Axelrod: Trump will lose if race is decided on popularity

Democratic strategist David Axelrod said Tuesday that former President Trump will lose the presidential election if the race is decided on the popularity of the two candidates alone.

“I think it’s going to be a very tough race,” Axelrod told CNN’s John Berman. “And yes, I think that it is very clear that people have formed an opinion of Donald Trump, and if this race is decided on popularity, he will lose that race.”

“So their mission is to try and tear Kamala Harris down,” he added.

Axelrod noted Vice President Harris has a slight advantage in the race because she still has an opportunity to define herself. Trump, meanwhile, is better known to the American public and would have a harder time redefining himself as a candidate in the race — even if his campaign compelled him to do so.

“She’s relatively new to people, John. The fact is, vice presidents are known, but they’re not known. She’s done a very good job in the first phase of filling in information about herself, and she’s made up a lot of ground, but this is a neck-and-neck race.”

On the other hand, Axelrod continued, “Trump doesn‘t have the option of selling a new Trump. He doesn‘t seem interested in selling a new Trump, in fact.

“One of the problems that campaign has is that he is the old Trump, and he can’t stay on a message, so his preferred avenue is to rip down the opponent. That’s what he does with great zeal and joy. And I expect that you’re going to see that from now until the finish,” Axelrod said.

He further warned that the campaign will get more vicious as they enter the final two-month sprint, saying, “I think if you live in one of the six battleground states, you should hide your children from the television set for the next eight weeks.”

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling average of Harris’s favorability ratings, the vice president has been able to significantly improve her likability since emerging as the likely candidate atop the Democratic ticket.

She now has a net favorability rating of 1.5 percentage points, with her favorable numbers at 48.8 percent and unfavorable numbers at 47.3 percent. Two months ago, Harris had a net favorability rating of negative 18.3 percentage points, with an unfavorable rating of 56.1 percent and a favorable rating of 37.8 percent.

Trump, meanwhile, has a net favorability rating of negative 8.8 points, a slight improvement from two months ago, when he was at negative 13.2 points.

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign said in response to Axelrod’s remarks that Trump is “dominating” in battleground states “because voters want a return to pro-America policies that actually work, not radical policies of Comrade Kamala and Joe Biden.”

Harris’s performance in battleground states has improved in recent weeks, compared to President Biden’s numbers when he was still the presumptive candidate. The race remains neck and neck.