(25 October 2024) After enjoying a honeymoon period in August and September following her nomination, the Kamala Harris campaign is in trouble. This week’s underwhelming CNN town hall performance was emblematic of her flagging campaign as she repeatedly failed to give clear answers to even “pre-determined” questions from a friendly media outlet. Things have got so bad that even Democrats are starting to realize the extent of the Kamala problem. For the first time in 40 years, the famously liberal Washington Post decided not to endorse any candidate, following on a similar abstention from the left-leaning Los Angeles Times last week. Recent polls now show Trump edging into the lead in most swing states and even in some national polls, raising the possibility that Trump could even end up winning the popular vote. Betting markets are also tipping towards Trump with Polymarket now showing the former president at a 65% probability of winning.
As students of astrology, we knew that she was likely to suffer some difficulty in late October due to the malefic alignments of Saturn and Mars. Saturn (18 Aquarius) forms a near-exact semisquare (45 degrees) with her Moon (4 Aries) and will remain within effective range throughout November as Saturn is due to station direct on Nov 15 in that same degree. It is very hard to win an election when Saturn is in close alignment with a personal planet like the Moon. Saturn-Moon transits suggest sadness and disappointment and generally things not going in one’s way. And since Harris was born on an exact Full Moon, Saturn also forms a mirror 135-degree sesquisquare alignment with her Sun at 4 Libra. Saturn-Sun alignments tend to undermine confidence, diminish vitality and undermine one’s leadership abilities.
More pointedly, Mars (2 Cancer) is coming up to square both the Moon (4 Aries) and the Sun (4 Libra) in the coming days. It will be exact next Wednesday and Thursday (Oct 30-31). I would expect her campaign will suffer a major setback next week that will essentially end the race. Interestingly, Mars will also cast its exact 210 degree/8th house aspect to Saturn (5 Aquarius) next weekend. The combined effects of these three close Mars aspects is likely to reflect something more than just more bad poll numbers. It seems considerably worse somehow, as if there could be a new scandal, an embarrassing public meltdown or some other unfortunate turn of events for her. With this triple dose of Mars, her health and personal safety may also be at risk.
So it looks like Trump will win the presidency for a second time. Besides Trump’s clearly better transits around election day, I had suggested that he was more likely to win given his better progressed planets compared with Harris. Trump had no less than three direct (=favourable) progressed stations during the election period, while Harris had two clearly negative retrograde progressed stations.
Of course, it’s not over until it’s over, so we’ll see how it all plays out in the final days of the campaign.
