It wasn’t a train wreck, but it was a missed opportunity.
Supporters of former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania left the highly anticipated debate Tuesday night miffed by moderators — who they thought provided an uneven playing field — but also frustrated with their own candidate, who some acknowledged was less effective than Vice President Kamala Harris at reaching out to undecided voters.
“The fear for Republicans last night in Delaware County is that she did talk to a lot of those undecided folks more effectively,” said Frank Agovino, GOP chair in the Philadelphia suburban county.
Despite all the watch parties that gathering like-minded voters to see the big showdown, the real target audience was the roughly 3% of voters sprinkled across swing states like Pennsylvania who tuned in from home or caught the clips on their phones.
While it’s unclear whether the debate will shift a stubbornly deadlocked electorate, Harris made a focused play for the center and avoided much scrutiny of her career or issues she’s flip-flopped on. The former president, meanwhile, was goaded into a night filled with his own Trumpian outbursts instead of moments defining Harris.
“She had him on his heels and he was just defending his record,” Agovino said. “He missed an opportunity because she’s the incumbent.”
In the suburbs, he argued, Republican women are turning against the party — and Trump’s debate performance didn’t help convince them to stay.
“I’m afraid sometimes that the Trump campaign looks at the collar counties like we’re Elk County or some other county where it’s 80% Republican,” he said.
GOP strategist Charlie Gerow said Trump’s best moment of the night was his closing, when he asked Harris why she hadn’t implemented some of the plans she outlined on stage given that she’s been in office three and a half years. The problem with your best moment coming last, though, is that fewer people see it. And debates hinge on repetition.
“It’s like an opening statement to a jury — you lay out the case and then you reinforce it. And he seemed to be hitting on too many points rather than singularly going after the fact she has flip flopped on nearly every single position,” Gerow said.
The performance confused some Trump allies, who noted the Harris campaign had signaled she would try to bait the former president on topics that might unleash the more pugnacious Trump. And the Trump campaign had indicated its strategy would be for Trump to be restrained and stick to issues like the economy and immigration.
“By his handlers telling him he had to be so nice and he couldn’t be so sharp-edged, he didn’t force her to explain her positions either,” Gerow said.
Agovinocalled Trump’s pivots to topics like student loans and false claims that immigrants were eating pets “cringing,” but typical of the former president’s style.
“He didn’t know what he was talking about,” he said, noting that he hoped Trump supporters could see past the “warts” of the debate to his strength on issues like the economy and foreign policy.
Guy Ciarrocchi, a Chester County-based conservative commentator, said the opening question focused on inflation packed more punch than the back and forths that followed, given polls show how crucial the economy is to voters.
“Inflation is out of control and the economy is weak. Trump acknowledged it and reminded everyone of his economy. Harris missed the chance to explain what she had done wrong or how she’s going to fix it,” Ciarrocchi said. “That seems to have made the most impact.”
Christian Nascimento, chair of the Montgomery County Republican Party, said he felt Trump largely stayed on message, though he wished he would have been more aggressive about Harris’ past positions.
“The key takeaway was I don’t think that the vice president really moved the needle on defining herself and separating herself from the Biden policies,” he said.
But whether the debate shifts a race that has been stubbornly stuck in a deadlock is unclear. And even Republicans criticizing Trump’s performance Wednesday morning said they were skeptical it would move the needle.
“I don’t think it changed any minds,” Gerow said. ” Donald Trump is someone voters know a lot about. They don’t know much about Kamala Harris and last night was her opportunity to say, ‘Here I am and this is what I’m about and I don’t think she did particularly well in defining that.”
Despite a rocky night, some Pennsylvania Republicans want Trump to debate Harris again. Harris’ campaign has already issued the invitation, which Trump has not yet accepted.
Montgomery County Commissioner Tom DiBello was highly critical of the ABC moderators for fact checking Trump and asking about issues like Jan. 6 and the Affordable Care Act. He suggested a future debate featuring moderators from several networks, including Fox News and CNN.
“I think Trump will come back and he’ll focus more on her past policies or positions on policies,” he said.