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Cuomo Threatens to Move to Florida If He Loses

July 19, 2025 at 4:49 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he’ll pack his bags and flee to Florida if he loses the NYC mayoral race to socialist Zohran Mamdani, the New York Post reports.

Said Cuomo: “It’s all or nothing. We either win or even I will move to Florida. God forbid!”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Democrats’ Autopsy Avoids the Likeliest Cause of Death

July 19, 2025 at 5:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Democratic National Committee’s examination of what went wrong in the 2024 election is expected to mostly steer clear of the decisions made by the Biden-turned-Harris campaign and will focus more heavily instead on actions taken by allied groups,” the New York Times reports.

“The audit, which the committee is calling an ‘after-action review,’ is expected to avoid the questions of whether former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. should have run for re-election in the first place, whether he should have exited the race earlier than he did and whether former Vice President Kamala Harris was the right choice to replace him.”

“Nor is the review expected to revisit key decisions by the Harris campaign — like framing the election as a choice between democracy and fascism, and refraining from hitting back after an ad by Donald J. Trump memorably attacked Ms. Harris on transgender rights by suggesting that she was for ‘they/them’ while Mr. Trump was ‘for you’ — that have roiled Democrats in the months since Mr. Trump took back the White House..”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Democrats

Trump Kept Epstein Issue at Arm’s Length

July 17, 2025 at 3:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Time: “While the idea of a secret ‘Epstein client list’ became a fixation for far-right influencers and members of Trump’s base, the candidate himself rarely brought up Epstein unprompted in campaign speeches or rallies. Instead, it was Trump’s official and unofficial surrogates—many of whom now occupy top posts in his Administration—who repeatedly stoked expectations that explosive revelations were imminent, often suggesting prosecutions were coming and that thousands of pages of damning material would soon be released.”

“Now many in Trump’s base are accusing him of falling far short of what they expected him to do with the Epstein case, partly because of years of rhetoric from his allies that neither Trump nor his campaign did much to refute.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign


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Hunter Biden Says ‘Loyalty’ Cost Democrats the Election

July 16, 2025 at 8:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Hunter Biden, in his first interview since the 2024 election, denied there was a ‘grand conspiracy’ to cover up issues with his father’s health and said Democrats only lost the race because they abandoned President Joe Biden,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Biden: “We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. That’s my position. We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Quote of the Day

July 8, 2025 at 7:25 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In another life we would be friends and go golfing.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by Axios, speaking to Joe Biden after the 2024 election.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Trump Upended the Rules of Voter Turnout

June 26, 2025 at 12:15 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Cook Political Report: “For most of modern American political history, one thing about presidential elections was gospel: When more people vote, the Democratic Party benefits.”

“But in 2024, President Donald Trump’s dramatic gains among typically lower-propensity and Democratic-leaning voters — notably voters of color and young people — turned that truism upside-down.”

“A comprehensive new analysis of voter data from the Pew Research Center estimates that if every eligible voter in America had shown up to the polls in November, Trump still would have won the popular vote.”

“In fact, his overall margin of victory may even have been slightly higher.”

CNN: New research shows Trump’s 2024 support became more ethnically and racially diverse.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Kamala Harris Asked Mark Cuban to be Considered for VP

June 20, 2025 at 1:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mark Cuban told The Bulwark that Vice President Kamala Harris’s team had asked him to submit vetting materials to be considered for vice president during the 2024 campaign, but he turned her down.

Said Cuban: “I’m not very good as the number two person. And so if the last thing we need is me telling Kamala, you know, the president that, no, that’s a dumb idea. Right. And I’m not real good at the shaking hands and kissing babies.”

He added: “She would have fired me within six days.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Exchange of the Day

June 5, 2025 at 1:38 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump was making comments in the Oval Office and Elon Musk was responding in real time:

TRUMP: I would have won Pennsylvania regardless of Elon.

MUSK: Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. Such ingratitude.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Iowa Senate Race Gets Competitive

June 3, 2025 at 4:33 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “The Iowa Senate race moves onto the periphery of the competitive board this week.”

“Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) was in the news recently for comments on health care, although the bigger reason for the switch is that she drew a potentially credible Democratic challenger.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign Tagged With: IA-Sen

Should Republicans Have Won in a Landslide?

June 3, 2025 at 7:23 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Nate Cohn: “While the history books will rightfully dwell on whether Democrats could have forestalled another Trump presidency, the question of whether Mr. Trump cost conservatives a more decisive victory might be the more useful one to understand American politics today.”

“Voters wanted change, badly. They were repelled not just by Mr. Biden’s faltering condition, but also by rising prices and perceived failures of Democratic governance on everything from immigration to energy. While it didn’t yield a more decisive Republican victory, the backlash against pandemic-era restrictions, rising prices and ‘woke’ all help explain why a close election felt like a conservative ‘vibe shift.’”

“The race was close for one reason: Donald J. Trump. He was an unpopular felon who had alienated millions of Americans with his comments and actions over nearly a decade. Obviously, President Trump possesses important political strengths, but his weaknesses plainly made a landslide victory more challenging. To the extent the election offered the Republicans an opportunity to win big, he was not the candidate to capitalize on it.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Tim Walz Says 2024 Was a ‘Primal Scream’

May 31, 2025 at 9:34 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Tim Walz on Saturday delivered blunt advice to fellow Democrats in an address to party activists and officials: “We’ve got to find some goddamn guts to fight for working people,” Politico reports.

