Frank Bruni, a contributing Opinion writer, hosted a written online conversation on Tuesday with Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic state senator in Michigan, and Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist and author of the newsletter “Hopium Chronicles,” to review the extraordinary events of the past week in American politics and discuss the upended presidential race.
Frank Bruni: Thank you for joining me on what will, no exaggeration, go down as one of the most fascinating, disorienting, consequential months in American political history. I’m still waiting to wake up and realize that it was all a dream: the debate, the attempted assassination, President Biden’s Rehoboth reckoning, the quicksilver ascent of Vice President Kamala Harris. I feel at least slightly more hopeful than a week ago that Donald Trump may be stopped on Nov. 5, but dear God, am I nervous. Briefly summarize for me the magnitude of — and reasons for — your optimism or, conversely, your panic.
Mallory McMorrow: The last few days have felt like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I have teachers texting and calling me from out of state who have never donated to a political candidate asking how to do it the right way to ensure it gets to the Harris campaign. Thousands of new volunteers have signed up. A staggering amount of content has been produced, all organically. The memes! It feels very “hopey changey.” I tuned in (along with hundreds of thousands of others) to watch Harris speak to the staff at campaign headquarters and walked away inspired. We’re going to win.
Simon Rosenberg: I am very excited about what is happening in our party. The transition from Biden to Harris has been remarkably seamless and successful. Her initial remarks on Monday were strong, powerful and clearly her own words, not things cribbed from the previous campaign. All of us are now very optimistic about going out and winning this election.
Bruni: I, too, am very, very impressed with how fast, organized and poised Harris came out of the gate. Talk about execution. But I’m mindful that she has had persistently low approval ratings, her campaign in 2020 didn’t even last to the Iowa caucuses and Democratic voters haven’t really gotten a say in her emergence now as the presumptive — or is it de facto? — nominee.
Does she substantially improve Democrats’ prospects with particular groups of voters and in particular places — or is that just willed Democratic cheer? Mallory, you’re in Michigan, where polls suggested that Biden was really struggling. How might Harris, who’s from California, versus “Scranton Joe,” who’s from Pennsylvania, play there? Or, for that matter, in Pennsylvania itself and in Wisconsin?
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