Rush Limbaugh said there was one main reason Trump was leading over all other Republican presidential candidates. That issue was immigration. He was probably right. Republicans were deeply unhappy with prior Republicans like George W. Bush and then Jeb Bush who promised action and failed to deliver. They wanted action. Their resentment at immigrants, whether rational or not, was driving them to Trump. They wanted radical measures like a ban on Muslims or a ‘big beautiful wall.’ They did not want mild mannered Republican talk. They wanted action and in Trump they thought (wrongly as it turned out of course) that Trump would deliver action.

The broadcasters of right-wing radio understood this, even if the Republican establishment did not. Steve Bannon also understood this. He kept driving Trump on immigration and in the 2016 election Trump won a surprising (to many) victory.  I think immigration was the key to that win. Just like it was key to Joe Biden’s unpopularity in 2024. A lot of Americans expect their president to take firm and decisive action to control things on the border. They believe Joe Biden made a big mistake when he cut back most of Biden’s executive orders to hold back illegal immigration, or at least what they perceived to be illegal immigration. They believed this opened the floodgates to illegal immigration shortly after he took office and then did little to change things until just before the election in 2024. Kamala Harris was appointed Biden’s immigration Czar and many believed she did nothing to make things better while she was Vice-President and hold that against her.

Right or wrongly—wrongly in my view—many Americans believe Democrats have “opened the borders” and they don’t like it.  So on we will know what the American voters in 2014 think about this. Will it be enough to  crush Harris’ chances for election? Time will tell.