The parties are over. Now it’s time for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to get down to business.

With this year’s Democratic and Republican national conventions in the history books, both sides have wrapped up their warm-up acts and are now plunging into an intense stretch of politicking ahead of the November election.

The conventions were a time for celebration. Celebrities serenaded crowds, allies stumped for their candidates and attendees got hyped. It was the honeymoon period for each campaign, and a chance for partisans to revel.

From here on out, things will get more serious.

With 10 weeks until voters choose between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the candidates will have to battle increased media scrutiny, more attack ads and each other on the debate stage.

“It is a lot less about the party, and it has to be more about the success of the individual candidates,” said Sam Chen, an Allentown-based political strategist who works on local and state campaigns.

Despite the nonstop media attention this summer, campaign and political experts who spoke with TribLive said the last month was still just a preview to the main event.

Over the next 10 weeks, more voters will tune in — especially the crucial undecideds in all-important swing states like Pennsylvania. That make-or-break period will determine if the nominees sink or swim.

Chen said campaigns will intensify in the battleground states over the next two months, with a strong focus on Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and, of course, Pennsylvania.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that an astounding $110 million was spent on ads just in the three weeks after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. More than a third of that — about $42 million — was spent in Pennsylvania.

To sway voters, Harris will need to detail her policy positions, nail the debate with Trump scheduled for next month and continue her momentum. Since the vice president has been the nominee for less than a month, Americans still have a lot of unanswered questions about her, experts said.

Trump will have to woo back the swing voters he lost in 2020 by taking advantage of his strongest issues — the economy and immigration — and avoid getting into a personality contest with Harris and her growing appeal.

With national and swing state polls forecasting a tight contest, the run-up to Election Day offers a chance for each candidate to stake a legitimate lead.

Who will be able to seize that opportunity and make the most of it is the critical question.

“This is when people actually start paying attention,” said Mark Harris, a partner at Coldspark, a conservative political consulting firm based in Pittsburgh. “It is still really true that voters, especially swing voters, don’t really start paying attention until Labor Day.”

Kamala’s keys

The nation has gotten to know the vice president more intimately over the last month. Her convention speech Thursday night delved into her family background in the California Bay Area and her experience as a prosecutor, first as San Francisco district attorney and then as California’s attorney general.

But the details of what her presidential administration will seek are still somewhat undefined, said J.J. Abbott of Commonwealth Communications, a liberal, statewide public relations firm.

Harris will have to focus on three key areas to help propel her to victory, according to experts who spoke with TribLive.

Lay out her platform

Abbott expects Harris to detail her platform, which will focus on abortion rights, protecting democracy and uplifting American institutions. As well, he said, the Harris plan will feature economic populism, with planks like increasing wages, subsidizing childcare, and holding large corporations accountable for price increases.

“Continuing the momentum Harris has built over the last month is gonna be really important,” Abbott said. “This is the most important time to get folks focused and ready for action, donations, and getting people ready to volunteer.”

Joe DiSarro, a Washington & Jefferson College political science professor, said it would be wise for Harris to highlight abortion and personal freedom issues in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It’s the biggest issue in Pennsylvania, and the Democrats have to be able to focus on that issue. Republicans have to figure out a way to convince voters to consider other issues,” DiSarro said

Conservative consultant Mark Harris said the vice president will have to complete more sit-down interviews with the press to flesh out details of her record and explain specific proposals.

He said she hasn’t really been tested yet, due to the truncated nature of her campaign with Biden dropping out late in the game, and that will change moving forward.

Harris has not yet provided detailed policy explanations on her website, and the Democratic Party platform released during the convention still listed Biden as the nominee.

Perform well in the debate

Nothing tests a campaign like a debate.

And this year, the scrutiny will be even higher for Harris, considering the last presidential debate in June caused Biden to drop out after a wretched performance.

Harris of Coldspark said typically, the importance of debates is overstated. But because next month will mark the vice president’s first match-up with Trump, and the last forum was so impactful, the upcoming debate will be extremely important.

Harris and Trump will meet Sept. 10 in Philadelphia. The debate will be broadcast on ABC.

Chen said Harris hasn’t always performed well in such settings, citing the crowded Democratic primary debate for president in 2019, when she was still a U.S. senator from California.

Then, Chen said, Harris championed policies that were considered too liberal and unpopular with the general public, such as a ban on fracking and Medicare for all.

He said the vice president needs to have a good showing next month, and she will be expected to perform better than Biden did.

“She must be very careful during the debate, especially because the stakes are high now,” Chen said.

Grow ground game

The Harris campaign said it has nearly 300 paid campaign staffers across 36 field offices in Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign said it has about two dozen field offices across the state. It did not disclose how many paid staffers are employed.

