Sunday marks 100 days until Election Day 2024.
It also comes one week after President Biden’s politically shifting announcement that he was ending his reelection fight against former President Trump.
Biden’s move came amid growing pressure from within his Democratic Party to back down after his disastrous first presidential debate with Trump last month.
2024 showdown: Trump rushes to define Harris
President Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, as he speaks about his decision to end his Democratic presidential bid for reelection. (Evan Vucci via The Associated Press)
The embattled president’s quick endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris last Sunday sparked a flurry of support for the vice president from Democratic governors, senators, representatives and other party leaders. Within 36 hours, Ms. Harris announced she had secured the party’s nomination, having won the vocal support of a majority of the roughly 4,000 delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention.
Obamas endorse Harris, adding a finishing touch to Democrats’ 2024 presidential victory
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama on Friday became the last major party leaders to endorse the vice president.
Harris also raised an astounding $129 million following Biden’s announcement, which her own campaign touted on Thursday morning.
“This is make-or-break time for both sides,” longtime Republican consultant David Kochel told Fox News.
In addition to uniting and inspiring Democrats, replacing Biden as the party’s standard-bearer as vice president has boosted Harris’ support in opinion polls, a decision that is expected to be formalized during the virtual roll call of delegates at the convention starting August 1.
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at West Allis Central High School during her first campaign rally in Milwaukee on July 23, 2024. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
It was once a race between Biden and Trump within the margin of error, but the former president had a clear lead in the weeks after the June 27 debate in Atlanta. But with Harris now in the lead and Biden dropping out of the race, polls are showing the race back within the margin of error.
“Instead of the election that was supposed to be won by Trump, we are now in a real, authentic election,” said Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist and president of the University of New England. “The battle is over.”
While Harris faces the monumental task of going from zero to 60 in a very short period of time, she is not starting from scratch because she immediately inherited Biden’s massive campaign organization with its vast on-the-ground resources in key battleground states.
But Harris faces the imminent task of choosing a running mate, possibly within the next week or two.
Both Biden and Trump are well known to American voters.
But Kocher, a veteran Republican presidential campaigner who remained neutral in the 2024 GOP primary, stressed that most Americans know little about the vice president’s record and that both the Trump and Harris campaigns are “in a race to define” Harris.
Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Kelly)
At his first campaign rally since the presidential election descended into chaos, Trump wasted no time in defining his new opponent.
At a rally in the key battleground state of North Carolina, the Republican presidential candidate repeatedly attacked Harris, disparagingly calling her “Lying Kamala Harris.”
Trump has sought to portray Harris as “the most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history.”
The former president accused Harris of being “the ultra-liberal driving force behind all of Biden’s disasters. She’s a far-left lunatic who would destroy our country if given the chance to become president.”
And, citing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a champion of the far-left and two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, Trump claimed Harris is “more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Can you believe it?”
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In a series of remarks that lasted more than an hour and a half, Trump repeatedly criticized the vice president on border security and crime, two key issues in the 2024 election.
Stephen Chang, a spokesman and senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said the former president’s team was ready to go on the offensive from the moment Harris succeeded Biden as the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer.
“There was no surprise. We were prepared. We had all the assets ready. We had all the content ready. Nobody was surprised,” Chang told reporters ahead of Trump’s rally.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump. (Getty Images)
Harris has fired back, pointing to her own extensive law enforcement background while focusing on Trump’s numerous legal controversies, including his conviction two months ago on 34 felony counts in the first criminal trial of a former and sitting president.
“As you all know, before I was elected vice president, before I was elected senator, I served as attorney general of California, and before that I was a trial prosecutor. In that role, I took on criminals of all kinds,” Harris said at an event at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday.
“A predator who abuses women, a conman who deceives consumers, a conman who breaks the rules for his own personal gain. So, we know what type of person Donald Trump is,” she emphasized, pointing to Trump’s multiple lawsuits and criminal cases, many of which are still ongoing.
Harris repeated the same attack the next day at a rally in Milwaukee.
With 100 days to go until Election Day, the past week of campaign rhetoric is just an appetizer of what’s to come.
Get the latest 2024 campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more on Fox News Digital’s Election Hub.
