Harris and Walz are barely talking to the press. Experts warn it’s a risky strategy.

• Harris and Walz are barely speaking to the mainstream press, especially compared to their Republican opponents.
• Experts warn that this strategy’s risks may be greater than the rewards.
• Voters say they need to know more about the Democratic candidate. Harris needs to deliver, they said.

When you put the Harris-Walz campaign’s media strategy side-by-side with that of Trump-Vance, one major difference stands out: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are barely talking to the press.

In fact, the Democratic presidential nominee and her running mate have done fewer media appearances and press interviews than any other major party’s top candidates in modern US history, according to an analysis by Axios.

Since Harris took over the Democratic ticket from President Joe Biden in July, she has given just little more than half a dozen press interviews, and things haven’t been much different for Walz.

And experts say it’s a risky move.

It’s not clear exactly why Harris and Walz have been so press-shy.

There are some benefits to the campaign’s approach. Both Harris and Walz are able to avoid the gaffes and unscripted missteps that plagued both Biden’s 2024 campaign and Harris’ own 2020 presidential campaign.

Both Donald Trump and JD Vance’s many press interviews have sparked negative news cycles.

But the risks may be greater than any rewards. Political scientists warn that this strategy could hurt their campaign if it hasn’t already, particularly at a time when many voters say they don’t know enough about the candidates or their policies.

Lonna Atkeson, a political science professor at Florida State University and director of nonpartisan think tank LeRoy Collins Institute, told Business Insider that Harris’ limited interactions with the press risk sowing distrust among voters.

“It’s a poor strategy because it leaves open a lot of suspicions,” Atkeson said, adding that those suspicions raise questions for voters, like, “Why don’t you want to tell us about yourself? Are you not capable of doing that? Why is it that you can’t communicate and talk to other people?”

“People want to hear from their leaders,” Atkeson added. “We need leaders who are going to raise us up, and it raises questions about her ability to raise us up.”

Atkeson also gave the analogy that the effect of Harris’ media strategy on voters is like what happens when a romantic relationship first begins.

“What happens when you first meet someone and you’re excited about them is you project all of this stuff on them,” Atkeson said. “When she first came onto the stage, she got a lot of passes in terms of the projection. The projection is, ‘okay, we’ve got this exciting younger candidate meets all these criteria,’ and so there’s sort of this love affair going on.”

And what’s supposed to happen next, Atkeson added, is you learn more about the person and the projection fades.

“But if you were in a love affair and your partner refuses to answer questions or talk to you about things, well, that would really start to change your mind about how you feel about them,” Atkeson explained. “I mean, it’s like, ‘well, gee, they’re awfully secret.'”

“That strategy can only work so long,” Atkeson said.

Harris has been sticking to more structured — and less traditional — media appearances, like a livestream event with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday evening. Winfrey has endorsed Harris for president and the questions she faced were hardly challenging.

On Friday, WIRED published a video in which Harris answered the web’s most searched questions about her, like where she’s from, what her childhood was like, what she stands for, etc.

But the magazine’s popular video series has mostly been used by celebrities during press junkets — not politicians.

W. Joseph Campbell, a communications professor emeritus at American University who specializes in presidential polling and political media, echoed Atkeson’s concerns.

“Speaking in platitudes and avoiding the press is not necessarily a winning strategy,” Campbell told Business Insider. “They should be doing more interviews. They should do news conferences. This is part and parcel of a presidential election campaign. And to avoid doing them raises questions.”

Campbell said polling data is clear that many Americans say they want to know more about Harris.

Harris’ lack of press interaction, particularly with unfriendly outlets like Fox News or others, is also a stark contrast to her opponent.

“Trump seems inclined to meet with just about anybody, and he has met with reporters on a frequent basis over his many years of trying to run and then winning the presidency,” Campbell said. “He was pretty accessible during his years in office, as well as before and after and during this campaign as well. So the contrast could be something that doesn’t look good optically for the Harris campaign.”

Even some of Harris’ fellow Democrats are starting to worry about her minimal press presence.

“More. More. More,” Van Jones, a Democratic commentator and former Obama administration official, said this week on CNN. “The polls show the more you see Kamala, the more you like Kamala.”

Several Democratic strategists also told The Hill that they want to see Harris ramping up her media interactions.

Though the Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, a spokesperson told The New York Times that more press interviews are coming.

But the questions remains: will it be too little, too late?