Kamala Harris energizes Democrats and shakes up presidential race. Can she keep this up?
WASHINGTON ― In Claudia Nachega’s circle, a gloomy reality had started to sink in.
Donald Trump was going to win.
Then, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, everything changed. President Joe Biden dropped out, Kamala Harris stepped in, and victory for the Democrats seemed miraculously within reach.
For young voters like herself, said Nachega, who will be casting her first vote for president, this is a historic moment – a chance to elect the first female president, the second president of color and a president who relates to their generation and shares their vision for the future.
It is, she said, their Barack Obama moment.
“Maybe the stars have aligned,” said Nachega, 19, a feminist organizer from Rockville, Maryland.
A natural successor: As President Joe Biden steps aside, is America ready for President Kamala Harris?
In just two weeks, Harris’ elevation from vice president to Democratic nominee has changed the trajectory of the presidential race.
Democrats demoralized by Biden’s performance as their nominee and the prospects of a devastating loss to Trump in November are reenergized and think they have a real shot at winning.
Polls that showed Biden heading for a landslide loss against Trump now show a dead-even race. Some give Harris a slight lead.
Money is rolling in. Harris’ campaign raised a staggering $310 million in July, the biggest haul of the election cycle and more than double the $137 million the Trump campaign raised during the same period. More than $200 million of the Democrats’ stash poured in after Harris became the likely nominee.
Huge crowds are showing up at Harris’ rallies. In Atlanta, 10,000 supporters lined up for hours in the sweltering heat on Tuesday for the chance to see the likely nominee, whose opening act was the rapper Megan Thee Stallion. A virtual fundraiser held by a group called White Dudes for Kamala drew more than 190,000 participants and raised more than $4 million.
Harris’ nascent campaign will almost certainly get another jolt of energy with her choice of a vice-presidential running mate. Harris, who is nearing a decision, is set to interview finalists for the job this weekend and could announce her pick any day.
Finalists include Govs. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Kentucky's Andy Bashear, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro. Also in the mix are Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. All are white men, signaling the campaign is hoping to strike a balance given that she is the first Black woman and South Asian candidate to top the presidential ticket.
Harris is expected to hold her first rally with her new running mate –whoever it is – in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Not only has Harris fired up the party’s base, Democratic strategist Isaac Wright said, “you also see all but the extremists of the MAGA base starting to take a second look at the election and who they’re going to vote for.”
“That’s a big deal,” said Wright, a veteran political operative who previously worked on Hillary Clinton’s and Al Gore’s presidential campaigns.
Democrats are talking enthusiastically once again about reassembling the Obama coalition – a voting bloc of racial minorities, women and young voters who twice helped propel the nation’s first Black president into the Oval Office. Harris, they believe, just might be the person to do it.
Trump’s campaign rejected the Democrats’ argument that Harris is a stronger candidate and would be harder for the Republican nominee to beat.
"Kamala Harris is just as weak, failed and incompetent as Joe Biden – and she’s also dangerously liberal,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
A vote for Harris, Leavitt said, “is a vote for more crime, inflation, open borders, high gas prices, and war around the world, and our team will make sure every American knows it.”
Prosecutor vs. convicted felon: How Democrats believe Harris’ background changes the election
'She has fresh new ideas'
Three days after Biden exited the race and Harris stepped in, American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC that supports Democratic candidates, launched a $20 million ad campaign in the key swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The ad campaign featured real voters and was designed to highlight the contrast between Harris, a former prosecutor, and Trump, who was convicted in May of 34 felonies involving hush money payments to a former porn star with whom he allegedly had an extramarital affair.
More voters, including former Trump supporters, are eager to go before the cameras and talk about their fears of a second Trump presidency now that Harris is in the race, said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge.
“When Joe Biden in 2020 got into the race, he was talking about passing the torch to a new generation,” Dennis said. “What we’re seeing here now is basically the torch being passed onto a new generation of leadership – somebody who’s fresh. She has obviously been on the national stage as vice president. But, really, there’s a sense that it’s time for her to step into power, that she has fresh new ideas.”
