GOP pollster Frank Luntz: Harris momentum ‘froze’ when she went ‘anti-Trump’

Republican pollster Frank Luntz in a recent interview said Vice President Harris could come up short in November, suggesting her momentum “froze” when she went ‘anti-Trump.”

Luntz said Harris’s best stretch came when she was making the case for herself of why she should be elected commander in chief. That progress, in his view, has halted with her expanded her focus on attacking former President Trump. 

“What’s interesting is that with Harris focused on why she should be elected president, that’s when her numbers grew,” the pollster said on CNN’s “This Morning.”

“She’s had the best 60 days of any presidential candidate in modern history, and then the moment that she turned anti-Trump and focused on him and said, ‘Don’t vote for me, vote against him,’ … that’s when everything froze,” he told host Kasie Hunt.

The momentum, Luntz continued, is now tilting toward Trump.

While many Democrats still believe Harris will prevail in less than two weeks, some within the party fear the 2024 contest is slipping away.

“Everyone keeps saying, ‘It’s close.’ Yes, it’s close, but are things trending our way? No. And no one wants to openly admit that,” one Democratic strategist told The Hill. “Could we still win? Maybe. Should anyone be even slightly optimistic right now? No.”

In the interview Tuesday, Luntz signaled that Trump is not gaining or losing.

“And the fact is, Donald Trump is defined; he’s not gaining, he’s not losing. He is who he is. His vote is where it is,” Luntz said Wednesday. “She is less well-defined, and if she continues just to define this race as vote against Trump, she’s going to stay where she is now. And she may lose.” 

The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s national polling index shows Harris leading Trump by just 1 percentage point — 48.6 percent to 47.6 percent.