There is no playbook for a three-month presidential campaign but, if there were, it would look like what Vice President Kamala Harris has done so far.
Since she joined the race at the end of July, Harris has raised record amounts of money, including enough to help Democrats down-ballot; whooped Donald Trump in their only debate; picked up endorsements from some notable Republicans; developed a great volunteer network and expanded the substantial ground operation she inherited from President Joe Biden.
But with the race in a dead heat, that may not be enough.
The closeness of the race has led some Monday-morning quarterbacks to argue that the problem is Harris has not done enough interviews. She has actually done quite a few, including tough ones with CNN's Dana Bash, the National Association of Black Journalists and "60 Minutes"; and less hard-hitting ones with local news outlets in swing states and popular podcasts targeted at key demographics, such as Hispanics and young women.
Still, this complaint has circulated enough through the news and social media, the Harris campaign has scheduled more national media interviews for her and her running mate, Tim Walz, who even went on "Fox News Sunday."
It's possible that these interviews may help sway the sliver of undecided voters who are still looking for a sign. At the least, they may keep the pundits and pontificators at bay, especially if they prove to be uneventful. At a minimum, it's another chance for Harris to get her message out in the final weeks of the campaign.
But let's be clear: This is not how the race will be won. The campaign has internal polling that shows much more than the publicly available polls what the head-to-head race looks like, which voters are still gettable and what messages are motivating them. It has behind-the-scenes efforts to reach out to supporters by email, text message, social media, phone calls and knocking on doors. And it has millions of dollars in ads rolling out daily.
What the public and the press see of a campaign are just the tip of the iceberg. And in my 35 years of experience as a strategist, I've learned that things look much different on the inside. A campaign is like a marriage; you never really know what's going on unless you're in it. And while I don't know what it's like inside the Harris headquarters any more than the next pundit, the way the campaign has gone so far gives me confidence in how things are going there.