The difference with Harris in the race “is night and day,” said Will Halm, a Democratic fundraiser in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Before Biden stepped aside, Halm held fundraising events for Ruben Gallego, who is running for Senate in Arizona, and Rep. Gabe Vasquez, who is seeking re-election in New Mexico. Donors were reluctant to give money to either candidate while Biden was the party’s presidential nominee. But as soon as congressional leaders called publicly for Biden to drop out of the race, “these donors came in and maxed out within hours,” Halm said.
The enthusiasm has been especially noticeable among young voters, Halm said. Two of his three children – all in their 20s – had declared they wouldn’t vote in the presidential race. With Harris atop the Democratic ticket, “it has been astonishing to see how engaged they are now,” he said.
Rachel Janfaza has seen the same transformation. Janfaza, who publishes a newsletter called “The Up and Up” that focuses on how young voters are – or are not – actively participating in civics life and politics, said many feel that, for the first time, they have “a candidate who they are genuinely excited by and feel they can organize for rather than just vote against.”
“This generation has grown up amid hyper partisanship and the polarizing political climate and is psyched by the possibility of hope, not fear-driven politics, for the first time in their political lives,” Janfaza said.
For some Gen Z voters – those born roughly between 1997 and 2012 – this will be the first presidential election in which they are eligible to vote. When their choices were Biden and Trump, “a lot of people didn't necessarily feel that either of those two candidates represented them, but that they were choosing sort of lesser of two evils,” Janfaza said.
Janfaza held a listening session with a dozen young voters after Harris entered the race. Many of them felt that, in Harris, they have a candidate who not only shares their views on issues like abortion access and LGBTQ rights, but one who actually understands them.
“She has been quoted time and time again saying, ‘I love Gen Z! I love Gen Z!’” Janfaza said.
'Fearless' or 'failed'? Kamala Harris launches TV ad to define her record and so does Trump
'She is just a different vibe'
Erik Daniels, 28, who is organizing young voters in the battleground state of Arizona for NexGen America, said the nonpartisan organization has seen a 200% increase in signups since Biden dropped out.
“What we've seen is that young voters, for a while, felt that both candidates were a bit out of touch,” Daniels said. “I’ve heard a lot less of that recently.”
Armonee Jackson, 26, of Phoenix, said the proliferation of memes that are popping up online about Harris are a sure sign that young people are paying attention to her campaign. Jackson, the Arizona president of Young Democrats for America, said the group is also seeing an increase in organizing calls with Harris atop the ticket.
“I’ve been seeing at least three or four calls per week since the news dropped about what we can do to support VP Harris,” Jackson said. “We’ve seen quite a shift.”
Mary Latu, 37, lives in the small Minnesota town of Chisago City, northeast of the Twin Cities metro, where her progressive ideals are outnumbered by a Republican majority.
Her vote for Biden in the primary in March was coated with skepticism that he would drop out of the race before November, hoping that Harris would step up. When her wish came true, she was even more energized to vote Democrat in the election, thinking, “If Harris is the ticket, I’m all in.”
Latu, a second-generation American coming from Pacific Islander descent, said seeing a Black woman of South Asian descent in the White House representing American minorities is energizing.
“She’s a person of color, she’s a mother, and she is just a different vibe from what we’ve had in the past,” Latu said.
Joel Harvey, 54, of Seattle, had planned to vote for Biden. But now he’s behind Harris – “1,000%.”
“She's got the fight in her – the necessary fight in her to bring everything to the table and bring everybody to the table,” Harvey said. “I feel as though she's a good voice to speak for everybody.”
“I like her voice, and I like her laugh,” Harvey said. “She’s everything I would want in a candidate.”
Contributing: Sam Woodward and Rachel Barber.
Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris energizes Dems, shakes up race. Can she keep this up?
