour official. In reality, this is likely to be one of the least consequential British invasions of all time.
The handful of campaign volunteers from Labour are traveling to the U.S. on their own dime, not in any official capacity. And it’s just the latest layer of cooperation between operatives who helped install Prime Minister KEIR STARMER
and a Harris operation that’s interested to draw on lessons learned in the U.K. — just eight years after Brexit — about expanding a center-left coalition. The U.S. election, of course, is also a dominant concern in European capitals bracing for the possible return of Trump and new uncertainty about America’s reliability as a guarantor of continental security.
Harris, in centering the theme of freedom and leaning heavily into patriotic declarations and displays in the 91 days since becoming the Democrats’ presidential candidate, has borrowed heavily from Starmer’s playbook. In recent days, the vice president has focused on white Republican women, sitting for an interview with Fox News’ BRET BAIER last week and campaigning alongside former Rep. LIZ CHENEY and other GOP officials.
That targeting is coming from the campaign’s own polling, but it has also been informed by what Labour officials conveyed about Starmer’s path to victory. Progressive Policy Institute founder WILL MARSHALL
, who helped coordinate the Harris campaign’s conversations with Starmer’s team, said the main takeaway for Democrats “is to focus with surgical precision on voters without college degrees. … Their economic and cultural frustrations are driving the working class revolt that produced Brexit and Trump and the rise of illiberal nationalism across the U.S. and Europe.”
In this final stage, a few Brits buying plane tickets to door-knock in the Lehigh Valley or Detroit suburbs is marginally helpful at best and mostly a manifestation of nervous energy — much like sending hand-written postcards to strangers in swing states urging them to vote. “Folks with British accents knocking on doors in Michigan and Wisconsin," said Third Way’s JOSH FREED, would be about as helpful as "me walking around and knocking on doors in the Midlands."
If Democrats’ renewed investment in ground troops — after the Covid pandemic sidelined field teams four years ago — pays dividends in the end, it’ll be due to a major emphasis on “relational organizing.” That is, targeting the specific voters who could put Harris over the top with canvassers from their own communities.
“Generally, these voters are not watching cable news every night or consuming a lot of political content. They’re more likely to get their news from social media, are often susceptible to misinformation and quite skeptical. So the idea here is that you reach them with people in their network,” said EZRA LEVIN
, the co-founder of Indivisible, a nonprofit organization running a neighbor-to-neighbor organizing program directing volunteers to canvas some 300,000 swing voters — most of them low-propensity Democrats — across the country with repeated conversations. “The research on relational organizing shows that having even weak ties to folks drastically increases the odds of someone being willing to have a conversation with you,” he continued. “It’s a different conversation if you’re from out of state. But if you're in the neighborhood, people will let their guard down.”
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| | What’s BARACK OBAMA’s favorite snack?
(Answer at bottom.)
| | WHAT’S GUIDING THEM: In the two-week sprint to Election Day, the Harris and Trump campaigns are using their months of meticulous research to target the final batch of undecided voters, NYT’s
REID J. EPSTEIN and SHANE GOLDMACHER write. Inside the Harris operation, analysts have spent the past 18 months curating a list of television shows and podcasts voters consume in battlegrounds, assigning every voter in these states a “contactability score” from 0 to 100 to determine how difficult that person will be to reach and who is best to deliver her closing message.
In Trump’s South Florida headquarters, the team recently refreshed its model of the battleground electorate, finding that just 5 percent of voters are undecided. The Trump team calls them the “target persuadables” — younger, more racially diverse people with lower incomes who tend to use streaming services and social media. THE WALZ BLITZ: Minnesota Gov. TIM WALZ joined actors
JASON BATEMAN, WILL ARNETT and SEAN HAYES on their podcast, “Smartless,” where the group discussed the governor’s sleep schedule, campaign snacks and the advantages of sand-green golf courses — among other policy issues like defending democracy, yada yada. (The governor notably did not touch on his Minnesota Vikings. Hold that L.)
Walz also joined “The View” on Monday morning, just weeks after the vice president was on the ABC show. And this evening, he’ll make an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” with JON STEWART. WHAT’S NEW? On Monday, former President Trump repeated
a fabricated, debunked claim about FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene as he surveyed the damage in North Carolina. When asked about threats to FEMA workers following the rampant misinformation, Trump refused to walk back his comments, even in light of the reality on the ground. Ironically, Trump was joined by Rep. CHUCK EDWARDS (R-N.C.), who two weeks ago, put out a statement debunking the false claims spread by the former president and his allies.
COMING DOWN TO THE WIRE: A new Washington Post/Schar School poll of more than 5,000 registered voters found Vice President Harris and Donald Trump in a dead heat across seven key battleground states, WaPo’s SCOTT CLEMENT, EMILY GUSKIN, DAN KEATING and
DAN BALZ write. The poll, conducted in the first half of October, finds 49 percent of likely voters said they will definitely or probably support Harris while 48 percent said they will definitely or probably support Trump. WHAT WILMINGTON WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by MLive’s MICHAEL KRANSZ
, who reports that the daughter of the late Republican president GERALD FORD is endorsing Vice President Harris, saying that while the two may disagree on policy, she will “defend the rule of law and our Constitution.” In a statement, SUSAN FORD BALES
wrote that Harris’ “integrity and commitment to those same principles that guided dad have led me to conclude that Kamala Harris should be elected 47th President of the United States.” She compared this political moment to the same one her father was forced into after the resignation of RICHARD NIXON. Without mentioning Trump, Ford Bales said the “forces that incited” the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection can “never be in a position to ever do it again.”
