Future Forward, the top super PAC backing Vice President Kamala Harris, is advising Democrats to broaden their messaging strategies in the final phases of the campaign. The PAC shared in a recent email that its internal testing found messages focused solely on former President Donald Trump’s character and labeling him as a fascist to be less effective. Instead, they are encouraging a shift towards other more persuasive talking points.

“Attacking Trump’s Fascism Is Not That Persuasive,” declared a bolded line in the regularly distributed email known as Doppler. Another line stated, “‘Trump Is Exhausted’ Isn’t Working.”

“Purely negative attacks on Trump’s character are less effective than contrast messages that include positive details about Kamala Harris’s plans to address the needs of everyday Americans,” the email continued, according to The New York Times.

Chauncey McLean, the president of Future Forward, provided a rare clarification to The Times regarding the contents of the Doppler email. “Don’t over-read this,” he advised. “This is just one of our regular emails sharing testing results from thousands of pieces of earned and social media content. It shows people that the most effective way of using Trump’s words and behavior is tying them to consequences in voters’ lives. That’s what Kamala Harris does every day by comparing her to-do list with his enemies list, for example.”

In an interview with The Times last week, John Kelly, the Trump White House’s longest-serving chief of staff, said that he believed that the former president met the definition of a fascist.

Kelly said that based on his experience, Trump met the definition of a “fascist.”

In response to a question about whether he thought Mr. Trump was a fascist, Mr. Kelly first read aloud a definition of fascism that he had found online.

“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” he said.

During CNN’s presidential town hall with Harris the next day, Harris doubled down on the sentiment. Anderson Cooper asked, “You’ve quoted General Milley calling Donald Trump a fascist. You yourself have not used that word to describe him. Let me ask you tonight, do you think Donald Trump is a fascist?”

“Yes, I do. Yes, I do,” Harris said. “And I also believe that the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted.”

In her most widely shown ad last week, Harris starts with a warning about Trump “ignoring all checks that rein in a president’s power,” then pivots to other issues. Her campaign has invested over $10 million in a 30- and 60-second ad focusing on Trump’s “handpicked” advisers who caution against him. The ad includes a line: “Take it from the people who knew him best.”

Despite the investment, the ad performed modestly in Future Forward’s testing, as revealed by The Times and shared with Democratic allies. Voter response to the ad resulted in just a 0.7 percentage point shift in the race between Harris and Trump, significantly less than the 2 percentage points typically seen with more effective ads.

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