Dems Have Finally Figured Out How to Run Against Trump

Kamala Harris and the rest of the party have cracked the code on campaigning against a wannabe dictator.

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With its excited crowds, incredible speeches, and great ratings, the Democratic Convention hit all of the marks. Other than a few overly long speeches from some folks on the undercard, the convention went off without a hitch.

For the attendees, the convention is a big party, a chance to connect with old friends and allies, and an opportunity to prepare for the campaign to come. But for the campaign organizers, it’s one giant messaging exercise — the single, best chance to communicate their message to tens of millions of voters on their terms. That’s why the big speeches — those that happen in the final hour when most people tune in — matter the most. Watching and re-watching those speeches left me with one conclusion about the Democratic Party in the Kamala Harris era — we finally figured out an effective way to talk about Donald Trump.

This is the third convention in a row where the primary piece of business was defeating Donald Trump. For much of that long period, we have struggled to find the right way to talk about Trump’s chaos, corruption, and general awfulness.

This has been true since Kamala Harris became the nominee, but it was brought home throughout the convention. Democrats learned the lessons of the Trump era and are using them with ruthless efficiency.

The Mistakes of the Past

Despite winning almost every election since 2016, Democrats struggled to find the right tone when talking about Trump. There were typically three errors that we couldn’t stop making:

1. Taking the Bait: Trump is a classic troll — in all senses of the word. He is constantly seeking a reaction from the press, the public, and especially his political opponents. Trolling is where Trump excels. He floods the zone with a never-ending torrent of outrage bait that proves irresistible to Democrats. I get it... it seems like a moral abdication to let some of Trump’s racism and misogyny go unremarked upon. But the end result is we spend the campaign chasing him around on his chosen playing field and unable to drive a consistent narrative of our own.

2. Making Trump Look Strong: Trump believes — correctly — that strength is the axis upon which American politics operates. He subscribes to Bill Clinton’s famous observation, "When people feel uncertain, they'd rather have someone strong and wrong than weak and right.” Trump’s dictator schtick is all about giving people who don’t love his personality or behavior permission to support him. They want to feel safe. Much of our response to Trump’s authoritarianism inadvertently amplified Trump’s chosen strongman narrative.

3. Failing to Pick (and Stick To) a Narrative: When it comes to messaging, Donald Trump is a target-rich opportunity. He is a criminal, a coward, incompetent, a racist, a fraudster, a rapist, a plutocrat, a liar, a wannabe dictator — I could go on and on. Each is true and should be politically devastating. However, over nearly a decade now, Democrats could not settle on a single narrative. Repetition is the key to messaging success and our messages were too varied to make a lasting impression.

Over time, Democrats have improved in fits and starts — especially since the 2016 campaign. But up until a month ago, we kept falling into the same traps.

No more. Not with this campaign or at this convention.

So, what was different this time around?

1. Minimizing Trump’s Impact

For the last decade, American politics revolved around Donald Trump. The thrust of Democratic messaging has been about Trump and the threat he poses to the country. To the extent Democrats had a positive message, it's that we weren’t Trump.

Kamala Harris’s campaign has made politics about something other than Donald Trump. Sure, most of the convention speakers mentioned Trump. There were slickly produced videos about January 6th and a coterie of folks holding a giant copy of Project 2025. That’s to be expected; but the convention spotlighted Harris and Tim Walz rather than Trump. That’s a welcome change, and based on the ratings, something for which the public has been yearning.

2. Responding On Our Terms

The first sign that Kamala Harris had Trump’s number came when Trump questioned her racial identity during an unhinged interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference.

Another candidate would have responded with outrage, which would have been completely understandable. You can imagine a solemn speech about Trump’s racism or a podium-pounding tirade. Instead, Kamala Harris brushed it off as “more of the same old stuff.” Watch this video of Harris’s response and note the big smile at the front end.

No one is arguing that you should turn the other cheek or ignore his transgressions, but we should respond without fueling the outrage cycles that are Trump’s political lifeblood.

3. Making Trump Weak and Small

The way to beat a wannabe strongman is to expose their weakness, not raise concerns about how they will use their power. The idea that Trump is small and weak was a consistent theme through all of the major speeches. In his convention speech, former President Obama captured this notion when he said:

One thing is for certain: Donald Trump is not losing sleep over these questions. Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. It’s been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala. There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes. It just goes on and on and on. The other day, I heard someone compare Trump to the neighbor who keeps running his leaf blower outside your window every minute of every day.

At one point, Obama took the admonition to make Trump seem small to an unexpected and perhaps overly literal level.

Vice President Harris did something similar in her speech by referring to Trump as an “unserious man.”

This new, smarter approach to Trump contributes to the former President’s unraveling before our eyes.

4. Trump Only Cares About HImself

Months ago, the Biden campaign settled on a message about Trump — he only cares about himself and rich and powerful people like him. This is a good message because it is so obviously true. Because his campaign was overwhelmed with concerns about his age, Biden could not drive this message. Over the four nights of the convention, speaker after speaker hammered home this point. I thought former President Bill Clinton said it in a particularly compelling way:

So the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies. Count the I’s. Count the I’s. His vendettas, his vengeance, his complaints, his conspiracies. He’s like one of those tenors opening up before he walks out on stage like I did, trying to get his lungs open by singing, “Me, me, me, me, me, me.”

In her speech, Harris took the “Trump is a narcissist” message to another level by connecting his selfishness to a policy impact on people’s lives:

Now compare that to Donald Trump. Because I think everyone here knows, he doesn’t actually fight for the middle class. Not — he doesn’t actually fight for the middle class. Instead, he fights for himself and his billionaire friends. And he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt.

In many respects, this convention was a rip-roaring success, but the anti-Trump messaging, in particular, bodes well for the next 69 days.