Campaign director of rapid response AMMAR MOUSSA shared the piece on X. WHAT WILMINGTON DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by NYT’s JENNIFER MEDINA
, who reports that the promise of the American dream in Las Vegas is starting to disappear. The median home price is $445,000, an increase of more than 50 percent compared with five years ago, and well out of reach for many in a region where the median income hovers around $70,000. Rents average $2,000 in a city where many workers make less than $20 an hour. And some once-reliable Democrats in a state that the Harris campaign is aiming to keep blue are turning away from the vice president as a result. “When we got the new president, I didn’t hear nothing, I didn’t see any changes,”
MARIA OCAMPO, who has voted Democratic for decades, said of the Biden administration. This year, she does not plan to vote at all.
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THEY ARE ONCE AGAIN GIVING YOU FINANCIAL SUPPORT: On Tuesday, President JOE BIDEN will be joined by Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) in New Hampshire to talk about the administration’s efforts to lower prescription costs, ABC News’ CHEYENNE HASLETT reports
. The president is also expected to stop by a state Democratic Party campaign office to support the Harris-Walz ticket. A BOINGO AIRPORT HOTSPOT IS BETTER THAN THIS: The press Wi-Fi at the White House has always been spotty. But over the past several weeks, it’s really gone to hell. It’s become so crappy that you can hear the chorus of expletives as reporters arrive at their desks, only to find that they can’t actually get their work done because their laptops won’t connect to the Wi-Fi.
The few reporters with desks close to the windows have had luck using hotspots. But for the rest of the reporters crammed into windowless workspaces surrounded by thick walls, cell reception is horrible, and a hotspot can’t even load a simple Slack message. The Boston Globe’s JIM PUZZANGHERA, Monday’s print pooler, wrote to the press corps that the “White House briefing room WiFi has been balky today so pool reports might be delayed a few minutes.” (That was put very diplomatically, Jim.)
Can someone please tell us what’s going on? SARA COOK? Anyone at the GSA??!
| | PERSONNEL MOVES:
OSASU DORSEY is now chief compliance officer and senior associate general counsel at The Johns Hopkins University, our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She most recently was senior associate counsel and special assistant to the president at the White House. — NAHIOMY ALVAREZ
is now senior adviser for debt strategy and policy at the Department of the Treasury, Lippman has also learned. She most recently was senior manager for markets policy at Cboe Global Markets. — CARA CHANG is now special assistant for health and veterans and immigration at the Domestic Policy Council at the White House. She is a former intern at the White House and is a recent graduate of Harvard.
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BUILDING THE WORKFORCE: Domestic policy adviser NEERA TANDEN wants more high school and community college students to participate in apprenticeship programs to learn the skills needed to secure jobs funded by the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, our
LAWRENCE UKENYE writes in. At a Semafor conference on bolstering U.S. manufacturing on Monday, she stressed that exposing more young people to tech-based skills is critical, warning that "kids don't dream to be things that they cannot see." Tanden also visited Detroit last week and learned about local programs aimed at building manufacturing and cyber skills among high school students.
ABOUT THAT PLAN B: The Biden administration is set to unveil a new rule that would require private insurance plans to cover over-the-counter contraception without a prescription at no cost, CNN’s DONALD JUDD and TAMI LUHBY report. JEN KLEIN
, the director of the White House Gender Policy Council, called the proposal “the most significant expansion of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act in more than a decade.” The ACA currently requires most private health insurance plans to cover contraception with no cost-sharing. But insurers are allowed to require a prescription for over-the-counter contraception at no cost. Under this rule, women would no longer need a prescription for pills like Plan B.
FEELS LIKE WE’VE WRITTEN THIS ITEM 100 TIMES NOW: Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN departed on Monday for the Middle East, where he will attempt to revive cease-fire negotiations and discuss day-after plans, Reuters’ HUMEYRA PAMUK reports.
AUSTIN IN KYIV: On Monday, Secretary of Defense LLOYD AUSTIN made an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital, where he spoke about the importance of efforts by the U.S. and other European allies to help the country’s military fight back against Russia’s onslaught. As our PAUL McLEARY reports
, the comments seemed directed largely to Republicans back home who have grown increasingly skeptical about America’s support for Ukraine after more than two years of war. “For anyone who thinks that American leadership is expensive, well, consider the price of American retreat,” Austin said. “Not since World War II has America systematically rallied so many countries to provide such a range of industrial and military assistance for a partner in need.”
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He Runs Fox News’ Decision Desk. Here’s How He Sees Election Night Coming. (POLITICO’s Steve Shepard) The Invasion That Wasn’t (The Atlantic's Elaina Plott Calabro)
The Tight-Knit World of Kamala Harris’ Sorority (The New Yorker’s Jazmine Hughes)
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Obama is a disciplined snacker. No nacho cheese Doritos or ice cream for 44. His go-to has always been almonds (we prefer cashews, but digress). A 2016 NYT profile from MICHAEL SHEAR on the then-outgoing president stirred up some controversy on the topic. Shear quoted the Obama family chef, SAM KASS, as saying that the president would stick to only seven almonds. How could that be?
Obama had to clarify: “Michelle [Obama] and Sam Kass, who was our chef here, one night they were talking about me and teasing me about how disciplined I was, that I didn’t have potato chips or I didn’t have a piece of cake. And this is when Michelle said: ‘Yes, and he just has seven almonds. That’s it,’ to really drive home the point that I needed to loosen up a little bit.
“And Sam relayed this joke to The New York Times in the article,” he added. “Somehow it was relayed as if I was counting out the seven almonds.” “All my friends were calling up, and they’re saying: ‘You know, this seems a little anal. This is kind of weird,’” Obama told NBC’s SAVANNAH GUTHRIE. “And I had to explain to them, no, this was a joke.”
A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it! Edited by Steve Shepard and Rishika Dugyala. |
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