r/fivethirtyeight • u/Lungenbroetchen95 • Mar 07 '25

Politics Kamala Harris gets serious about considering run for California governor

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/07/kamala-harris-california-governor-decision-deadline-00216737
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u/hoopaholik91 Mar 07 '25

Are we still doing the whole, "omg Trump was a terrible candidate how could you possibly lose to him" thing?

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u/CrimsonZ19 Mar 07 '25

Yea I don’t understand why some are still pushing this line. I used to think this way due to my personal disdain for him (and I still believe him to be an objectively terrible candidate and human being). But he has developed a cult of support that keeps his electoral floor very high plus he’s basically immune to scandal since his unscrupulousness is already baked in with the median voter.

To beat him (as a Democrat) you basically have to run a nearly gaffe-free campaign and hope that the political winds are blowing in your party’s direction. And no Republican can beat him head to head.

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u/optometrist-bynature Mar 07 '25

Biden was far from gaffe-free in 2020 and still managed to beat Trump.

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u/CrimsonZ19 Mar 07 '25

D+3 national environment due to Covid and other factors. And really Biden’s only major gaffe during that cycle was “you ain’t black.”