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The loss of the Electoral College — which places a distorting emphasis on campaigning in the so-called swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Nevada — would have greatly reshaped the 2024 race and allowed Harris and Walz to lean into shoring up support in Democratic bastions like New York, Illinois and California. Their doing so would, in turn, have prompted Trump and Vance to devote their energies to large red states like Texas, Florida and other southern strongholds. Democrats like Harris adviser David Plouffe have taken to complaining in the wake of her defeat that it is becoming increasingly difficult for their presidential candidates to win battleground states because of the conflict between the centrist arguments they need to make to uncommitted or conservative-leaning voters and the more progressive policies the party’s base expects them to advocate for during the primaries. “It’s always worth reminding people: It’s really hard for Democrats to win battleground states, OK?” Plouffe told Pod Save America last month. “Let’s look at Pennsylvania: 25 percent of the electorate is liberal, roughly, 34 percent is conservative,” he explained. “So in every battleground state, there’s more conservatives than liberals.”