He added: “The party of the working class lost a big chunk of the working class. That last election was a primal scream on so many fronts.”

Of Republican control, he acknowledged: “Some of it is our own doing.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Musk Juggled Drugs and Family Drama During Campaign

May 30, 2025 at 6:16 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“As Elon Musk became one of Donald Trump’s closest allies last year, leading raucous rallies and donating about $275 million to help him win the presidency, he was also using drugs far more intensely than previously known,“ the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Musk’s drug consumption went well beyond occasional use. He told people he was taking so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that it was affecting his bladder, a known effect of chronic use. He took Ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. And he traveled with a daily medication box that held about 20 pills, including ones with the markings of the stimulant Adderall, according to a photo of the box and people who have seen it.”

“It is unclear whether Mr. Musk, 53, was taking drugs when he became a fixture at the White House this year and was handed the power to slash the federal bureaucracy. But he has exhibited erratic behavior, insulting cabinet members, gesturing like a Nazi and garbling his answers in a staged interview.”

“At the same time, Mr. Musk’s family life has grown increasingly tumultuous as he has negotiated overlapping romantic relationships and private legal battles involving his growing brood of children.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Turnout Didn’t Cost Kamala Harris the Election

May 28, 2025 at 2:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Nate Silver: “As you can see from the Catalist data, it’s actually common for most dropoff voters to be Democrats: this also happened to the party in 2012, 2016 and 2020. In some sense, that’s a sign of being a victim of your own success. If you’re good at turning out marginal voters, you’re happy to book the win — but they might not vote again next time.”

“In past elections, however, new voters were also Democratic, enough to more or less cancel this out. This time, however, the majority of new voters picked Trump.”

“Put another way, Democrats performed poorly among marginal voters in general: people who don’t read the news that much, and whose political views don’t match the ideologically ‘consistent’ views of strong partisans. Young voters, voters of color, and voters without college degrees are overrepresented in this cohort, all groups that Democrats struggled with in 2024 compared to previous elections.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

The Silence That Enabled Trump’s Return

May 22, 2025 at 9:20 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jessica Yellin has a very interesting interview with former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and why he ultimately tried to challenge President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary.

Said Phillips: “This was an issue of nobody, Vice President Harris, who was in the room, who’s known Joe Biden for years, who attacked him vigorously in 2020, who met with him weekly, a woman of color. You know, she wouldn’t run. I called Gretchen Whitmer directly. Her very thoughtful political director said, please do not mention this. Do not mention her name. And as a result, you know, we can’t have you talk. I called JB Pritzker directly, same thing. His team was rude and I thought reprehensible.”

He added: “I tried to encourage everybody, Newsom, Klobuchar, anybody. Of course, I knew they wouldn’t do it, though, Jessica, because they wouldn’t give up. They wouldn’t risk their personal futures for the country’s.”

It’s worth watching.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Biden Paid Top Aide $4 Million for Failed Campaign

May 20, 2025 at 3:41 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Mike Donilon, a top adviser to former President Biden, was paid about $4 million to work on the 2024 Biden campaign at the president’s insistence,” Axios reports.

“The sum was orders of magnitude higher than the pay for other top aides — campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon made $300,000 — and illustrates the standing held by Biden’s inner-most circle of advisers.”

“Many former Biden officials remain bitter at Donilon for making so much money and, in their view, guiding the campaign into disaster.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

The Obama Coalition Turned Into the Trump Coalition

May 20, 2025 at 5:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Cook Political Report: “Back in 2012, Barack Obama’s campaign had a mantra — a younger, more diverse electorate was the key to reelection. Had the 2024 electorate been in place in 2012, the team in Chicago would’ve been over the moon. The electorate last fall was three points less white than it was 12 years ago. What’s more, the youngest cohort of voters by generational breakdown made up 36% of the electorate (compared to 18% in 2012), while the oldest cohort was just 39% (down from 57% in 2012).”

“And, yet, that coalition was much friendlier to Donald Trump than to any other GOP nominee.”

“So what happened?”

Playbook: “Harris seriously struggled with younger, more-diverse and less-engaged voters shifting significantly to the right — a change from Democrats’ typically stronger showing with infrequent or new voters.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

Quote of the Day

May 15, 2025 at 6:33 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Joe Biden clearly just was not capable of delivering the message we needed to deliver in 2024. Why did it take so long? Why was it so hard to recognize that and make the change? So I guess to some degree it is helpful to have that conversation.”

— Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), quoted by Politico, on the new wave of headlines about former President Biden’s mental and physical decline.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Biden Legacy

Harris Would Beat Trump In a Rematch

May 14, 2025 at 1:58 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds Kamala Harris would lead Donald Trump in a theoretical rematch by 5 percentage points, 47% to 42%.

However, when limited just to people who voted in 2024, a rematch is tied at 43% each.

Democrats also lead on the generic congressional ballot, 47% to 41%.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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