The study tagged 265 quotes to the candidacy theme, from 51 voices across 71 videos that drew 36M views. This is the most right-leaning of the study’s six most-quoted themes. Among quotes with a known political leaning, 43% came from Far Right voices, more than any other group. Megyn Kelly alone contributed 37 quotes, followed by Pod Save America and BlazeTV.

The two sides blame different things. The largest sub-theme, Harris’s own candidacy (106 quotes), covers her record, her interviews and her debate answers, and most of its quotes with a known leaning come from the Far Right. The sub-theme on the nomination process is the reverse, with most of its quotes from Left and Center voices. A guest on Politically Speaking said, “we didn’t have a serious primary process,” and that state party members were told Biden was the candidate with no discussion. BIG Media argued that a proper primary would have given Harris more than a short runway.

Timing comes up often. The same Politically Speaking guest said “that June 27th debate changed everything.” The nomination-process sub-theme holds 50 quotes, and a separate sub-theme on Biden’s candidacy holds 39.

Running as the incumbent

Several voices argue that the candidate was always going to carry the administration’s record. Last Week Tonight noted that around the world, “voters have thrown out incumbent governments due to higher prices.” The American Idea Podcast called 2024 “a vote against the incumbent party,” with Harris as the incumbent vice president. On Pod Save America, hosts asked what Harris could have said to overcome “that weight of incumbency” when voters did not trust Democrats in the first place.

Videos on this theme had an engagement rate of 3.2%, the highest of the six most-quoted themes.