If Democrats elect US Vice-President Kamala Harris in August at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago then it will be the second time in more than two centuries of democracy, American voters will get to choose whether they will pick a woman to lead them.
They have elected only one Black president and never a woman.
Kamala Harris would just not crash through the hardest ceiling in US politics if elected but would also become the first Indian American, the first Asian, the first Black woman and the first person of Jamaican descent to ascend to the office.
A report by CNN said that to ensure that this possibility becomes a reality, Harris’ alma mater, Howard University’s sorority group Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc have already started sending cheques to the Harris campaign.
The broadcaster’s report also revealed that there has been a major financial turnaround for Democrats since US President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
A major donor to Joe Biden, who was opposed to Harris’ presidential ticket, said there is no point for him to withhold back his money and even if he decided to fund Harris’ campaign it would be akin to ‘pouring coffee in a full coffee cup’ while speaking to the Washington Post.
Dmitri Mehlhorn, a donor adviser and Democratic strategist, said that Joe Biden’s dropping out was an act of sacrifice which has sent Democrat donors and party workers into a sacrifice mode.
“The financial situation is optimized for Democrats because the pressure campaign against Biden created a huge amount of tension that could have broken the Dem campaign organizations,” Mehlhorn said while speaking to the newspaper.
“But it didn’t break. It snapped back like a bolt or catapult. Joe’s sacrifice has put people in the mode of sacrifice,” he further added.
Increased Cash Flow
An adviser for Harris told the Washington Post that Kamala Harris’ detractors are also opening their wallets to contribute to her campaign.
“It’s intense. It’s bonkers. It’s everybody,” an adviser said.
ActBlue, the fundraising platform for the Democratic Party, reported raising nearly $47 million in just seven hours after Biden’s announcement on Sunday. Over the course of Sunday and Monday, the platform recorded a total of around $67 million in donations for all candidates and causes, the newspaper revealed.
Harris’ campaign reported raising $100 million between Sunday and Monday evening across all its fundraising committees, significantly exceeding the $53 million that Trump’s campaign raised after his May conviction in a Manhattan business fraud case. According to Harris’ campaign, over 1.1 million donors contributed, with 62% of them being first-time donors this election cycle.
Moreover, the 1.1 million contributors in 41 hours represent 1.4 percent of the 81.3 million people who voted for Biden in the 2020 general election. Kamala Harris also enjoys warm ties with Silicon Valley bigwigs as she was an attorney general and a senator representing California.
Will This Be Enough
Kamala Harris opened up a marginal two-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and passed the torch to her, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Harris, whose campaign says she has secured the Democratic nomination, led Trump 44% to 42% in the national poll, a difference within the 3-percentage-point margin of error.
A pollster with Trump’s campaign played down any polling showing an increase in Harris’ support, arguing that she was likely to see a temporary rise in popularity because of widespread media coverage of her new candidacy.
“That bump is likely to start showing itself over the next few days and will last for a while,” pollster Tony Fabrizio said in a memo circulated to reporters by Trump’s campaign.
Some 56% of registered voters agreed with a statement that Harris, 59, was “mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges,” compared to 49% who said the same of Trump, 78.
That has not deterred Trump who believes defeating Kamala Harris ‘would be easy’.
The Trump campaign has insisted it is prepared for Harris’ candidacy, arguing she serves as a proxy for Biden on the economic and immigration policies that contributed to his sinking popularity with voters.
On Tuesday, Trump took the unusual step of speaking to reporters on a conference call to underscore his campaign’s line of attack on the border, saying Harris was partially responsible for a record flow of migrants.
“She’s a radical left person, and this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it,” Trump said on the call. “She wants open borders. She wants things that nobody wants.”
(with inputs from Reuters)
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