Podcast / See How They Run / Oct 26, 2024

Will 2024 All Come Down to the Ground Game?

On this episode of See How They Run, Jeet Heer and Swing Left’s Yasmin Radjy discuss the importance of door-knocking in the final days of the presidential race.

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Will 2024 All Come Down to the Ground Game? | See How They Run
byThe Nation Magazine

On this episode of See How They Run, D.D. Guttenplan is joined by Jeet Heer and Swing Left’s Yasmin Radjy discuss the importance of getting out the vote.

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Women go door-to-door canvassing, calling for voting for Donald Trump in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, on October 12, 2024.

Women go door-to-door canvassing, calling for voting for Donald Trump in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, on October 12, 2024.

(The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images)

On these final days of the race, the chance for either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump to persuade undecided voters will have narrowed to almost nothing. In such a razor-thin election, which party reaches more of its core voters, and gets more of them to actually cast a ballot, could decide the next presidency more than any ad, speech, or scandal. That’s why there’s been so much focus in 2024 on the topic of this episode: the ground game.

Anxious Democrats are hoping that their get-out-the-vote operation, which they often describe as much more sophisticated than Trump’s, will give them the edge. But how much better is that operation, really? Can it make that much of a difference? And what does it even mean to have a good ground game? To discuss all of this on See How They Run, we’re joined by Yasmin Radjy, executive director of the progressive campaigning organization Swing Left, and The Nation’s own Jeet Heer, who has been following every twist and turn of this election for us.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

US Resumes Iran War, DRC Ebola Outbreak Surges, Burnham Becomes UK PM / American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Canada’s wildfires rage on, so Danny and Derek are here to be your breath of fresh air. This week’s news: In Iran, the US reimposes its blockade and intensifies strikes (2:04), Trump announces and then backs off a Hormuz toll (5:44), and the White House issues threats of further escalation (9:17); in Yemen, the Houthis/Ansar Allah and Saudi Arabia trade strikes (13:37) as the former might become involved in the Iran war (16:28); Lebanese-Israeli talks talks wrap up, but progress is uncertain (17:45); in Israel, a date is set for an election (19:18), plus the ethnic cleansing in Gaza is given a new euphemism (21:15); Southeast Asian countries appear to normalize relations with Myanmar (22:23); the US touts a “new” peace plan for Sudan (24:13); the Ebola outbreak in the DRC continues and may be much larger than official figures suggest (26:35); Zelenskyy replaces Ukraine’s prime minister and defense minister (29:43); Andy Burnham is to become the UK’s PM (33:32), plus a UK-EU deal on Gibraltar is reached (35:22); Marco Rubio is reportedly running Venezuela as a US viceroy (36:34); the US is attempting to destroy the ICC (38:35) as it also takes aim at “left-wing terrorism” (41:23); and a Pew poll finds China more popular than the US for the first time (43:01).

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D.D. Guttenplan

D.D. Guttenplan is a special correspondent for The Nation and the former host of The Nation Podcast. He served as editor of the magazine from 2019 to 2025 and, prior to that, as an editor at large and London correspondent. His books include American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone, The Nation: A Biography, and The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority.

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