Kamala is Moderate: Weekly Digest

'Mala Moderate Moments Aug. 4-9

In case you haven’t heard, Kamala is Moderate. We formally highlighted this last week at the inaugural WelcomeFest, where we gathered more than 250 people in the basement of The Hamilton Hotel for a “For the People in the Middle” Center Left gathering. WelcomeFest recap to come!

Today we’re kicking off our log of each week’s moderate highlights leading up to Election Day (12 weeks out!). Additionally, we’ll include the coverage that calibrates us to Harris-Walz Centrism. If you have tips for this weekly round-up, feel free to share them with me (lauren@welcomepac.org).

BTW: We haven’t seen anyone do a “Moderates for Kamala” Zoom yet - has this been done? Please shoot us a note if you’d be interested in joining/planning.

NEW AD ON BORDER SECURITY

A new Harris campaign ad touts Harris’ history prosecuting drug cartels and plans to “hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.”

BLUEPRINT POLLING MESSAGE TESTING

A new Blueprint poll out this week makes the case for moderate Harris messaging. The top testing messages for Harris all focus on moderate themes:

• "tough on crime prosecutor"

• "prosecuted sex traffickers and other men who abused women, putting them behind bars"

• "protecting Social Security and Medicare"

Additionally, the poll found Harris even on overall favorability: 46% of voters view her favorably, and 46% view her unfavorably—a major improvement compared to how voters viewed her before Biden exited the race. Trump is viewed favorably by 43% of voters and unfavorably by 52%. The poll also shows that voter attitudes about Harris are less calcified than their perception of Trump.

KAMALA’S A PRO AT SHHH’ING PROTESTERS

Perhaps this week’s most notable moment came at a campaign rally in Michigan when protesters disrupted the Vice President during her remarks, to which she responded, “I’m here ‘cause we believe in democracy. Everyone’s voice matters, but I am speaking now. I am speaking now.” The crowd roared with applause.

For Additional Consumption:

WHAT’S BETTER THAN CALLING TRUMP WEIRD?

Two of our favorite researchers David Broockman and Josh Kalla put out a piece via Slow Boring this week making the case to frame Harris as leader of Team Normal: “Right now, the data’s message for Democrats is clear: Just be normal.”

Further, “How should Democrats be defining Harris? Some commentators treat this question as a proxy for the battle between the Democrats’ progressive and moderate factions, hoping Harris will voice support for their faction’s signature policies. But our mega-survey finds neither side of this debate is right. Rather than tacking to the left or to the center, it’s messages that present Harris like a normal Democrat that most persuade voters. That means running on mainstream “kitchen table” Democratic ideas to reduce the cost of living, protect Medicare and Social Security by taxing the rich, keep abortion legal, and raise the minimum wage. Other messages that don’t map onto ideological divides in the Democratic party, such as touting her achievements as a prosecutor and casting the tie-breaking vote for the American Rescue Plan, also perform well.

In other words, a good rule of thumb for Harris is that if both AOC and Joe Manchin would say they’re for something, she should probably be saying that, too.”

TIM WALZ CAN RETURN TO HIS (MODERATE) ROOTS

Matt Yglesias noted in his write-up on the Walz selection that “Walz as a House member was quite moderate. He ranked as the seventh “most bipartisan” member of the 114th Congress.”

WALZ IS A “MIDDLE AMERICA LIBERAL”

Ed Warren with Team Commonsense noted praise from the Center Left ecosystem around the Walz pick: “In fact, most of the center-left is loudly proclaiming their enthusiasm for him as a pragmatic centrist. The New Dems, a 100-Member coalition of moderates in the US House, celebrated that Walz is a ‘no-nonsense, down-to-earth, and authentic candidate’ ‘that leads from the middle.’ Third Way proclaimed that he is ‘what America needs’ with his bipartisan voting record and unusual, approachable background as a ‘gun owner, hunter and a former high school football coach.’”

He also analyzed Walz’s flavor of Democratic politics by referring to him as representing “Middle America liberals: You might call them “Minnesota nice.” But that does not make them pushovers. They come from a strong tradition of liberals that are fierce advocates for the underdog, proudly champion American values, and have an enduring belief in the nobility of public service. That makes them strong allies of the labor movement and defenders of social rights. As Tim Walz has said multiple times, “In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make. Even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there’s a golden rule. Mind your own damn business.”

WALZ: THE GREAT UNITER?

Vox’s Zack Beauchamp made the case that Walz could be seen as a unifier of the Democratic Party’s two major factions: leftists and centrists.

He notes, “Walz’s position on how to end the current Gaza war is virtually identical to Shapiro’s. The most important difference is less Middle East policy than domestic: Shapiro has been far harsher on pro-Palestine campus protests than Walz has. So while Walz is the left’s chosen candidate, he is not a candidate of the left. He’s a mainstream Democrat with a record containing elements that both progressives and moderates can like.”

Further, “Harris has tacked to the center: repudiating many of her past unpopular positions in favor of more moderate stances that align better with mainstream public opinion. The message that Republicans are “weird” is designed to play up the notion that she represents the vast American middle while Trump is the true extremist. Walz helps make this message more credible.”

One thing Zach got wrong, however, is stating that Walz invented the “Republicans are weird” language for Democrats. That was actually Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in 2022. :)

BONUS: WALZ MAKES GOOD IMPRESSION(S)

Kyle Tharp’s FWIW newsletter noted this week that, “According to a new analysis from CAP Action, excitement about the Walz news far outpaced that of the Trump campaign’s announcement of JD Vance. Top progressive pages generated 28 million engagements on posts related to Walz between Tuesday and Wednesday  — more than three times the 8.1 million engagements that posts related to Vance received from top conservative pages during the two days after his announcement.”