WHO IS SAMUEL ANTHONY GRECO? Political tourist.

First posted on this blog June 1, 2024 and lightly  updated to add "Political Tourist.":

Political tourist SAMUEL ANTHONY GRECO lived in Delray Beach (South Florida).  He and his wife purchased a home in St. Johns County on February 9, 2024, recording the deed on February 22, 2024,  That same day he filed to run for Florida House seat 19.  (There is no durational residency requirement for Florida legislature, unlike local offices here in St. Johns County and its two cities).

SAMUEL ANTHONY GRECO earned both a law degree and an international relations degree from the School of Foreign Service from Georgetown University (my undergraduate alma mater, where he was reportedly a member of a secret society).  

Mr. GRECO's putative "conservative" campaign for Florida House 19, the seat now encumbered by Speaker of the House PAUL RENNER, sounds like he's fluent in flatulent feculent GQP babytalk.  Does Mr. GRECO lack depth, kindness, moral reasoning and any sensitivity or research on local issues?  

In his website, Mr. GRECO emits cynical strawman arguments and drivel -- unsophisticated, uneducated, unintelligent pompous poppycock.  Mr. GRECO's oleaginous surly slogans are apparently intended for "the Booboisie" (as the "sage of Baltimore," Henry Louis Mencken would say).  

Lots of red meat for haters, pledging to:

"move the region forward and defeat the radical (sic) left." 

"fight back against the liberals who want to kill (sic) that dream and turn Florida into California."

Huh?

What a waste of a good education.   

Sure sounds like Kulturkampf (Justice Antonin Scalia's term for "culture war").  

Gauche goofy galumphery, Trumpery, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery, of the sordid sort popularized by DONALD JOHN TRUMP, RONALD DION DeSANTIS and their corporate funders?

Mr. GRECO's sibilant smarmy slogans and rebarbative retromingent rhetoric stink on ice, my friends. On his first website posting, this hick hack sounding hobbledehoy comes off like an emetic extremist, ranting from the bloody fatal January 6, 2021 insurrection at our United States Capitol.  Starting the day before my first class at Georgetown University, I worked in the Capitol, which insurrectionists desecrated.

To SAMUEL ANTHONY GRECO and his campaign henchmen: get a clue.

Our Nation was founded by "liberals," and most of our presidents proudly said so.  

President George Washington wrote a letter to a Jewish congregation in Newport, R.I., referring to "our liberal policy." 

President Woodrow Wilson said we must "make the world safe for democracy." 

President John F. Kennedy said "we must make the world safe for diversity."

Some of my Georgetown SFS professors would have laughed at SAMUEL GRECO's cold calculation and arrogant "Mr. Know It All" presumptuousness.  (My grandmother said "Some people want to be somebody.  Anybody!")

Why would a well-educated Georgetown SFS and law graduate want to sound like a honkey-tonk version of PATRICK J. BUCHANAN, GEORGE CORLEY WALLACE and DONALD JOHN TRUMP? 

Who advised him to forget his education and ethics, and sound like a nut?

In the inimitable, immortal words of the late conservative Democratic Georgia U.S. Senator, Herman Talmadge, "NUTS VOTE."

Rather than learning about urgent local issues (like deforestation, clearcutting, corruption, overdevelopment, lack of affordable housing), why doth this callow putative "conservative" piss and moan? 

Why does SAMUEL ANTHONY GRECO bark at the moon and gratuitously prevaricate, exaggerate and ululate? Who advised him to cut and paste pitiful putrid pejorative one-liner?  Is he trying to ape loudmouth louche lugubrious GQP goobers, like disgraced ex-President DONALD JOHN TRUMP and Boy Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS?  Boring. Predictable. Despicable.  

On May 24, 2024, I reached out to Mr. GRECO about real priorities here, like the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, first proposed in 1939 by our St. Augustine Mayor, two United States Senators and our Congressman.  

