ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Is Kamala Harris a good candidate?
That was a topic that was sparked a conversation between KMOX political analysts John Hancock and Michael Kelley when they made an appearance on Total Information A.M. Friday right before their show Hancock and Kelley.
Hancock, a Republican strategist and former chair of the Missouri Republican Party, believes that with Harris doing a ton of media interviews lately following initial criticisms of lack of interviews, it's an attempt by her campaign to "steer the ship" amidst recent polling data.
"If you look at the polls, the polls are trending back into Donald Trump's direction in all of these battleground states," said Hancock. "So I think (Harris' handlers) trying to figure out how they can correct that issue. I don't know how successful it's going to be in the long run."
"The sad reality is that Kamala Harris is not a good candidate. When she ran for president in 2020, she didn't even make it to Iowa."
Kelley, a longtime Democratic strategist, disagreed with Hancock and gave his take on Harris.
"The reality is when she came in, she took this race from being a five to six point loser to a tie," said Kelley. "She's outdrawing 'crowd sizes' to Donald Trump and she is out espousing policies, not concepts of policies, but actually pointing to what it is that she is going to do."
"Look I think for a number of reasons, some people will never embrace Kamala Harris and that she is offering articulate well thought out positions because it doesn't fit the narrative that they have as it relates to her for whatever reason. I think she is a great candidate, she's doing fine and this going to be a close race."
Kelley does agree with Hancock that the momentum has shifted to Trump at the moment, but the focus in the last couple weeks from Harris has to be what Hancock and Kelley have been stressing the last two weeks: pulling voters out.
