Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville is once again admitting he was wrong about Vice President Kamala Harris defeating President Donald Trump in last year’s election, but is also now sharing why he was so convinced of a Democratic victory in the first place.
“The polls looked even, alright?” Carville told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday. “I thought Harris had more money. She also had more storefront locations, she had more doorknockers, definitely had better surrogates with two ex-presidents out there.”
“Trump was going around with Scott Baio or something … And I thought a combination of all of that would be worth a point and a half,” he continued. “It was not.”
Carville helped former President Bill Clinton win the 1992 election and became a respected strategist for decades to come, but also advised former secretaries of state John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, who respectively lost the election or nomination in 2004 and 2008.
The 80-year-old strategist argued in September that the race between Trump and Harris didn’t “feel” like one she would lose, and fully committed the next month to his prediction with a New York Times op-ed titled, “Three Reasons I’m Certain Kamala Harris Will Win.”
Carville described one of those reasons as “just a feeling,” but was also wrong about his other two arguments — that Trump “is a repeat electoral loser” and that the Harris campaign had simply amassed too much money not to win the election.
“You relearn the oldest lesson in politics,” Carville said Wednesday. “The greatest motivator of turnout, of voting, of persuasion is a reason. If you don’t have a reason, you can’t [win]. People had a reason to vote for Trump … people wanted some change.”
Jame Carville wrote in a New York Times op-ed in October he was “certain” that Kamala Harris would defeat Donald Trump. Left: Raul E. Diego/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images; Right: Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images
Carville pointed to Harris’ appearance on “The View” in October, when the Democratic nominee was asked if she would’ve “done something differently” over the past four years than then-President Joe Biden — and Harris said, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”
“She completely flubs it,” Carville recalled Wednesday. “Well, 70% of people, we’ll have time to argue whether they were right or wrong, 70% of people want something different. Well, give it to them! … [Say] anything you want other than ‘I can’t think of anything.’”
“Worst answer ever given,” he continued. “Ever given.”
Carville recently described Harris as a “seventh string quarterback” who shouldn’t have replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee. While he once again admitted Wednesday that his prediction was a “mistake,” Carville didn’t ask for Harris to stay home in 2028.
“I don’t propose that somebody should or shouldn’t run for office,” he told the outlet. “If she runs for president again, she’s got to be a lot better candidate than she was in 2024. Maybe she is.”