Abbott said taking advantage of that kind of lead will be important for Harris. He expects donations and volunteers to increase after a successful convention.

“Continuing the momentum is going to be really important,” Abbott said. “This is the most important time to get folks focused and ready for action.”

Westmoreland County Democratic Party Chairwoman Michelle McFall said county committees like hers will assist the Harris campaign by bringing out as many Democratic voters as possible.

McFall said it will then fall on the Harris campaign to expand its tent by taking the lead on messaging and fashioning approaches to independent and third-party voters.

Chen said reaching that segment of the electorate means Harris must define her platform with issues that appeal to moderates and Never-Trump Republicans who might be reluctant to back her.

He said Harris has launched this effort already, noting her convention speech included references to patriotism and a strong military.

Continuing those efforts, Chen predicted, could pay dividends for Harris.

Trump’s tickets

Trump, one of the most recognizable figures in the world, is a known quantity. He has been the leading Republican candidate for president for the last nine years and has reshaped the party in his image. There isn’t much more to learn about his personality or his history.

TribLive’s panel of experts said if Trump wants to win, he needs to shift the focus away from his polarizing personality and toward policy.

Pivot to policy

Harris of Coldspark said it would be smart for Trump to play to his strengths and run on popular policies and issues supporters associate with him, especially the economy and immigration.

He said Trump has strong approval ratings on those two topics. Voters trust Trump more than Harris to handle the economy, tame inflation and bring prices down, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos Poll.

High prices at the grocery store have continually bedeviled the Biden administration.

Voters also believe Trump is more capable of addressing immigration and issues at the southern U.S. border

“Keep it on the issues. If we are talking about jobs, and the economy, and immigration, I will feel pretty good about heading into the election,” Harris said. “Trump has got to remind people of his strength and determination on the issues.”

Chen agreed. The economy and inflation are still the two most important issues for voters, according to the ABC News poll.

Even as inflation decreased significantly from highs in 2022 and has been falling more over the last few months, Chen said reminding voters about the high prices they have been paying since the pandemic started is a smart move.

“Trump has to pivot to talking about policies,” he said. “He has to shift and point out the failures of the Biden administration, which Harris is still a part of. Talk about the price of coffee, talk about where they have done wrong.”

Avoid a personality contest

Chen said focusing on policy over personality will behoove Trump.

Generally, voters don’t like the former president.

His August approval ratings have dipped. About 55% of the country disapproves of him, compared to about 41% that approve, according to Gallup.

Chen said the vice president currently is beating Trump in a personality contest.

Harris’ approval ratings have skyrocketed since she became the candidate. They now easily outpace Trump.

More than 47% of Americans approve of Harris, compared to 49% who disapprove, according to Gallup.

But Chen acknowledges improving Trump’s likability might be easier said than done.

Trump has long sought fame and media attention and has campaigned on contrasting his personality to others, often using hyperbole and callousness.

Another potential pitfall is Trump’s difficulty staying on point.

During his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, he spoke for over 90 minutes, often meandering to touch on pop-culture topics and personal attacks on his opponents.

Since then, he has sometimes veered from discussing policy into smearing Harris for having a “crazy laugh.” On Friday at a press conference in Las Vegas, Trump mocked how many times Harris said “thank you” during her acceptance speech Thursday night at the Democratic convention.

Win back disaffected voters

Trump’s narrow victory in 2016 was possible thanks to enough moderates holding their noses and voting for him.

In 2020, Biden siphoned off enough of those same voters to take the White House.

If Trump is to reclaim the presidency, he will have to win them back, said Paul Adams, associate political science professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.

“It’s pretty simple. The issue for Trump is he has got to go find and persuade undecided and uncommitted voters, those who are not happy with either candidate. They need to find those who lean more towards Trump,” said Adams.

As of Aug. 19, more than 8.8 million Pennsylvanians were registered to vote. There are 350,000 more Democrats than Republicans, the closest gap in decades.

Independent and unaffiliated voters number more than 1.4 million.

The people who will tip Pennsylvania, and likely the country, Chen said, are these persuadable voters.

Chen has worked for moderate Republicans who have spurned Trump, like former U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Allentown.

Chen said Trump hasn’t made many efforts so far to sway such voters. Nominating U.S. Sen. JD Vance as his running mate instead of a more moderate Republican did little to address that issue.

Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by about 40,000 votes. Four years later, Biden won the state by a margin greater than 80,000 votes.

“He needs to court disaffected Republicans,” Chen said. “There is a good section of Republican voters that are not currently comfortable voting for him.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of campaign offices and paid staffers in Pennsylvania for Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

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