Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday completed the first full week of her campaign to be president of the United States, a week full of questions about her fundraising, her policies, and how she polls against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
Harris raked in big donor dollars the past week, raising about $200 million in the first week alone according to the campaign, in large part due to thousands of first-time donors. The wave of donations is welcome news for Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic nominee heading into the August Democratic convention.
Harris’ campaign was also able to transfer about $90 million from the previous Biden-Harris re-election campaign account to her own coffers, though Trump’s campaign filed a legal complaint over that transfer, saying it was unlawful.
Harris nabbed several key endorsements from top Democrats the same week, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader in the Senate, and California governor Gavin Newsom, who was previously seen as a potential contender for the top of the ticket.
Even more important, though, was the endorsement from former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, who was seen as someone who could knock Harris out of the race if she ran.
“Earlier this week, Michelle and I called our friend [Harris],” the former president wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter alongside a video of Harris talking on the phone with the Obamas, a conversation that was widely criticized as being staged. “We told her we think she’ll make a fantastic President of the United States, and that she has our full support. At this critical moment for our country, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure she wins in November.”
Initially, Republicans appeared unsure of how to best attack Harris, with many at first calling her a “DEI hire,” an attack influenced by recent concerns that DEI hiring at the U.S. Secret Service helped facilitate the security failings that allowed the near-fatal assassination of Trump.
Later in the week, though, Republicans rallied around attacking Harris for her liberal record while in the Senate, releasing an ad blasting her pledge to ban fracking, offshore drilling, having fossil fuel workers “transition” to other jobs, and her support for the Green New Deal, though Harris has said she changed her mind on the fracking ban stance.
Fueling Republicans’ arguments, a page from nonpartisan group GovTrack that at one time labeled Harris “the most liberal” in all the Senate went viral online last week.
Immediately, Harris and other Democrats claimed Harris was not leading on the border issue as President Joe Biden’s “border czar,” and GovTrack took down the webpage calling Harris the most liberal senator, fueling criticism that the left-leaning corporate media was trying to whitewash her record.
Trump has released a barrage of attacks on Harris emphasizing her “radical left” and “Marxist” leanings. He attacked Harris for her handling of the Israel-Hamas war, after she skipped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress amidst the ongoing war.
“P.M. Netanyahu of Israel had a terrible and ‘insulting’ meeting in D.C. with Kamala Harris, who also refused to preside over Congress during his speech, which is an obligation of the V.P.,” Trump said in a statement. “Rarely has such a thing happened. Her ineptness will greatly prolong the war and delay the hostage release. The same people that embarrassed us in AFGHANISTAN with their gross incompetence, are the ones who are telling Israel not to fight any longer with Hamas. Forget October 7th, they say! Any Jewish person that votes for Kamala, or a Democrat, should immediately have their head examined. Likewise Catholics, who are being persecuted by this Administration, should not be voting for Radical Left Kamala.”
On Democrats’ side, the attacks appear consistently locked in on labeling Trump as a threat to democracy. To counter that, conservatives argue that it is Democrats who are undermining democracy by disenfranchising millions of voters who cast ballots for Biden to be their nominee. When Biden announced on social media last Sunday that he was stepping aside, he endorsed Harris, and most prominent Democrats have followed suit, rendering the primaries moot.
Democrats also hope to galvanize younger voters with Harris, who is 59, compared to Trump, who is 78 years old. Biden, who was under fierce pressure from his own party to step aside after his disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27, is 81.
In another post on TruthSocial, Trump attacked Harris for her record. During the Democratic presidential primary last time around, Harris took fire from Democrats for her work as a prosecutor jailing people for marijuana and then laughing about her own marijuana use on a popular radio show.
“Kamala Harris was the ORIGINAL Marxist District Attorney – she destroyed San Francisco, and she will destroy our Country,” Trump said. “Harris supports ending cash bail nationwide, which means releasing violent criminals immediately after arrest. She wants to abolish jail sentences for parole violators, she endorsed DE-FUNDING THE POLICE, and she sponsored a bill to strip police officers of legal protection, leaving our communities at the mercy of deranged criminals and violent mobs!”
Polling shows a close race for the two, though Trump continues to lead in several key swing states. A handful of polls conducted immediately after Harris’ announcement show that nationally the two are virtually tied.
As The Center Square previously reported, an Emerson College Poll shows that Trump leads Harris in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, key swing states, while the two are tied in Wisconsin.
“Harris has recovered a portion of the vote for the Democrats on the presidential ticket since the fallout after the June 27 debate,” Executive Director of Emerson College Polling Spencer Kimball said in the poll’s release. “Harris’ numbers now reflect similar support levels to those of Biden back in March.”
An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday examined vice presidential options for Harris, who has yet to announce her pick.
“Among the potential Democratic VP picks, [Transportation Secretary Pete] Buttigieg (54% offering an opinion) and [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom (also 54%) are the most known to the American public,” Ipsos said in its release. “However, [Arizona Sen. Mark] Kelly (22% favorable, 12% unfavorable), [Pennsylvania Gov. Josh] Shapiro (17% favorable, 13% unfavorable), [Kentucky Gov. Andy] Beshear (13% favorable, 9% unfavorable), and Buttigieg (29% favorable, 25% unfavorable) and have the most positive profiles among those familiar with them.”
Whether Harris is simply in a honeymoon phase and whether a presidential debate could again change the race remains to be seen.
