Vice President Kamala Harris’ return to California’s San Francisco Bay Area was a hugely lucrative one.
The Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign said Harris raised more than $12 million at a fundraiser held Sunday at the famed Fairmont Hotel at the top of San Francisco’s Nob Hill.
Harris has seen a surge in fundraising since replacing President Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee for 2024 three weeks ago, raising more than double the amount in July that Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump raised.
Harris also saw another surge in fundraising after she named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.
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Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris (L) and running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gesture during a campaign rally at the Thomas and Mack Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 10, 2024. (Rhonda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images)
The vice president and Walz immediately began campaigning, traveling to key battleground states including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, drawing large audiences at each stop.
“The energy is undeniable,” Harris told the fundraiser crowd, gesturing to her campaign’s venue, “and the crowds are big. But what’s even more amazing is the fact that people are signing up to volunteer, like we did last night in Las Vegas, by the thousands.”
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But the vice president acknowledged that there is “much work to be done” in the campaign against Trump, and stressed that “we must not take anything for granted at this critical time.”
Harris was introduced at the fundraiser by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represented San Francisco in Congress for nearly four decades.
“Today is a wonderful day to welcome Kamala Harris home to California,” Pelosi said. “She makes all of us so proud. She brings us so much joy. She gives us so much hope.”
Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak at a campaign rally, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Julia Nickinson)
Pelosi, who remains a key Democratic power, was seen as crucial in persuading Biden last month to abandon his re-election bid and endorse Harris after his disastrous performance against Trump in a debate in late June.
Biden’s disjointed and incoherent answers during the debate raised questions about whether the 81-year-old president was physically and mentally capable of serving another four years in the White House and prompted calls across his party for him to end his 2024 presidential bid.
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After Biden repeatedly insisted he would continue the campaign, Pelosi’s comments in a high-profile television interview suggesting the president hadn’t yet decided whether to stay on or drop out were a signal to other Democrats to call on Biden to drop out of the race.
Pelosi, a longtime ally and friend of the president, has praised Biden’s work in the White House while criticizing his now-defunct reelection campaign.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged in a recent interview that there is no path for President Biden to win. (Left: (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images), Right: Photographer: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Harris was born near Oakland, California, and spent the first 12 years of her childhood in the Bay Area. She served as a prosecutor in Alameda County and then in San Francisco, where she was elected district attorney in 2002.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime ally of Harris and Biden’s first surrogate until the president decided not to seek reelection, also attended Sunday’s fundraiser.
Ticket prices for the event ranged from $3,300 at the gate up to $500,000, according to invitations obtained by Fox News.
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