Democratic Strategist James Carville Says Kamala Harris Will Win During IOP Forum

Top Democratic strategist James Carville and Al Hunt, a longtime political journalist, said they believe Vice President Kamala Harris will win the 2024 presidential election during a Harvard Institute of Politics forum on Friday, just four days before Election Day.

The event, titled “Politics War Room” after a podcast co-hosted by Carville and Hunt, was moderated by IOP Director Setti D. Warren and Cynthia S. Garcia ’27. Carville most notably served as campaign manager for Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential bid.

Carville said during the forum that Harris will win because she is climbing ahead of former President Donald Trump in certain polls and her coalition “goes from Dick Cheney to AOC,” referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a top progressive in Congress.

“She has an infinitely far superior surrogate operation,” Carville said. “She has both Obamas, both Clintons, Beyoncé, LeBron.”

“He’s got what, Scott Baio? Hulk Hogan?” Carville added.

Hunt, who spent his career as a journalist for Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, said he believed Harris was smart for not playing the “identity card” as part of her campaign strategy.

“It’s really not hard to figure out she’s a Black woman,” Hunt said. “I’m sure there will be people who won’t vote for her because she’s Black, but I don’t think very many of those people were going to vote for her anyway.”

Carville said he disagreed with the pundits who believe the average voter cares the most about issues directly impacting them like inflation.

“I think national law is actually more important than the price of eggs, because eggs can go up and down but peace, if you lose it, you might not ever get it back,” Carville said.

Hunt said 2024 is “the most important election of our lifetime” because he believes a second Trump presidency would be dangerous for democracy.

“Almost everyone who I respect considers Trump a fascist,” Hunt said. “Don’t buy into this notion that, ‘Well, that’s just Trump talking.’”

“He plans revenge. He plans retribution,” Hunt added. “There will be people who will be indicted.”

During the event, Carville also addressed how to persuade apolitical people to pay attention to this year’s election, saying that everyone should care about politics.

“The power that matters the most is political power,” he said. “Political power, at the end of the day, affects more lives, more directly, in more ways — by a factor of 100 — than any other kind of power.”

“Politics is the single most relevant thing, by far, that a human being can be involved in,” Carville added.

Many attendees of the event said they agreed with the perspectives shared by the panelists.

Tejas S. Billa ’28 said Carville possessed “common sense” and that there’s a lot that the Democratic Party can learn from him.

Billa added that Carville is “very confident in what he says, especially regarding who is going to win.”

In an interview with The Crimson, Carville encouraged young people to get involved in politics.

“Just go do it,” he said. “Once you show that you have a hunger and desire, you want to learn and you absorb things, then you’ll be fine.”

Carville also shared his favorite piece of wisdom from his former boss, Bill Clinton: “Two things: study hard, and meet as many people as you can that are not like you.”

“That’s the best advice I’ve ever heard in my life,” Carville added.