Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Kamala Harris’ campaign said on Sunday it had raised $200 million and recruited 170,000 new volunteers in the week since she became the Democratic presidential nominee, as Republicans continued to Criticized Harris’ work as vice president.
President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign on Sunday and endorsed Harris in the Nov. 5 vote against Republican former President Donald Trump.
“In the week since we started, @KamalaHarris has raised $200 million. 66% of that came from new donors. We’ve signed up 170,000 new volunteers,” Harris’ deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty posted on X .
Polls over the past week, including a Reuters/Ipsos poll, have shown Harris and Trump essentially tied, setting the stage for a tight race just 100 days before the election.
The Trump campaign said in early July that it raised $331 million in the second quarter, surpassing the $264 million raised by the Biden campaign and its Democratic allies during the same period. As of the end of June, the Trump campaign had $284.9 million in cash on hand, while the Democratic campaign had $240 million in cash at the time.
Harris has secured the support of a majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention, potentially ensuring she will become the party’s presidential nominee next month.
“So our vice president is the presumptive nominee. We will have a formal vote on August 1,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison told MSNBC on Sunday.
Biden dropped out of the race due to age and health concerns after a poor performance in a debate with Trump in late June. Biden has pledged to remain president until his term ends on January 20, 2025.
Harris’ taking over has breathed new life into a campaign that has been severely shaken by Democratic doubts about Biden’s chances of defeating Trump or his ability to stay in power if he wins.
Polls showed Trump already leading Biden after his disastrous debate performance, including in battleground states, but the addition of Harris changed that dynamic.
A New York Times/Siena College national poll released Thursday showed Harris had narrowed her sizable lead with Trump, while a Wall Street Journal poll released Friday Trump leads her by two percentage points. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on July 23 showed Harris leading by two points.
Republican attacks on Harris have intensified since she emerged as a possible Democratic presidential nominee.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who unsuccessfully bid for the Republican nomination before endorsing Trump, told Fox News that Harris is “extremely uninteresting” and predicted that Democrats will publish “a lot of lies” to pit Harris against the Biden administration policy on immigration and other issues.
“They have to whitewash Harris’ background so that the American people can understand her,” he said.
Some Trump allies, including some members of the Black Americans for Trump coalition, have warned that disparaging Harris could hurt the former president’s engagement with black voters, who are key to the Nov. 5 presidential election. crowd.
Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to DeSantis’ remarks.
Campaign co-chairman Mitch Landrieu told MSNBC that Harris “had one of the best weeks in politics in the last 50 years.”
“It’s going to be a very close game,” he said.
Trump’s fundraising surged in late May after he was convicted of a felony related to hush money payments to a porn star before the 2016 election. An assassination attempt against him this month is also expected to spur campaign donations.
