Kamala Harris’s campaign announced on Sunday that it has raised $200 million (Sh.25.9 billion) and gained 170,000 new volunteers in the week since she became the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, Republicans have continued to criticize Harris’s role as vice president.
President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign last Sunday and endorsed Harris for the November 5th election against former President Donald Trump.
Rob Flaherty, Harris’s deputy campaign manager, posted on X, “In the week since we got started, @KamalaHarris has raised $200 million dollars. 66% of that is from new donors. We’ve signed up 170,000 new volunteers.”
Recent polls, including one by Reuters/Ipsos, show Harris and Trump nearly tied, indicating a closely contested election with 100 days to go.
In early July, Trump’s campaign reported raising $331 million in the second quarter, surpassing the $264 million raised by Biden’s campaign and its Democratic allies.
At the end of June, Trump’s campaign had $284.9 million in cash on hand, while the Democratic campaign had $240 million.
Harris has received the support of a majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention, ensuring she will become the party’s nominee next month.
“So our vice president is the presumptive nominee. We will have the official vote on August 1,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison told MSNBC on Sunday.
Biden withdrew from the race due to concerns about his age and health after a poor debate performance against Trump in late June. He pledged to remain in office until his term ends on January 20, 2025.
Harris’s entry into the race has revitalized the campaign, which had been struggling due to doubts about Biden’s ability to defeat Trump or govern effectively if he won.
Polls showed Trump leading Biden, especially in battleground states, but Harris’s candidacy has changed the race dynamics.
A New York Times/Siena College national poll published Thursday found Harris has narrowed Trump’s lead, while a Wall Street Journal poll published Friday showed Trump with a two-point lead over Harris.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published July 23 showed a two-point lead for Harris.
Republican attacks on Harris, the first woman and first Black and South Asian person to serve as U.S. vice president, have increased since she became the likely Democratic nominee.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who endorsed Trump after failing to secure the Republican nomination, told Fox News that Harris was “incredibly vapid” and predicted Democrats would try to distance her from Biden administration policies.
“They have to whitewash Harris’s background to make her palatable to the American people,” DeSantis said.
Some Trump allies, including members of the “Black Americans for Trump” coalition, caution that attacking Harris could harm Trump’s support among Black voters, a key demographic in the November 5th election.
Harris’s campaign did not immediately respond to DeSantis’s comments.
Mitch Landrieu, a campaign co-chair, told MSNBC that Harris “had one of the best weeks that we’ve seen in politics in the last 50 years.”
“This is going to be a very close race,” he said.
Trump’s fundraising surged after his conviction in late May on felony charges related to a hush-money payment to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
An assassination attempt against him this month is also expected to boost campaign contributions.
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