Waiting for a response.  Political tourist SAMUEL ANTHONY GRECO stiffs others on interviews, today, including Anne Schindler and WJCT First Coast Connect.  Wonder why?

Exactly what is Mr. GRECO for?  

You tell me.  

Isn he an election denier?

What are Mr. GRECO's thoughts on environmental protection?

What are Mr. GRECO's thoughts on 1998 gerrymandering of St. Johns County Commission?  What are his thoughts about one-party rule and corruption, in a place where one County Commission Chair went to federal prison for bribery?

Does he understand that the military oath he took has no expiration date?

Where does SAMUEL ANTHONY GRECO stand on clearcutting and overdevelopment and book banning?

Mr. GRECO has been endorsed by Speaker of the House PAUL RENNER, et al., and is raising lots of  money.  When you have no ideals, no knowledge of local issues, and desire to attract haters with cliche by the carload, it's all about the money, right?

GRECO's opponent is Captain Adam Morley: Adam and his wife grew up here and share our values: he's concerned about pollution, home rule and overdevelopment.  Good interview by Anne Schindler on WJCT's First Coast Connect on Monday, October 21, 2024.

From Mr. GRECO's campaign website:

Meet Sam

Sam Greco is a conservative Republican candidate for the Florida House of Representatives District 19. He served his country as an active duty JAG officer in the United States Navy from 2019-2024, and was most recently based at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, FL. During his time on active duty, Sam had the opportunity to provide legal services in a variety of environments, including underway aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS West Virginia. Sam continues to serve in the United States Navy Reserves today.

Sam married his wife Elanda in 2023. As a young child, Elanda and her family legally immigrated to the United States following the fall of communism in Europe, where they witnessed destructive socialist policies first-hand. Sam's family has lived in Florida for nearly 100 years. His great-grandfather ran the barbershop at Coral Gables’ Biltmore Hotel, where Sam and Elanda got married. Sam’s maternal grandfather was a landowner in Flagler County, and his paternal grandfather graduated with one of the first post-war classes from the University of Miami.

Sam is blessed to live and work in a state where the American Dream remains alive, and he’s running for the Florida House of Representatives to fight back against the liberals who want to kill that dream and turn Florida into California. Sam is pro-life, pro Second Amendment, and pro freedom. He’s a conservative fighter who believes that Northeast Florida is the best place in America to raise a family, start a business, and buy a home, and he wants to keep it that way. At this critical time, the First Coast needs a military officer like Sam Greco to move the region forward and defeat the radical left. In Tallahassee, Sam will continue his mission of service, deliver for Flagler and St. Johns Counties, and keep Florida free.

Naval Prosecutor. Conservative Fighter.

CONNECT:

CONTACT US:

info@samgrecoforflorida.com

PO Box: 840134

St. Augustine, FL 32080

PAID BY SAM GRECO, REPUBLICAN, FOR STATE HOUSE DISTRICT 19

Use of Sam Greco's military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement by the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.

Great interview with Captain Adam Morley by Anne Schinldler on WJCT October 21, 2024

I support Captain Adam Morley for District 19 Florida State Representative. He was intervied by First Coast Connect host Anne Schindler on Monday, October 21, 2024. Adam is the man to represent the good people of Southern St. Johns County in the Florida House. 

Adam's opponent is a political tourist. He's from Delray Beach, in South Florida -- the imported corporate cat's paw has told local Republicans that he adores our term-limited Senator-developer TRAVIS JAMES HUTSON. The other-directed corporate candidate just bought a house here in February 2024.  Lacking authenticity, that man ducked everyone's interview requests, including WJCT's First Coast Connect (and mine).  https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2024/05/who-is-samuel-anthony-greco.html

Early Voting Starts Monday, October 21, 2024 at 8 AM

From Ed Slavin: I would be honored to have your vote for Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County, Seat 1. Election Day is November 5,  2024. You can vote by mail, or vote during early voting.  Early in-person voting commences Monday, October 21, 2024 at 8 AM at these locations:

