Jen O’Malley Dillon emails the staff and says Still Blue Wall Hope

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris attend an election night campaign watch party on the campus of Howard University in Washington on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.

AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Jen O’Malley Dillonthe Vice President’s campaign manager Kamala Harrisemailed a memo to staff late Tuesday night, urging them to get some sleep and expressing optimism about the “Blue Wall” states that have yet to be declared.

When the polls closed on Election Day and the results were announced, predictably red states called for former presidents Donald Trump and the predictably blue states were drafted for vice president Kamala Harris. Decision Desk headquarters called both Georgia And North Carolina for Trump, but several other media outlets kept their powder dry in making a projection.

The New York Times live election needle went live shortly after 8:00 PM ET, project a likely Trump victory. Other forecasters also leaned toward Trump, including Nate Silver. Yet a number of important states remain undetermined similar patterns have emerged in the recent elections, which require counting to continue through the night – possibly even for days.

That was the message O’Malley Dillon tried to emphasize in her email to the entire staff, according to multiple media reports about its contents.

The text of the email:

Topic: What we see so far

Team, With polls closing across the country, I wanted to give everyone an update on what we’re seeing. As we’ve known all along, this is a paper-thin breed. Thanks to this amazing team, we saw an incredible turnout in the Battleground States, and the proximity to the race is exactly what we prepared for.

While we’re still seeing data trickling in from the Sun Belt states, we’ve known all along that our clearest path to 270 electoral votes is through the Blue Wall states. And we feel good about what we see.

• In Pennsylvania, we outperformed turnout expectations in Philadelphia, and also outperformed our early voting expectations in Bucks County. We don’t have election results from Philadelphia, but we do know that we outperformed turnout expectations there, and that we saw particularly high turnout in places with large nonwhite and student populations. We expect higher turnout in Philadelphia than in 2020. Outside of Philadelphia, we currently have limited data on turnout and support, but what we do have is consistent with our expectations. We’re waiting for more results (just like everyone else!) and hope to get more information in the coming hours.

• In Michigan, we are waiting for a significant number of votes. The city of Detroit won’t be announced until around midnight, but we saw strong turnout there during early voting and Election Day. Other results in Michigan are harder to analyze because results come in more piecemeal than elsewhere.

• In Wisconsin, we know there are significant votes remaining in Dane and Milwaukee counties, and we see signs of strong performance in WOW counties, where we have partial data. We don’t expect full results from Wisconsin until tomorrow morning between 3:00 and 5:00 am.

Polls just closed in Nevada and Arizona, so as expected it will be a while before we have more information from either
states.

We’ve been saying for weeks that this race might not happen tonight. Those of you who were there in 2020 know this well: It takes time for all the votes to be counted – and all the votes will be counted. This is how our system works. What we do know is that this race will only be shown in the early morning hours.

We will keep you all updated as we get more information. This is what we were built for, so let’s finish what’s ahead tonight, get some sleep and prepare to finish strong tomorrow.

JOD

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