Jannatul Fardous
The presumptive nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris to run for the Democratic Party in November’s presidential election continues to make waves in US politics.
The Harris campaign team said on Sunday that in her first week since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, and the party coalesced around her, the candidate raised over $200 million in donations.
“In the week since we got started, Kamala Harris has raised $200 million dollars. 66% of that is from new donors. We’ve signed up 170,000 new volunteers,” Harris’ deputy campaign manager, Rob Flaherty, posted on X, formerly Twitter.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal survey, Harris has cut Biden’s six-point disadvantage with Trump to just two points — well inside the margin of error — because to increased support from Black, Latino, and young voters.
But Republican pollster David Lee, who conducted the Journal study, warned Democrats not to get carried away with the race’s narrowing.
“Donald Trump is in a far better position in this election when compared to a similar time in the 2020 election,” according to Lee.
In the event that the race is tied nationwide, Trump will still have the upper hand due to the way the Electoral College elects presidents.
Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election despite losing the popular vote by roughly three million votes.
– ‘We are the underdogs’ –
“We are the underdogs in this race,” Harris acknowledged at a fundraising event on Saturday.
“But this is a people-powered campaign and we have momentum,” she added.
Former vice president Al Gore on Sunday joined the parade of high-profile Democrats who have endorsed Harris, emphasizing her record on the environment.
The Democratic convention in mid-August will attempt to sustain that momentum with a joyous celebration of Harris’ campaign.
Everything looked so different only a month ago.
Dogged by voter is concerned about his age and mental acuity, the 81-year-old Biden was an outsider at best, trailing his predecessor in the first presidential election rematch since Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson in 1956.
Biden’s disastrous performance in the June 27 debate aroused worry and panic inside his party.
The flames were fanned by a flawless show of unity behind 78-year-old Trump at the Republican National Convention — an event galvanized by a gunman’s failed bid, just days earlier, to assassinate the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania.
After an initial show of defiance, Biden bowed to the inevitable and dropped out of the race a week ago.
Harris, a generation younger at 59, threw her hat in the ring — turning what had been a stale contest between two unpopular, aging, white male candidates into a dynamic and unpredictable showdown.
The final result on November 5 will likely be determined by around 100,000 independent, undecided voters in a handful of battleground states that both campaigns will target exhaustively over the coming three months.
