Threats to election workers

Tom Perez worries about possible threats to election workers

The former head of the DNC says Harris is doing a good job "welcoming everybody into the tent."

Shia Kapos

We’re chatting with lawmakers, former elected officials and political operatives every day between now and Nov. 5 to get a better sense of where people’s heads are at — and what their candidate needs to be doing better.

Today we talked to Tom Perez, the White House adviser and former labor secretary who, like other administration officials who have spoken to POLITICO, was speaking in his personal capacity after appearing at a recent political event in Chicago.

Here’s our chat, edited for length and clarity:  

What are you most worried about? 

I am most worried about the continued threats to election workers and efforts to undermine public confidence in our election results. In 2020, if everyone were honest, we should have had a bipartisan celebration of record turnout — in a pandemic no less. And that record turnout resulted in a victory for President Biden. Instead, we had an insurrection.

A record turnout enabled Joe Biden to win, and it also enabled Republicans to gain 13 seats in the House. They didn’t win those seats because they cheated. Their voters turned out. So record turnout ended up helping Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

What is the Trump campaign doing well? 

Scaring the bejesus out of people.

What should the Harris campaign be doing?

The Harris campaign should continue focusing on the future and putting hope on the ballot. We have a lot of people who lost loved ones in the pandemic. We have a lot of people who lost jobs in the pandemic. And, you know, we see a lot of progress. At the same time, we have more work to do, and I think the vice president and Gov. Walz have done a great job of outlining their vision for an America that works for everyone.

When she talks about “for the people” she's talking about “for every person,” not simply people at the top of the income scale. They’ve done a very good job of welcoming everybody into the tent.