Democrats are actually, finally winning the messaging war

Harris and Walz redefine the Dem ticket as Trump freefalls

Well, that was a week. Let’s rewind.

Many of us in the pro-democracy fight have spent much of our summer emphasizing the grave threat a second Trump term would pose—especially after learning of Project 2025: a detailed blueprint and agenda for how Trump and his enablers would overhaul our government should they regain power. With our democracy hanging in the balance, the terror grew to a fever pitch as we reckoned with the growing possibility that this election could fall into the wrong hands…again. And—no matter how small those hands are—they would be those of a vengeful bully we know all too well. 

Less than three weeks ago, a collective sigh of relief could practically be heard nationwide as President Biden put country over self, stepped aside, and tagged Vice President Kamala Harris into the ring. The Democratic party immediately coalesced around our new candidate, shifting the Overton window and opening minds to the possibility that our next president could be a woman of color.

Much of America knows little about Kamala Harris. But anybody who has watched her interrogate Bill Barr or Brett Kavanagh, using lucid, sharp questions to make those hypocrites squirm, is certain of one thing: Kamala knows how to handle a bully. And, from a phrase that has rung out of her campaign speeches, we can be assured that—from her days as a prosecutor, a District Attorney, Attorney General, and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee—she “knows Donald Trump’s type.”

On Tuesday, we were gifted with another groundswell of hope, when Vice President Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. The country knew far less about Walz than we did about Harris. Entering their inaugural rally in Philly on Tuesday night, roughly 71% of the country had never heard of him.

But he too knows a bully. He too knows Donald Trump’s type.

Walz spent decades supervising a high school cafeteria, contributing to his perfect resume for disarming unchecked schoolyard bullies like Trump, a man who uses his limited vocabulary to demean others, incite violence, and praise fictional cannibals.  

Walz arrived onto the national stage on the winds of a potent, irrefutable adjective: weird. As my friend Dan Pfeiffer underscores in his excellent newsletter The Message Box, labeling Republicans as “weird” is not going to significantly move the needle when it comes to voters. However, it has been useful in shining an endearing light on Tim Walz, in stunning the bullies into awareness that we have more fight than fear, and in offsetting the standard wordiness of Democratic messaging.

Walz’s authentic observation of (initially) Vance, but also Trump, has had surprising endurance, even becoming a mainstay of his stump speech. No need for lengthy, lofty oratory, judging by the roaring approval from the crowd whenever he says: “They’re weird!” It’s accessible, it’s accurate, and it sounds like plain-speak rather than nastiness, especially when you hear it from the nation’s most huggable Dad.

The Democratic party is not well-known for the whole brevity thing. We’ve struggled to deliver a clear, straightforward message to the American people for most of my voting life. Compounding that is the ease with which many Democrats fall into the trap of communicating in a manner that’s not accessible to the public writ large. As a result, it’s been easy to cast us not as the party for people who are frustrated with the system, who are struggling to get by, or who are too busy providing for their family to discuss political nuance in lofty terms; but rather, as the party of latte-sipping coastal elites.

Former White House press secretary and current MSNBC host Jen Psaki refers to it as “an overreliance on more complicated language, as though it’s going to make you sound smarter. But actually, what it does is it makes people turn you off.” 

Enter Harris and Walz, two gifted communicators who do not overly rely on complicated language. They’re both articulate, inspiring public speakers…who connect with normal people because they communicate like normal people. 

Ever since she received the nod from President Biden, Harris has been animating her base with clear catchphrases that have electrified the enormous crowds she’s drawn this week: 

We’re Not Going Back

When We Fight, We Win

And, courtesy of her running mate who is bursting with folksy, midwestern, everyman cred, their campaign has added five words that articulate the most relatable message Democrats now have to explain our stance on reproductive rights:

Mind Your Own Damn Business

Kamala Harris does not mince words or use them in excess. Walz is further assisting in dislodging Democrats from the trappings of complicated angst about Trump’s authoritarian, demagogue-adjacent, totalitarianistic ambition. Those are very real threats. But the description is not exactly crisp. Nor are they words most people use with ease, or with certainty of what they’re talking about. So the message hasn’t broken through as resoundingly as the fact that this man is…weird (to say nothing of his running mate). 

Simplifying Dem messaging is invaluable, but perhaps the most revealing (and, gotta say, satisfying) result of the “weird” phenomenon is that the bullies appear legitimately vulnerable to Walz’s observation. How do you shake off being referred to as, say, “America’s Hitler,” while being twisted into a pretzel over being exposed as not normal? Trump wholeheartedly embraces the labels of tyrant or dictator. Those sound powerful to him. He’s content to let his stature grow through the eyes of our fear and anxiety about those titles being realized. But branding him as weird has gotten under his skin. And, well, it’s…something to behold. 

While spending most of this consequential week hunkered down at Mar-a-Lago, unnerved at his inability to command the news cycle, the massive, joyous Harris-Walz rallies have triggered the narcissist to lash out, exposing him as the petulant toddler he is—especially when he’s on defense. He has no idea how to attack these fresh, fearless, fired-up opponents. The changing tide has yielded a series of unhinged responses (to put it generously). Most of his delusions have been aired on Truth Social, but on Thursday he made a rare public appearance at a news conference / rambling exhibition of fallacies (which included claims that he has garnered larger crowds than the 1963 March on Washington and that nobody died in the January 6th riot he incited). His incoherence led to headlines like those in yesterday’s Washington Post: “The GOP’s new worry: Trump can’t drive a coherent message.” 

That’s a new worry?  

Though he refused to say Kamala’s name correctly (mispronunciation appears to be some sort of…intimidation tactic? Good luck), he finally agreed to a debate. Trump’s waffling about it has been drawn out for long enough to confirm his well-founded terror about a face-off with the Vice President—who has never appeared more stately, more powerful, and more presidential than she did this week, beginning on Tuesday, when she took the time to generously introduce much of the country to the many titles and facets of Governor Walz, America’s new butter-carving sweetheart.

Between now and September 10th, Trump, Vance, and their gaggle of MAGA Republicans will do their best to tarnish Harris for her record. She’s ready to fight. She wants him to state his criticism to her face. (Join me in hoping she spends most of the debate laughing.)

As for Walz, Trump’s desperate line of attack began with a warning that Walz would “unleash hell on earth.”

It’s tricky to reconcile that when you’re describing a man best known for championing the Universal School Meals bill: legislation that he signed into law in 2023, guaranteeing hot breakfasts and lunches for all schoolchildren in Minnesota, regardless of income status. That program increased attendance and performance while removing the stigma that had prevented some students from seeking nourishment. (It bears mentioning that, concurrently, Republicans were promoting banning Universal Free School Meals as a priority for their 2024 agenda.)

So, the Harris-Walz ticket had a banger week. The tent is growing, welcoming many of the constituencies that Trump needs: Young people, rural Americans, progressive teachers (or any who want to choose what books they can teach), union workers, blue-collar workers, military members, Republicans who have chosen to prioritize our democracy. No fakeouts, recycled lies about audience sizes, or feigned big-boy confidence will change that. 

That doesn’t mean we can sit back and exhale. We have 87 days, and everybody needs to do their part. The next three months are impossible to forecast. Safe to say: it’s gonna get weird. 

None of that should distract us from the potential of electing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz: fearless bully-fighters; happy warriors; living embodiments of the promise of America. 

Let’s get to work. Because when we fight…

Well, you know.