Jim Messina: Al Gore and Hillary Lost Enough Third-Party Votes Where They Lost the Election

Kate Bolduan of CNN recently interviewed Jim Messina, the campaign manager for Obama's successful 2012 re-election campaign, about third-party votes.

Here's the video:

Here's the transcript:

BOLDUAN: “This adds to kind of an overall question I wanted to ask — ask you, Jim, because there’s a lot of — there is growing concern among some about RFK Jr. Pulling votes from Joe Biden. You’ve got polls out saying Joe Biden is down in six — Trump is beating him in six of seven battleground states today. Yes, there’s a long campaign to come. Prominent Democratic strategist, not named Jim Messina, but another one, Simon Rosenberg, he’s been profiling ‘The New York Times’ saying, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’ He is not worried about Biden’s chances. He’s optimistic about Democrats winning in November. Which gets to conversations you and I have had for a long time —“

MESSINA: “Yeah.”

BOLDUAN: “— which is the so-called fear of the democratic bedwetting, that you’ve been trying to push back against for a long time. What do you see here?”

MESSINA: “Look, I think it is true that Democrats are in general, panickers. And that’s good. We’ve lived through these things. Third parties really have changed elections for us. Al Gore in 2000, and Hillary Clinton in 2016, lost enough third party votes where they lost the election. So it is a real concern. But if you just look at the underlying metrics, don’t look at polls, because you and I know polls are usually wrong, look at actual electoral results in the last two years where Democrats have overperformed polls by almost 10 percent. That’s why people like Simon and I are optimistic about what’s going to happen 214 days from now.”

BOLDUAN: “Do you see how zen he is. There’s so many people that are not zen, not nearly as zen as Jim Messina. It’s good to see you, Jim. Thanks for being here.”
MESSINA: “Thank you.”

BOLDUAN: “Doug, it’s always great to have you. Thank you. John?”

Date: April 4, 2024