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An aide to former president Barack Obama has said that the 2024 presidential election will be “very, very close,” while hinting that one “sleeper issue” could make all the difference in November.
Jim Messina, who was chief of staff for Obama from 2009 to 2011 and ran his successful 2012 reelection campaign, said there were around 5 percent of voters who still classed themselves as “undecided” but that Democrats were “thrilled” with current polling figures.
“This race is still just tied. This thing is going to be very, very close,” Messina said, speaking to Fox News on Thursday.
It comes as new data shows Harris leading Donald Trump in almost all battleground states, and nationally. The vice president now has a 2.7-point lead over her rival in the latest average of national polls, collated by FiveThirtyEight.
Republicans are attempting to downplay Harris’s growing lead as a honeymoon phase, but it’s clear that the Democratic candidate has maintained her momentum since entering the presidential race, though it remains tight.
Harris, who is expected to formally accept the Democratic nomination at the party’s convention next week, has had “the best four weeks in modern political history,” Messina told Fox.
“When you look at who the undecided voters are in this election, we’re down to like five percent. And the question is are some of these voters going to get out and actually vote.”
Messina added the “sleeper issue” of the election was abortion. “The story of my entire life has been don’t piss women off, and this issue has pissed off a whole lot of women voters, in these battleground states and now they’re going to get a chance to vote on it,” he said.
He continued: “You see this in poll after poll… The economy is the most important issue, but when you go down and look at issues that are moving enthusiasm, it is this abortion issue.
“And it’s because across party Republicans, Democrats, independents all believe in the same thing. They want the government to stay out of their lives.”