Early voting locations

• Ponte Vedra Branch Library, 101 Library Blvd., Ponte Vedra Beach
• Julington Creek Annex, 725 Flora Branch Blvd., St. Johns
• RiverHouse at RiverTown, 140 Landing St., St. Johns
• The Cafe at World Golf Hall of Fame, 1 World Golf Place, St. Augustine
• Supervisor of Elections Office, 4455 Ave. A, #101, St. Augustine
• Solomon Calhoun Comm Center, 1300 Duval St., St. Augustine
• St. Augustine Beach City Hall, 2200 A1A South, St. Augustine
• Southeast Branch Library, 6670 U.S. 1 S., St. Augustine
• W.E. Harris Community Center, 400 E. Harris St., Hastings

From St. Augustine Record:

Nine early voting locations will be open every day for 13 days — including two Saturdays and one Sunday — from 8 a.m. to 6 pm.

Registered St. Johns County voters can cast their ballots at any of the nine voting locations during the early voting period. Voters must present a current and valid photo and signature ID. Voter information cards are not a valid form of identification. Go to https://www.votesjc.gov to learn more about acceptable forms of identification.

October 24 is the deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot. Vote-by-mail ballotsare available at votesjc.gov. Secure ballot intake stations for completed vote-by-mail ballots are available at all early voting locations between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Vote-by-mail ballots will also be accepted at the Supervisor of Elections Office, Monday through Friday, during business hours. All vote-by-mail ballots must be received at the Supervisor of Elections Office by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5, to be counted.

Postage for sending vote-by-mail ballots through the mail requires two first-class stamps or two forever stamps. Vote-by-mail ballots cannot be returned to Election Day precincts.

St. Johns County residents can check their registration status, update voter records, view sample ballots, request a vote-by-mail ballot at votesjc.gov. Voters needing to update their address are encouraged to do so before Election Day to ensure that you are sent to the correct voting location.

Postage for sending vote-by-mail ballots through the mail requires two first-class stamps or two forever stamps. Vote-by-mail ballots cannot be returned to Election Day precincts.

St. Johns County residents can check their registration status, update voter records, view sample ballots, request a vote-by-mail ballot at votesjc.gov. Voters needing to update their address are encouraged to do so before Election Day to ensure that you are sent to the correct voting location.

Because voter turnout is expected to be high for the 2024 General Election, the Supervisor of Elections is encouraging voters to study and mark the two-page sample ballots before heading to the polls or request a vote-by-mail ballot and vote from the comfort of home.

Sample ballots are available online at votesjc.gov. Sample ballots will be mailed to St. Johns County registered voters who did not request a vote-by-mail ballot.

The Supervisor of Elections Office can be reached at 904-823-2238 or click herefor additional information.

Ed Slavin for Mosquito Control Board -- my response to WJCT/Jacksonville Today questionnaire

Here are my updated responses to the WJCT (NPR affiliate) and Jacksonville Today questions on my candidacy to be a Commissioner of the Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County (AMCD), Seat 1:

Age

67

Background

A summary of the candidate's background

I've lived in St. Johns County since November 5, 1999 -- 25 years ago. First visited in 1992. Fell in love with St. Augustine, its history and nature. "We, the People" love this magical place and I have worked to preserve, protect and defend our democracy, our precious historic and environmental heritage. Let me use my problem-solving abilities to protect the people of St. Johns County. In 2006-2007, I helped persuade the five person board of our independent mosquito district to cancel an unwise, illegal, no-bid, supposedly "sole source" luxury $1.8 million helicopter contract with Bell Helicopter. It took nine months of effort. Finally, after replacing several attorneys, our mosquito control district commissioners listened. We, the People in St. Johns County were finally heard and heeded. AMCD won a full refund of our 10% deposit to the helicopter manufacturer. My dad told me, as JFK's dad told him, that you have to stand up to people with power, or else they walk all over you. At age 26, as Appalachian Observer Editor, I won Department of Energy declassification of our frail planet's largest-ever mercury pollution event (Oak Ridge, Tenn. Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant), a national scandal, triggering nationwide cleanups; our Appalachian Observer newspaper was recommended for a Pulitzer Prize by Anderson County DA. Clerked for USDOL Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt and Judge Charles Rippey. Intern and junior staffer for Senators Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart & Jim Sasser. B.S.F.S., Georgetown University.; J.D., Memphis State U. (now University of Memphis). Advocate for worker rights. Your watchdog, termed an "environmental hero" by FOLIO WEEKLY (after reporting City of St. Augustine's illegal dumping of 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated material from a landfill in a lake). Helped encourage state and federal governments to remedy the City's illegal dumping and illegal sewage effluent pollution in our saltwater marsh). Shall we ask questions, demand answers & expect democracy? It is up to us.

