Rob Flaherty, deputy campaign manager for Vice President Kamala Harris, said in an interview that Democrats are "losing control of the culture" as more Americans turn to podcasts.
“Campaigns are, in many ways, last-mile marketers that exist on terrain dictated by culture, and the Democratic Party’s institutions that have historically had the ability to influence culture are losing relevance,” he said in an interview. With Semafor. "You can't move eight points to the right across the country without losing control of the culture."
Both Harris and President-elect Donald Trump have made efforts to speak on podcasts and non-traditional media ahead of the 2024 election. Flaherty told Semafor in the interview that they had trouble booking Harris on sports podcasts.
"Sports and culture have merged, and as sports and culture have become more public and intrinsically tied to Trump's conservative values, it has become more complicated for athletes to come out and support us," Flaherty said. "Sports It becomes more complicated for people in the industry to take us on their shows because they don't want to 'get involved in politics.'
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris watches an activity monitor backstage before taking the stage for her final campaign rally, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin)
Flaherty associates sports culture with right-wing culture and makes it Their campaign is difficult Reach out to people.
"That's not to say that the presence of Stephen Curry and Steve Kerr and LeBron (James) and all of them wasn't impactful or important," Flaherty said. "It's more impactful because it's more difficult. But certainly the culture associated with heavy sports viewing has become associated with right-wing culture, which makes it harder for us to reach people."
Harris campaign aides speak out about their failed bid for president Complain to the mediaplacing some of the blame for their problems with Harris.
"Real people have heard in some way that we won't be doing interviews, which is neither true nor contrary to any of Trump's standards, and I think that's a problem," Jen O'Marley Dillon on "Pod Save America ” said in the discussion.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) at the Swissotel in Chicago on June 24, 2022. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
Click here to learn more about media and cultural reports
She also argued that when Harris was interviewed, the questions were "small and complex" and that they were not "informing" voters.
Flaherty also spoke of Harris shying away from more traditional media, although Harris did give multiple interviews to CNN, MSNBC and Fox News before the election.
Click here to get the Fox News app
"For my colleagues in the mainstream media, there's no value in being interviewed by the New York Times or the Washington Post during the election because those (readers) are already with us," Flaherty said.