Letter from David Harrison

Dear friends,

Certainly, I would never be the one to tell you to ignore the soul-deadening mean-spirited truth-avoiding statements of the Republican ex-president. You are bound to notice and cringe that he is out there bouncing from court to podium, worshipping at the church of himself and posing a threat to our country.

However, it would be good to underscore that this is the 2018 and 2020 and 2022 failed Republican playbook. Nikki Haley’s New Hampshire supporters were heavily populated with Republican and Independent voters who cannot abide her opponent at all, not loyalists who will close ranks. This turning away is an increasing phenomenon, not a decreasing one, and it is evident across the country.

As we all jump in, the story of 2024 will be a pronounced version of recent Republican political adventures. Their candidate’s special sauce is pleasing his core while scaring and offending and angering and repelling the voters in the middle. And the bonus is that their likely candidate is a get out the vote machine for Democratic voters. We can have those voters, so we will take them, and with them the House as well as the Presidency.

For the voters in the middle, the upcoming appellate ruling matters, there is no such thing as complete presidential immunity. So does the sight of Mark Meadows and others testifying under oath this spring that Trump knew he had lost while he was feloniously deploying fake electors. 

Independent voters were reached in the 2022 election cycle by Joe Biden’s emphasis on Trump’s threats to democracy. Those charges continue to resonate. Trump’s bizarre love for autocrats and antipathy toward Zelenskyy and Ukraine will continue to steer voters to us.

Voters aren’t forgetting the Dobbs decision. It looks like constitutional protections will be on the ballot in several swing states. If every single state, the assault on the right to choose gives us a significant electoral boost.

What to add to these present conditions? Principally, we must add our relentlessness. If you are watching and not acting, watch AND act. If you are looking for something to do at this very moment to reveal your 2024 self, get involved in voter registration, or sign up for postcard writing. If you need a new organization, help the extraordinary Mi Familia Vota register Latino voters in the swing state of North Carolina. Or, do some postcard writing for the powerful team of Swing Left and Vote Forward.

Please look for my missive on ten 2024 election strategies on coming up on February 15.

Best to you all,

David Harrison
Bainbridge Island, Washington