Campaign website

www.edslavin.com

Your plans

How do you believe the role on the Anastasia Mosquito Control District can best be used to benefit the residents of St. Johns County?

In 1943, my dad was infected with malaria when he was bitten by a mosquito in Sicily, as an 82nd ABN DIVN paratrooper: he recovered in Army hospitals, but suffered lifetime effects. The mosquito is the most dangerous animal on Earth, killing some 600,000 people annually. Controlling fatal disease-spreading mosquitoes requires both good government and good science -- asking questions, getting answers and expecting democracy. Let's help make our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County work wisely and safely. To protect our way of life, we must assure that AMCD will practice good science and safeguard our tax dollars, protecting public health, the environment and public funds, advancing research and education while protecting scientific integrity and employee whistleblower rights; We must safeguard the independence of AMCD, an independent scientific and technical organization. We must assure that "whistleblower" ethical employees are heard and heeded whenever they raise concerns. Let's resist any further effort by the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners to take over independent AMCD, as was attempted by misguided leaders, misled by a longtime former SJC County Administrator, fired in 2019. I opposed hiring of any more AMCD lawyers without Florida Bar Journal ads and thorough statewide searches and vetting. I oppose evergreen audit contracts. I oppose arbitration clauses in AMCD contracts: the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist said that the Seventh Amendment right to civil jury trial ia "bulwark against oppression." Yes, I've been a watchdog of mosquito control environmental protection and spending since December 2006.

Why?

Why should voters choose you?

I am the only child of well-read working class parents. My dad was an 82nd ABN DIVN paratrooper who helped liberate the first French town from Nazi oppression, taking it back before the sun rose on June 6, 1944. I am blessed that my parents, my teachers and my mentors taught me to ask questions, demand answers and expect democracy. I support strong effective mosquito control measures, advancing research and education while protecting scientific integrity and employee whistleblower rights; safeguarding the independence of AMCD. AMCD must remain an independent scientific and technical organization; protecting public health, the environment and public funds. Let's assure that "whistleblower" ethical employees are heard and heeded whenever they raise concerns. Let's resist any further effort by the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners to take over independent AMCD, as attempted by a misguided former SJC County Administrator. I oppose allowing arbitration clauses in AMCD and other government contracts, Yes, I've been a watchdog of mosquito control environmental protection and spending since December 2006. Yes, it is up to us to do this right.

Biggest issue

What is the biggest issue the Mosquito Control District faces? How do you propose the district combat it?

Overdevelopment, flooding and climate change. The University of Florida's Institute on Emerging Pathogens identifies "development" as one of three (3) co-factors to the growth of mosquito-borne diseases in Florida. Mosquito control issues must be considered in St. Johns County's comprehensive plan and development application approvals. Is our St. Johns County government rubber-stamping overdevelopment? You tell me. Some 33 neighborhoods suffer from excessive flooding, much of it due to poor planning, with some approved by a titled County Engineer, who was not a licensed engineer. Mosquito control scientists must be heard and heeded on the effects on public health of sticking large subdivisions adjoining swamps. Too often, governments chill and retaliate against free speech. Too often, people in government are discouraged from speaking out and doing their jobs "too well." Let's base public policy on good science and protect our free speech rights as Americans.  As the late U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy said, "If our Constitution had followed the style of Saint Paul, the First Amendment might have concluded--"But the greatest of these is speech." In the darkness of tyranny, this is the key to the sunlight. If it is granted, all doors open. If it is withheld, none."  Mosquito control employee free speech rights must be protected and not neglected: no illegal gag orders.  We're protecting public health and  combatting deadly mosquito-borne diseases, using natural and chemical pesticides and three helicopters.  Let's do it right, with good science and sound management. I would be honored to have your vote. 

