Opinion | The election is so not over

Those who support Kamala Harris were probably feeling good about her chances of winning the election just two weeks ago. She debated circles around her opponent Donald Trump, baiting him successfully time and again for nearly the entirety of the debate. Following her dominant performance, she earned an endorsement from none other than Taylor Swift, a pop star who arguably has one of the biggest fan bases in the music industry. 

To any outsider, it may look like Harris is the it girl going into this election. However, those who know the reality of the situation know that to win this election, Harris needs to do a lot more than win the support of pop stars and goad Trump to say that they’re eating pets over in Ohio.  

In fact, anyone with a working knowledge of election history may recognize the ever-famous silent majority, though in this election they are taking on a new form. This group of voters are typically blue-collar, middle-class voters who live in suburbs and don’t talk about politics. The new silent majority, however, are voters who don’t like Trump and don’t know Harris — and they will be pivotal in deciding the outcome of the election.

In order to secure this voting group and subsequently the election, Harris needs to step it up by personally defining who she is and starting to answer some of the hard questions. 

Recent national polls have been bringing good news for the Harris campaign, which is a far cry from what decisive battleground state polls have been showing. She has consistently led by at least two percentage points in national polls for nearly three weeks now, while she leads Trump by less than one percentage point, if at all, in battleground states. A recent poll shows her trailing Trump significantly in Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona, though she holds a slight lead in Michigan and our home state, Pennsylvania. 

In the states where she trails Trump, she hasn’t defined to the citizens who she is — her campaign has left that to Trump, who has been running rampant with political advertisements. In fact, in an analysis done by The Wesleyan Media Project, they found that a whopping 95% of pro-Trump advertisements attack Harris. 

In the sunbelt states, the new silent majority tunes into their radio for their drive home post-shift and get met with incessant advertisements that paint Harris out to be a power-hungry, unfit-for-office monster. As they listen to a Harris advertisement, they hear about how she comes from a middle-class family and is determined to make the economy work for everyone. Granted, this is a positive look for her campaign, but it probably doesn’t do enough to rebuke what they’ve heard from the Trump campaign and convince the undecided that she should have their vote. 

In order to really solidify to the silent majority that she deserves their vote, Harris needs to truly define who she is in her advertisements — particularly her advertisements in battleground states. By explicitly stating policies she stands for and explaining the steps she intends on taking for those policies, the Democratic candidate should be able to take root in some of the battleground states and start to gain real traction. The fact of the matter is that voters know who Trump is, but they don’t know Harris outside of the Biden administration. 

Another thing the Harris campaign can and should do to start to appeal to voters is providing clear answers to the hard questions. It’s no doubt that a large voting group — namely Gen Z — are dissatisfied with Biden’s current policy with the Israel-Palestine conflict, and don’t approve of Harris’ plans for foreign policy either. Harris has infamously said that she believes in Israel’s right to defend itself, leaving a large voting group unsure of whether or not they want to continue the streak of unanswered calls for a cease-fire. Though many have voiced the need for the ceasefire, it has been a call that falls upon deaf ears, with each attempt falling short again and again. 

Additionally, many feel that she is contradicting herself because the Biden administration, of which she is an integral part, continues to send weapons and aid over to Israel one week, while she climbs on stage and calls for a ceasefire the next. If Harris can come up with a sound policy with concrete steps that would result in an end of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, it’s likely that a large voter group will give its full-fledged support to the Democratic candidate.

There are just 38 days until what is shaping up to be one of the most important presidential elections of the past couple of decades. It is sure to be a battle of epic proportions — the age-old story of good versus evil. The biggest thing Harris can do in the next 38 days is to make herself and her policies known. At the center of this is the fact that people know who Trump is — he and his absolute insane antics have been in the spotlight for nearly ten years now. Whether they love him or love to hate him, the vast majority of voters are set on their feelings toward the man. 

Conversely, the vast majority of voters are unsure of what to think about Harris just yet — they know who they are voting against, just not who they may be voting for. A result of this shifting perception of the candidate is why this election is so not over — and why we all need to do our part and show up and out on November 5. 

Tessa Powers loves to write in any style, and is passionate about social justice and media. She is always open to ideas at tep49@pitt.edu