Hours after his campaign sent an email to fellow Republicans that his party is in danger of losing the presidential election, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office is saying the email is not about Trump. Rather, Johnson’s spokesperson says the email is about helping Fourth Congressional District representative craft a plan to help the GOP sink Harris’s presidential bid.
"Fellow Conservative, (w)e can’t deny it any longer: Kamala Harris is SURGING in the polls," Johnson (R-Benton) wrote in the email paid for by Mike Johnson for Louisiana. "And if we don’t change our strategy NOW, we could be referring to her as 'President' next year."
Greg Steele, Speaker Johnson’s political communications director, said Johnson is not “sounding an alarm” regarding the Trump Campaign. He also notes that Trump is not mentioned in either the email or the survey attached to it.
“Speaker Johnson's campaign is asking supporters to help build the Speaker's updated strategy to define the Democrats' new candidate, VP Kamala Harris, as well as raise the resources needed to defeat Democrats' up and down the ballot in November,” Steele said in an email. “This month, Speaker Johnson is in top swing districts across 20 states from coast to coast as he works closely with President Trump to grow the House majority, flip the Senate, and win the White House.”
Pollster Ron Faucheaux, however, believes Republicans should be concerned about Trump losing his bid to return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
"I think that sense has slowly developed of the last several weeks because the polls are continuing to show Kamala Harris's position against Donald Trump has been slowly improving," Ron Faucheaux said, noting that the latest round of polls shows Harris with a slight lead over Trump. "I think he's trying to get the Republican Party and Donald Trump and Trump's campaign activated to deal with this challenge," Faucheaux said.
Faucheaux says Trump and his inner circle need to change their campaign tactics--specifically, staying on script--if they want any hope of winning back the White House.
"The Republicans in Washington have been urging the Trump campaign for at least a week or two now to change their tact, to go after Kamala Harris and the Democrats on issues and policy issues to make her a symbol of the status quo of the Biden Administration and to push the Harris/Walz ticket far to the left," Faucheaux said. "He tends to get easily distracted on other things, so I think Republicans around the country are increasingly concerned about this."