Thank you.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin

Box 3084

St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084

www.edslavin.com

http://www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

http://www.staugustgreen.com

(904) 377-4998

Ed Slavin for Mosquito Control Board: My response to WJXT (News4Jax questions)

My response to WJXT (News4Jax) questions re: my candidacy for Anastasia Mosquito Control Board of St. Johns County, Seatt 1: 

Ed Slavin

Occupation: Retired

Age: 67

Family: My parents, the late Ed and Mary Slavin, helped organize unions. Dad survived malaria in WWII (South Jersey Chapter of 82nd ABN DIVN ASSN named “CPL Edward A. Slavin Chapter” in his honor). My father got malaria in Sicily WWII as an 82nd ABN DIVN paratrooper. My parents taught me, as JFK’s parents taught him, that you have to stand up to people with power or they walk all over you. When AMCD bought a no-bid luxury $1.8 million Bell luxury jet helicopter in 2006, I counted on my mom’s advice as a former purchasing secretary at Camden County College in South Jersey. Our Mosquito Control District got a full refund of our deposit and we learned a valuable lesson about the need for frugality and competitive bidding.

Education: B.S.F.S., Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. J.D., Memphis State University Law School (now University of Memphis).

Political experience: Your watchdog, called an “environmental hero” by Folio Weekly. 

What do you see as the top three issues in this race, and how do you plan to address them?

Advancing research and education while protecting scientific integrity and free speech rights; safeguarding the independence of AMCD as an independent scientific and technical organization; protecting public health, the environment and wisely spending public funds. How? Asking questions and encouraging open, honest transparent government. 

How can you help voters in a way that others running for this office cannot? 

Long experience as a watchdog of mosquito control and environmental protection here in St. Johns County, including helping persuade AMCD Commissioners to vote 5-0 in 2007 to cancel contract for illegal, no-bid $1.8 million purchase of a luxury jet helicopter, resulting in a full refund. Longtime advocate for government accountability and protection of worker and citizen rights.

What would you hope to be remembered for accomplishing after serving in this office? 

Inspiring better informed decisionmaking on spending and on environmental, safety, health and scientific issues.

Campaign website: edslavin.com

Campaign social media: None given

Elect Ed Slavin to Anastasia Mosquito Control Board of St. Johns County, Seat 1

To St. Johns County voters: May I please have the honor of your vote -- either early, or on November 5, 2024 -- for a seat as Commissioner of the Anastasia Mosquito District of St. Johns County, Seat 1?

Here's my Q&A with the League of Women Voters:

What motivated you to run for office?

It's our money. I've been a watchdog on mosquito control since 2006. Mosquitoes could bring us the next global pandemic. We will be prepared with data, research, education, and environmentally-friendly, non-toxic natural pesticides. My dad was an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper, infected with malaria in Sicily. Dad recovered in Army hospitals, but we saw dad suffer lifetime effects. LWV's Ms. Robin Nadeau asked me to help her investigate Anastasia Mosquito Control of St. Johns County, buying a $1.8 million no-bid, luxury Bell Jet Long Ranger helicopter incapable of killing a single skeeter, not unlike buying a Porsche to use with a snowplow. We persuaded AMCD to cancel illegal, no-bid helicopter contract, saving $1.8 million in 2007.  

