Kamala Harris has officially won the Democratic presidential nomination, setting the stage for the general election battle against Donald Trump.
The Democratic Party announced on Friday that Ms Harris had secured the backing of a majority of delegates in a virtual vote taking place between now and next week to formally pick the party’s presidential nominee. The 59-year-old vice-president is the first black woman to lead a major party ticket in a US presidential election.
Harris’s ascent to the Democratic nomination comes as her campaign said it had raised $310 million in July, eclipsing the funds raised by Mr Trump’s campaign last month, in a new sign that Democratic donors are eagerly jumping in to finance the vice-president’s White House bid.
Mr Trump’s campaign revealed on Thursday that it raised $139 million last month, as the former president became the subject of an assassination attempt, triggering an outpouring of sympathy for him, and the Republican Party held its convention in Wisconsin.
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The surge in fundraising for Ms Harris marks the latest twist in a battle for campaign funds that has accompanied the race for the White House this year.
While Mr Trump was lagging behind in fundraising early this year, he had caught up in recent months, tapping wealthy Republicans from Silicon Valley to Wall Street to support his bid for a second term, even though some had supported other candidates in the primary contest.
But the Democrats are bouncing back. The Harris campaign had already said it had raised $200 million during the first week since Joe Biden dropped out of the race in favour of the vice-president on July 21st, and the figures released on Friday show the fundraising performance was even stronger.
While the Trump campaign said it had $327 million in cash on hand as of the end of July, the Harris campaign said it had $377 million in cash on hand. Combined with Mr Biden’s fundraising efforts before he dropped out, the Democrats have now raised more than $1 billion for their presidential campaign.
The Harris campaign will be hoping that it can further boost its fundraising after the vice-president chooses her running mate in the next few days and they start campaigning together, starting with a rally on Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Ms Harris plans to meet the top contenders this weekend, according to two sources familiar with the process. The contenders include Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, US senator Mark Kelly, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and Illinois governor JB Pritzker, the sources said.
Some candidates on the shortlist have already rescheduled or delayed plans over the next few days, indicating they needed to clear some time for a face-to-face interview.
The Democratic convention in Chicago that begins on August 19th will also be a chance for Ms Harris to fill her campaign coffers. According to the FiveThirtyEight.com national polling average, Ms Harris is leading Mr Trump by 1.5 percentage points, whereas Mr Biden was trailing Mr Trump when he dropped out of the race.
The Democratic National Committee’s newest advertising campaign, launched on Friday, taunts Mr Trump for not committing to a debate with Ms Harris and is set to follow him on the campaign trail.
The committee has purchased large ads that dominate the digital home pages of major local newspapers in states where Mr Trump plans to campaign in the coming weeks. The advertisements say “the convicted felon is afraid to debate” and question whether that is due to his stance on abortion.
The first ads are running on the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s home page ahead of Mr Trump’s visit to the Georgia capital on Saturday, and the committee said the advertising campaign would follow him through local news outlets at each rally stop. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024. Additional reporting: Reuters.
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