By AAMER MADHANI, BILL BARROW, and MICHELLE L. PRICE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has raised $200 million since she emerged as the likely Democratic presidential nominee last week, an eyepopping haul in her race against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
The campaign, which announced its latest fundraising total on Sunday, said the bulk of the donations — 66% — comes from first-time contributors in the 2024 election cycle and were made after President Joe Biden announced his exit from the race and endorsed Harris.
Over 170,000 volunteers have also signed up to help the Harris campaign with phone banking, canvassing and other get-out-the-vote efforts. Election Day is 100 days away.
“The momentum and energy for Vice President Harris is real — and so are the fundamentals of this race: this election will be very close and decided by a small number of voters in just a few states,” Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director, wrote in a memo.
Her campaign said it held some 2,300 organizing events in battleground states this weekend as several high-profile Democrats under consideration to serve as Harris’ running mate stumped for her.
Harris campaigned in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday, drawing hundreds to a fundraiser that had been organized when Biden was still at the top of the Democratic ticket. The fundraiser had originally been expected to raise $400,000 but ended bringing in about $1.4 million, according to the campaign.
Mandy Robbins, 45, of Decatur, Georgia, drove to one of those organizing events Sunday in the northern suburbs of Atlanta to hear Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a potential Harris running mate.
She thought Biden did a “great job” in the White House, but acknowledged she “would not have been nearly this excited” if he remained in the race.
“I finally feel hopeful now,” Robbins said. She added, “We can win this with Harris”
Beshear spoke from experience to supporters, telling them their work could be the difference in what’s expected to be a close race. Beshear won his 2019 campaign by a margin of about 5,000 votes of 1.41 million ballots cast. He was reelected in November by a relatively comfortable margin.
“Every door knock mattered. Every phone call mattered. Every difficult conversation that people had with their uncle at Thanksgiving mattered,” Beshear said of his 2019 race. “Everyone here today that signs up to volunteer … you might be the difference in winning this race for Vice President Harris.”
Meanwhile, Trump, running mate Sen. JD Vance and their surrogates stepped up efforts to frame Harris as a far-left politician out of touch with with the American mainstream.
Vance said after a stop at a diner in Waite Park, Minnesota, on Sunday that Harris has “got a little bit of a bump from her introduction” but predicted it would soon dissipate.
“Look, the people are going to learn her record,” Vance said. “They’re going to learn that she’s a radical. They’re going to learn that she’s basically a San Francisco liberal who wants to take San Francisco policies to the entire country.”
Vance was echoing Trump, who in a campaign appearance with Vance in St. Cloud, Minnesota on Saturday, called Harris a “crazy liberal,” accused her of wanting to “defund the police” and said she was an “absolute radical” on abortion. Harris, a vocal proponent of abortion rights, has made clear that she will make Republican-backed efforts to restrict reproductive rights a key plank in her campaign.
“There is no liberal horse that she has chosen not to ride,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. “
Trump backer Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., also tried to brand Harris as a full partner for “a lot of the worst decisions of the Biden administration,” including the chaotic August 2021 pullout of U.S. troops led to the swift collapse of the Afghan government and military.
Cotton also accused Harris of emboldening Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah by pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over civilian casualties in the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu met separately with Harris and Biden at the White House on Thursday. Afterward, Harris said she urged Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire deal soon with the militant group Hamas so that dozens of hostages held by the militants in Gaza since Oct. 7 can return home. Harris said she also affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself but expressed deep concern about the high death toll in Gaza and the “dire” humanitarian situation there.
Tensions in the Mideast intensified on Saturday after Israeli authorities said a rocket from Lebanon struck a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 children and teenagers. The strike raised fears of a broader regional war between Israel and Hezbollah, which denied a role in the attack.
Trump at his Saturday rally said the Golan Heights incident “will go down as another moment in history created by a weak and ineffective United States president and vice president.” And Vance on Sunday accused Harris of being “a disaster” on the conflict.
Still, some Republicans are concerned that Harris’ entrance has given Democrats a spark and that Trump needs to recalibrate.
Gov. Chris Sununu, R-N.H., said Harris is in “honeymoon” period that will probably last a month, but he also said that both Trump and Vance should stop the personal attacks against Harris because those will not drive people to vote. Instead, he said they must stick to the issues and “stay away from the insults.”
He said Trump missed an opportunity to do that in recent campaign events, but “hopefully they can get back on track.” Sununu, however, acknowledged that ”nobody can get Donald Trump to do anything” he doesn’t want to do.
“But hopefully the numbers, the polls, will get Donald Trump to realize what was working and what didn’t,” Sununu said
Graham was on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Sununu was on ABC’s “This Week, and Cotton was on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
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Price reported from Waite Park, Minnesota, and Barrow from Cumming, Georgia. Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