What do you see as the most pressing issues for this office and how do you propose to address them?
Advancing research and education while protecting scientific integrity and employee whistleblower rights; safeguarding the independence of AMCD, an independent scientific and technical organization; protecting public health, the environment and public funds. Let's assure that "whistleblower" ethical employees are heard and heeded whenever they raise concerns. Let's resist any further effort by the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners to take over independent AMCD, as attempted by former SJC County Administrator Michael Wanchick and County Commission Chairmen. I oppose allowing arbitration clauses in AMCD contracts, Yes, I've been a watchdog of mosquito control environmental protection and spending since December 2006.

What training, experience, and characteristics qualify you for this position?
Helped persuade our independent mosquito district to cancel unwise, no-bid luxury $1.8 million helicopter contract. Won declassification of our frail planet's largest-ever mercury pollution event (Oak Ridge, Tenn. Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant),triggering nationwide cleanups; recommended for Pulitzer Prize by DA. Clerked for USDOL Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt and Judge Charles Rippey. Staffer for Senators Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart & Jim Sasser. B.S.F.S., Georgetown U.; J.D., Memphis State U. Your watchdog, termed an "environmental hero" by FOLIO WEEKLY (after reporting City's illegal dumping of landfill in lake and illegal sewage effluent pollution of our saltwater marsh). Shall we ask questions, demand answers & expect democracy?

How important are environmental concerns when making decisions for the Anastasia Mosquito Control District?
Very important

Explain your answer.
Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" informs good science and use of non-toxic natural pesticides as much as possible. Amid global climate change, the next pandemic could be a mosquito-borne disease. Let's protect AMCD independence, education and applied research to protect public health and our environment. I support AMCD's leadership on natural pesticides. I once reported FEMA and AMCD to federal environmental law officials when bald eagles were exposed to organophosphate pesticides. Support AMCD working with other mosquito control districts and officials to share scientific knowledge to protect all of us "non-target species": mosquito control workers, residents, tourists, pets, horses, livestock, bees and other pollinators, flora and fauna. 

St. Johns County is growing rapidly. How does this impact the management of mosquito control?
Overdevelopment increases the expense of mosquito control and increases exposure of families to mosquitoes from wetlands. St. Johns County Commissioners, developers and their big money clout decide way too many unwise development decisions. This requires our nimble small mosquito control special taxing district to innovate, with sensitive adaptation of mosquito control techniques to protect entire new neighborhoods, which seem to spring up overnight, adjoining wetlands. Public education, applied research, sound science-based policies and non-toxic mosquito control methods, are all essential to protecting public health from mosquito-borne diseases. AMCD exists to prevent any outbreaks of deadly mosquito-borne diseases. We must do it right!

Opinion Kamala Harris’s closing argument: Donald Trump’s own words (E.J. Dionne, WaPo)

Washington Post columnist, Brookings fellow and Georgetown University Professor E.J. Dionne's column on Vice President Kamala Harris's quoting DJT to make her points about Trumpery, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery by the convicted fraudfeasor..  From The Washington Post:

Opinion 

 Kamala Harris’s closing argument: Donald Trump’s own words

If the race turns Harris’s way, it will be because she used Trump’s wild rhetoric against him.

Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns at a get-out-the-vote event on Oct. 19 in Detroit. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

By E.J. Dionne Jr.

October 20, 2024 at 4:42 p.m. EDT

DETROIT — Vice President Kamala Harris has an indispensable ally as she closes her presidential campaign. She carries messages from him nearly everywhere she goes. His name is Donald Trump.

At a United Auto Workers union hall in Lansing, Mich., on Friday, she showed video of Trump demeaning the labor of autoworkers by describing them as simply taking parts “out of a box” and putting them together — “we could have our child do it,” he claimed — and declaring his hatred of overtime pay.

On Saturday night in Atlanta, the video presentation focused on a shamefully dismissive comment by Trump about Amber Thurman, who died in 2022 after being unable to access medical care because of the state’s abortion restrictions. Trump, Harris said, was “cruel,” and “still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and suffering he has caused.”

