Republican pollster Frank Luntz has shared his candid thoughts on the current state of the 2024 presidential race, pointing out what he considers a significant oversight in Donald Trump’s campaign strategy. Speaking on CNN, Luntz remarked that Trump’s recent speech in Georgia, outlining his economic plans, lacked the substance needed to sway voters on the most pressing issues.
In an interview with CNN‘s Brianna Keilar, Luntz expressed that the race between Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is particularly close, but neither candidate is addressing what he believes are the core issues that could turn the tide. “Let me be explicit,” Luntz said. “It’s not, in fact, the economy; it’s affordability. It’s prices for housing and health care, for food and fuel. And this has been the issue now for the last year.”
Luntz emphasized that affordability is Trump’s strongest argument for the presidency, a point he finds mind-boggling that the former president hasn’t fully embraced. “It is mind-blowing to me that Trump doesn’t seem to understand this and that Harris has not been more forthcoming about the details of her economic plan,” he remarked. “Both of those are essential to the outcome and both of those make an observer like me wonder, ‘What the heck is going on?'”
According to Luntz, if Trump focused more on affordability, he could be “in the driver’s seat” on two of the most critical issues for voters: immigration and affordability. As he told HuffPost, these are areas where Trump could excel, but the pollster criticized his current messaging.
The border crisis, in particular, is a significant area where Trump could regain control of the narrative. Luntz noted that Border Patrol agents have encountered over 7 million migrants since the start of fiscal year 2021, citing data from Customs and Border Protection. He pointed out that Trump could leverage these statistics to contrast his administration’s handling of immigration with that of the Biden-Harris administration.
“This is an area that Donald Trump can say, ‘Just look at the numbers, look at the immigration statistics, look at the illegal immigration that took place under his administration versus the current one,'” Luntz said.
However, the pollster criticized Trump’s recent focus on sensational topics, calling them a distraction. “But once again, he starts to focus on eating dogs and cats. I don’t understand this; it’s as though he’s trying to lose this race,” Luntz said, referring to Trump’s bizarre and irrelevant remarks.
On the Democratic side, Luntz also commented on Kamala Harris’ upcoming visit to the southern border. He argued that the move might backfire for her campaign, stating, “I actually would have advised against it. Her time to have gone to the border was last year or the year before that, and now it only highlights the fact that she hasn’t really focused on this issue.”
Ultimately, Luntz stressed that both Trump and Harris need to shift their focus toward voters’ real concerns. “They’re tired of the yelling, of the shows,” Luntz said during a heated CNN panel discussion. “They don’t want to know who did it. They want to know how you’re going to fix it. Stop trying to blame people and start fixing it, start getting it done now,” he said, as reported by Mediaite.
With the 2024 election fast approaching, Luntz’s remarks suggest that the candidates’ success hinges on their ability to address the most important issues to voters: affordability and immigration.
