Mike Allen Looks Ahead to the 2024 Presidential Election

Mike Allen blog header saying "Looking Ahead to the 2024 Election"

Mike Allen, Axios co-founder and executive editor, and co-founder and former chief White House correspondent for Politico, gave his sought-after insights on the political landscape as we head into the 2024 election during a recent visit with the Leading Authorities team. He also shared more about Smart Brevity, Axios’ patented approach that has transformed journalism and the way we communicate within our organizations and in our daily lives.

We've highlighted some of the most compelling insights from the session in this post, as well as the reasons why, despite the political and social uncertainty in the U.S., he remains optimistic about the future of our nation.

The Political Outlook

The upcoming 2024 presidential election was the main focus as Allen shared his political outlook with the group. According to Allen, President Biden’s campaign is focusing on three things to incentivize voters.

First, President Biden hopes to capitalize on the issue of reproductive rights, as decided by recent Supreme Court Cases like Dobbs vs. Jackson and Roe v. Wade. In sum, Biden’s team realizes the gravity of these decisions and hopes to emphasize how these types of decisions can question the power of democracy in the country.  

Secondly, Allen discusses the need to watch the economic situation leading up to the election. How Biden and Trump frame the country’s economic outlook will be extremely crucial to understanding their possible economic policy decisions. Despite voters knowing about both candidates' past policy choices, the economic decisions will be critical to seeing where votes in swing states will go.   

Lastly, Allen argues that the current state of the Israel/Palestine conflict may be reason enough for some people to forgo voting this year — especially young and progressive voters. In other words, while these voters will not vote for Trump, they also may decide not to vote entirely due to the response from President Biden. Allen calls this President Biden, “losing people to the couch.” Allen contests that Biden’s lack of strategy to mitigate this loss of voters is concerning. While the campaign is focused on finding a solution, they do not currently have a plan of action.  

Allen concluded his political outlook by discussing the phenomenon of “Trump Amnesia.” He defined this as the tendency for many voters of all types to forget Trump’s presidency and decisions. He particularly focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic took mental priority in many people’s minds over Trump’s policy during his term. Allen argues that Democrats are, and should be, heavily focused on reminding voters of this phenomenon.  

The Axios Method to Journalism

Allen also made time to discuss the power of Smart Brevity — Axios' powerful approach to communication that cuts through the noise and gets the point across sooner. Focusing on essential news and efficiency, Smart Brevity emphasizes an audience-focused format that explains the impact the news will have on readers and utilizes concise and visually appealing formats to captures the important news of today in a quick and informative way. Allen and his fellow Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei offer a step-by-step guide on how anyone can perfect this approach in their own communications in their bestselling book Smart Brevity.  

Smart Brevity is used by Axios journalists to grab the audience’s attention, keep readers on the page, and remove their opinions from their articles. In other words, Allen emphasized the need for Axios journalists to be nonpartisan while writing, and instead, focus on truth and efficiency. Allen said, Axios can “lean into pioneering and innovating” because of their commitment to Smart Brevity.  


Mike Allen’s impressive background in journalism and politics makes his insights informative and cemented in truth, with an incredibly deep understanding of Washington. While much of his talk was focused on the 2024 election and cautions for voters and candidates alike, Allen is extremely optimistic about the future, saying, “I’m an optimist because people want the government to work.” Allen realizes the gravity of the presidential election but does not dismiss his optimism about the future of politics and this country. 

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