For Republican-leaning voters who can’t stomach Trump but are reluctant to vote Democratic, she has highlighted the threat he poses to freedom and constitutional democracy. Clips of Trump describing his political opponents as “the enemy within” and threatening to use the military against them make the point more dramatically than anything a critic could say.

And if Harris is looking to back up her new ad calling Trump “unhinged, unstable, unchecked,” he provided pornographic evidence on Saturday in Latrobe, Pa., by admiring the size of golfing luminary Arnold Palmer’s penis.

Geoff Garin, a Harris campaign pollster, draws the obvious conclusion. “They don’t want him to be seen and we do,” he told me. “Our job is to put him in front of the public in a way they don’t want him there.”

For Harris, Trump’s indiscipline offers her the chance to seize back the momentum she enjoyed from three surges: her buoyant emergence after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, the success of the Democratic convention and her pummeling of Trump in their single debate. Since then, Trump has managed to shift attention to his own attacks on Harris, his dire and deceptive tirades about immigration, and voter concerns about the cost of living. The result is polling suggesting virtual ties in all seven swing states.

The vice president’s closing moves reflect the opportunities she senses and the challenges she faces. To the extent that there are undecided voters left, her major focus is on female voters — among whom she enjoys large leads and potentially more open minds — and an overlapping group of college-educated moderates and moderate conservatives.

Michigan State Rep. Jennifer Conlin, a Democrat involved in a tough reelection race in a district that marries parts of progressive Ann Arbor with conservative areas in Livingston County, hears potential for Harris when she knocks on doors outside her base. “I have a lot of Republicans who are not Trumpers,” she said in an interview. “I tell them, ‘Come to our side for a little while and we can hope for a more reasonable Republican Party in the future.’” Harris, she says, can pick up voters “who are fed up with divisiveness.”

If you ask both voters and political pros to predict who will carry Michigan, they divide between those who see trouble for Harris in the backlash against the Biden administration’s policy on Gaza in the state’s substantial Arab and Muslim population and among younger voters, and those who see the threat of a Trump presidency as bringing enough Democrats back home.

“We've had a lot of journalists fly in and talk about Gaza and they talked to eight people and think that they understand it,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic candidate for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, said in an interview.

Reflecting how even Democratic optimists expect some hemorrhaging of Arab votes to abstention or third parties in the presidential race, she described discussions about the Middle East in the state as “very difficult, very personal.” But Slotkin added: “I believe there is a silent majority in this state who do not want their kids growing up under Trump. They're not happy with what's going on in the Middle East, but they’re also Michiganders and they’re also practical.”

Similarly, Black political leaders largely dismiss talk of a substantial defection to Trump among Black men — “I almost brought my husband here with me to dispel that,” Detroit City Councilmember Latisha Johnson joked to me at a Harris early-vote rally here on Saturday. But they do worry about turnout.

“In urban areas, you’ll never convince me that there’s going to be a big Trump vote,” said Wayne County Executive Warren Evans. “The issue is the energy level to get these voters to the polls.”

The final key is cutting into Trump’s blue-collar vote by reminding union members of Trump’s attitudes toward labor, as Harris did at the Lansing UAW rally, hitting Trump hard on tax cuts for the wealthy and contrasting the loss of manufacturing jobs under Trump with the revival of manufacturing under Biden.

Momentum shifts in campaigns are often hard to discern when they’re happening, but Sunday’s news shows suggested that Harris’s attacks are starting to land. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) insisted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that despite Trump’s “enemy within” comments, he would not use the military against his political opponents. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) suggested Team Trump is worried about straying Republicans by scolding the defectors on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “What the hell are you doing?” Graham asked indignantly.

Yes, the former president’s champions are getting nervous. That’s why you can count on Harris to use the wonders of video to welcome Trump onto the stage with her for the rest of the campaign.

Opinion by E.J. Dionne

E.J. Dionne Jr. writes a weekly column for The Washington Post. He is a professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His latest book, with Miles Rapoport, is “100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting.”follow on X @EJDionne

his hatred of overtime pay.