The Washington Post has lost 200,000 subscribers since it decided to not endorse a presidential candidate in this year's election, which Democrat strategist James Carville believes is a sign of enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris.
"I'm not a predictor on turnout, but it seems to me there's increasing Democratic enthusiasm," Carville told MSNBC on Monday, according to The Hill. "The Washington Post lost 200,000 subscribers — 200,000 people that actually went and clicked on something, and they had to go through some effort. I know it is Virginia, Chevy Chase [Maryland] and D.C., but that tells me a lot."
The 200,000 subscribers represented 8% of the Post's subscriber base since Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post and Amazon, decided the paper would not endorse Harris or former President Donald Trump.
The Post has been doing presidential endorsements since 1976. The Democrat candidate has received the paper's endorsement in every election except for 1988, when it declined to endorse either candidate.
The decision by the Post has caused considerable backlash in and out of the newsroom, with several people resigning from the editorial board.
In an editorial in the Post, Bezos defended the decision to not run an endorsement.
"Most people believe the media is biased," Bezos wrote. "Anyone who doesn't see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility [and, therefore, decline in impact], but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility."
The Los Angeles Time has also faced considerable employee turmoil since it pulled an endorsement of Harris.