Focus on economy and answer the Harris 'Freedom' message: What GOP strategists think Trump should do

One Republican strategist who has run campaigns against Donald Trump says he recognizes what the former president is doing against Vice President Kamala Harris, even as Trump swings back and forth between attacking her record and questioning her racial identity.

It's what he's done against other opponents.

“He figures out what their perceived weakness is and drills down on it,” said Terry Sullivan, who was a senior adviser to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign. “He’s spending a few weeks probing, and I think he needs to take that time.”

Harris' entry into the presidential race after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid has changed basic assumptions about the campaign, as Democrats replaced an 81-year-old man with a fading ability to make his case with a 59-year-old woman who's drawing new enthusiasm. Trump's attacks on Harris' racial identity — an echo of his onetime questioning of former President Barack Obama's birthplace — have caused some top Republicans to suggest Trump may be ignoring issues they see as favorable for him.

Marc Short, who was chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, said he questions whether the Republican nominee will stick to the script his team prescribes.

“I think that there is a lot of time left. But I’m also not optimistic that you will see message discipline either,” said Short, whose former boss renounced Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. “It’s hard to have confidence that there will be an orchestrated effort to highlight that because we will continue to do things like debating whether Harris is Indian American or African American.”

Here's what top strategists think Trump should do.

In June, an AP-NORC survey found that about 4 in 10 American adults — and only about 1 in 10 Republicans — approved of the way Biden was handling the economy.

Most Republicans — 56% — say the outcome of the upcoming election is “extremely important” for the economy, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in July. That's slightly higher than the 48% who say they feel the same way about immigration, another issue Trump has long prioritized.

“How many times have campaigns come down to, as Ronald Reagan said, ‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?’” said Mark Campbell, who managed Republican Glenn Youngkin’s winning 2021 Virginia governor’s race. “This year, the answer is a resounding no. But we haven’t heard it put that simply yet, and they’ve had three weeks to say it.”

One strategist argued that Trump needs to respond to the message Harris was building around protecting Americans' freedom — taking ownership of a word that Republicans often try to make a centerpiece of their campaigns.

Harris and other Democrats have campaigned on enshrining reproductive rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. She's also brought up Trump's felony conviction in New York for participating in a hush-money scheme to influence the 2016 election — a case for which he faces possible prison time — and highlighted her own background as a prosecutor and former attorney general. She has argued Trump is not just a threat to democracy but will take away the freedom to have an abortion and be safe from gun violence.

As if to put a fine point on the message, Harris' campaign walkout song is Beyoncé's “Freedom.”

Sullivan, the former Rubio senior adviser, said Trump had run a smart campaign up until Biden was replaced and cautioned against writing off his ability to find a new message.

By the end of the 2016 primary campaign, Trump had branded Rubio as “Little Marco” and knocked him out of the race with a rout in Rubio's native Florida. (Today, Trump also lives in Florida after establishing residency there during his presidency and had Rubio on his vice-presidential shortlist before picking Ohio Sen. JD Vance.)

Sullivan argues Harris will begin to face more backlash and her ties to San Francisco, a city long stamped for many Americans as liberal and out of touch with the rest of the country, will be good fodder for Trump.

“He message tests early on and he goes through a lot of bad ideas before he locks in,” Sullivan said. "And when he locks in, it’s usually pretty good."

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press reporter Linley Sanders contributed from Washington.