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Pro-Harris messaging recommendations from Anat Shenker-Osorio [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-07-24  

On Tuesday July 23, framing and messaging expert Anat Shenker-Osorio was the lead speaker at a national webinar that I attended. Her focus was on pro-Harris, pro-Democratic Party messaging and framing to lead us to victory. Here are some key takeaways, from my notes:



1. Some people have revived the old "I'm With Her" Clinton campaign slogan. Shenker-Osorio fairly strongly recommends against doing this for multiple reasons:

-- It inverts the relationship between candidate and voter. The candidate's job is to serve the voter, not the other way around.

-- It invokes strong memories of the loss of 2016 and leads people to bring up a litany of "why we can't win" arguments. Triggering people's trauma from 2016 isn't a good move.

-- It invites us to compare Harris to Hillary Clinton and encourages us to say "here are the similarities so here's why Harris can't win."

2. The overarching Dem narrative for the election should be about two pathways into the future, not simply about a single candidate. Contrast: MAGA GOP future versus a future of freedom.



3. When speaking about Project 2025, describe specific VOTER-FACING HARMS rather than abstract damage to institutions.

-- Wrong: "Project 2025 will fire career civil servants!" (So what, who cares?)

-- Right: "Project 2025 will cut Social Security and Medicare".



4. Barraging people with a long laundry list of Project 2025 harms leads to voter overload and denial - "yeah well, they'd never do all of those things". You have to select just one or two voter-facing harms, present them, and then give agency to the voter by telling them that they have the power to select the alternative future of freedom.



5. On the question of calling her "Kamala" vs. "Harris", past research strongly suggests that we should use "Harris". Per Jenifer Ancona of Way to Win Action Fund, research indicates that first-naming a woman running for office can cause them to LOSE UP TO 11% SUPPORT. The Harris campaign is clearly going with "Harris for President", the donation fund is the "Harris Victory Fund", and the official Act Blue campaign fund is "Harris for President". So call her "Harris".



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ASO Communications' valuable and extensive "Freedom Over Fascism" messaging guide, which is produced by Shenker-Osorio’s research group, is here and is constantly kept up to date with best-practices framing recommendations:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s0JbXhND7-1iqABNcUNL031NQLxkLfr-USkCKGZTidI



ASO Communications’ “passing the torch” brief specific to Harris becoming the nominee is here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DvqIGfRsP0uQvtXBFmPWQUs0s9nQg3OTf6v6SDKnGNc



- Bruce

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