The Harris campaign said Sunday that it has jump-started its efforts after President Biden ended his reelection drive, raising a massive $200 million in the first week and signing up more than 170,000 volunteers.
The campaign announcement signaled great enthusiasm for Harris as the likely Democratic nominee, with many in the party supporting her candidacy.
The Harris campaign said two-thirds of the donations came from first-time donors and that the vice president mobilized supporters that President Biden was unable to reach.
“Vice President Harris’s momentum and energy are real, and so are the fundamentals of this campaign: this election will be very close and will be decided by a small number of voters in just a few states,” campaign communications director Michael Tyler wrote in a memo reported by The Associated Press.
With just 100 days until Election Day, both Harris and Trump have stepped up their campaigns as the campaign nears its final stages.
Polls are also tight, with Harris trailing Trump nationally but performing much better than Biden in key battleground states. The enthusiasm has reached campaign surrogates, with Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., saying Saturday he is confident Harris will win Georgia.
“She has quickly unified the Democratic Party around her candidacy, is energized by her direct challenge to former President Trump, and has enthused volunteers and grassroots Democrats across the country,” he told MSNBC. “She’s making Georgia a battleground.”
There are no other candidates running against Harris, and her campaign is Breaking numerous fundraising records Harris, who is trying to make up for a late start, has already amassed enough delegates to secure her party’s nomination.
Republicans have responded by stepping up their attacks on Harris, with many accusing her of being too liberal and weak on immigration issues.
“Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, everything went to hell. And it’s going to get even worse under Kamala Harris. You just look at her record,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) said on CNN on Sunday. “Kamala Harris is a dangerous liberal. Compared to her, Joe Biden looks like a competent moderate.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, warned that Harris’s run as a top candidate would energize Democrats, and in an interview on ABC on Sunday urged Republicans to refrain from personal attacks on the vice president lest they lose support from voters.
Sununu said the Trump campaign should focus on the issues and “distance itself from the insults.”
He said Trump missed that opportunity in his recent campaign but “hopefully he can get back on track. I think he was on track for a few months. I think the changes in the campaign have personally motivated me to take on Trump.”
But Sununu also acknowledged that “nobody can make Donald Trump do anything, but hopefully the numbers and the polls will help Donald Trump recognize what’s worked and what’s not worked.”
