Following Vice President Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential election loss, a senior campaign advisor has revealed that internal polling never projected a victory against Donald Trump, contradicting information given to high-dollar donors. Lindy Li, a DNC National Finance Committee member and Harris campaign fundraiser, told Fox News Digital, "We were definitely told she had a shot, even more than a shot. We were told Pennsylvania looked promising and that we'd win 3-4 swing states. We were even told we were going to win Iowa on election night." This starkly contrasts with the post-election analysis offered by Harris's senior advisor, David Plouffe, on the "Pod Save America" podcast.

Plouffe attributed Harris's loss to electoral vulnerabilities in key battleground states. He stated, "Public polls in late September and early October showed leads that we never saw internally." Plouffe, along with other senior aides Jen O'Malley Dillon, Stephanie Cutter, and Quentin Fulks, appeared on the podcast to discuss the reasons behind the campaign's defeat. While the top advisors were aware of the less optimistic internal polling, this information was apparently not shared with fundraisers like Li. Li emphasized that withholding such crucial information from donors is highly unusual, stating, "I've been involved in fundraising for over a decade, and this is absolutely not standard practice." She anticipates that rebuilding donor trust will be a challenge due to the discrepancy between the campaign's public pronouncements and the internal reality. "Some casual donors will be incredibly skeptical going forward," she admitted.

Li also pointed out the surprising margin of Trump's victory, noting, "It's not just that he won, it's how decisively he won. It wasn't even close." This outcome is particularly striking given that Harris had outperformed Trump in several reputable public polls leading up to the election, a fact Plouffe acknowledged. He stated, "When Harris secured the nomination, she was trailing. We made progress and even after the debates, while we were still behind in the battleground states, it was close. I believed it was a toss-up race by the end." The revelation of the campaign's internal polling discrepancy raises questions about transparency and donor relations.