Forgive my pessimism, but while this is the sort of thing that could sink a “normal” campaign, the cult of personality around Trump has been weathering stuff like this since 2016 or even earlier. I’ll believe that this is impacting voter sentiment when I see it reflected in the results after election day. Until then, it just feels like more wishful thinking.

Look for a used one now. The prices are low enough that you’ll be able to get a good one for a low enough price that you may not feel bad if you decide to upgrade in 2 or 3 years.

I consider electric only to be a commuter car at best. It’s not going to be able to do a road trip. And depending on the car and the commute may even not be able to do a grocery run after work some days.

I really wonder what kind of car you drive. Sounds like a Nissan Leaf or something.

I’ll share a couple of anecdotes regarding my experience with EVs:

My parents live on a farm in rural Maine. They are on their second Chevy Bolt (first was a lease, and they liked it so much that they upgraded to a later generation when the lease expired). It’s an inexpensive, no-frills EV that is their primary means of transportation. Living in the country, the shortest trip they take is likely to be at least 20 miles round-trip. In the past, I’ve borrowed that car for an overnight trip to Vermont. We made sure to charge it at home before the leaving, and drove to Vermont without needing to stop. I don’t recall the exact distance, but it was about 4 hours of driving through rolling hills. We charged it again in Vermont, and drove home the next day.

My partner and I have a 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5 that we bought used for $28k. It’s all-wheel drive and has a battery warmer, both of which are helpful in cold climates. We do not have a charger at home. My wife’s commute is 20 miles round trip, and we are able to charge the car where she works, which we do roughly once a week. Although the car itself is capable of charging very quickly, the charger available to us is a low-power home charger, so it’s nice to be able to leave it plugged in during the full work day. We don’t hesitate to take this car on longer trips, especially if they take the interstate highway system or pass through major cities, where faster charging is always available.

When I bought the car, it was 150 miles away from my house. It was charged to 100% when I picked it up, and the car estimated 300 miles of range. We arrived at home with 50% charge remaining, so I’d say the 300 mile range was pretty accurate.

With this car and our charging habits, daily driving doesn’t really require any special thought or planning at all. For longer trips, anything less than a 150 mile round trip requires no more planning than “I should make sure to charge it within a day or so of the trip, if possible.” For a trip in the 250 mile range, I would definitely prefer to start fully charged, if possible, otherwise I’d want to explore charging options along the way. Only if going over that would I definitely feel the need to investigate charging options at my destination or along the route. A home charger would make things even simpler, but as it is it’s so low-stress that we don’t feel a lot of urgency to get one installed.

I recommend reading Tim Bray’s experiences with several years of EV-only ownership, including some long (1000+ mile) road trips in Canada. Here are a couple:

• 5 year retrospective
• An in-depth report of a 1000 mile trip from Vancouver, BC to Regina, Saskatchewan

Your username raises questions. I’m not sure any of them need answers, though…

That was my reaction, too. I feel like I’m aging at an accelerated pace with these guys in charge.

Quoting the article,

The reason for the long list and the short letter is because the letter itself was not written to convince the general public to vote for Harris.

Instead, its purpose is to serve as a well-timed political show of force for Harris, who is locked in a very tight race, with the first presidential debate just four days away.

I attended a Ralph Nader rally in Boston ahead of the 2000 US presidential election. It was a high energy event, with an atmosphere almost like a pop music show. Nader and his VP candidate both spoke about their campaign positions, with frequent pauses for enthusiastic applause from the crowd. Nader was a third-party candidate, which meant that he was an outsider to the regular election process, and in particular was not invited to the nationally televised debates. There were frequent chants of “Let Ralph Debate”, and we were certain that the establishment was uncomfortable with that idea because they knew his policies would be very popular. Cash donations were collected, and many people wrote pro-Nader messages on the bills they gave.

I suspect your rally will be similar, really. Not quite as much of an outsider vibe, but maybe it’ll be replaced with an underdog vibe. Expect an optimistic event that tries to inspire enthusiasm. It’s not just about encouraging your direct support, but also about inspiring you encourage others to support the campaign.

Just ask ChatGPT; it’s better than humans at proving its humanity with these stupid things.