Vice President Kamala Harris has been the front-runner Democratic presidential nominee for less than 48 hours, but already the Democratic Party appears ready to move on from President Joe Biden and lean into the “electric” energy of her candidacy as donations and volunteer numbers soar.
Though Harris is seeing a boon in support from congressional Democrats and voters across the country, the vice president will have to overcome several roadblocks, such as the administration’s record and her ability to appeal to moderate voters as Republicans paint her as more liberal than Biden.
Biden’s dwindling support among key demographics, including black and young voters, paired with his declining physical and mental faculties, raised concerns among down-ballot Democrats that the president could be a liability for competitive swing seats and battleground states.
With Harris as the all-but-assured nominee, Democrats are seeing a boon in excitement and support that they have not seen with Biden in a long time.
“I just feel really good about the momentum of being able to put this debate behind us, to be able to have a candidate that we’ve all unified around,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told reporters when asked if she feels more confident with Harris as nominee than Biden.
Jayapal noted how more than 58,000 people have signed up to volunteer for Harris and her campaign raised over $100 million between Sunday and Monday evening. Democrats are noting the growing excitement within their base as a positive sign things are turning around, she said.
“That is the juice behind the campaign; that is the wind behind our sails,” Jayapal said. “That is the volunteers, that is the organizing, that is the door knocking that’s going to get people to care about the election and be able to see themselves in it. And I just think she’s a great candidate.”
With Biden as the candidate, Democrats dodged questions on the future of the party and their ability to win the White House, resigning to the fact that it was “Biden’s decision” whether to stay in the race. Now, the tide has turned, with members eager to talk about their presumptive nominee.
“If the last two days are any indication, the energy is electric,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) told the Washington Examiner.
Jayapal noted to reporters that she was never defeated and was “really pissed off at the fact that people kept talking about how we were resigned” with Biden as the nominee but added that there is “incredible” energy now.
When asked if Harris would rally voters in a way Biden could not, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) said he thinks she’ll be best at getting out the young vote.
“She’s certainly younger than both of the other candidates,” Ivey said. “So, you know, the people who are unhappy about these two people in their 80-plus-year-old range, they’ve got somebody new now to rethink that with, and I think she definitely strikes that image and carries it well.”
Harris’s team has been leaning on the many memes and videos circulating on social media, as well as endorsements from key celebrities and pop stars, as a way to appeal to young voters in a way that Biden, at age 81, could not. Priorities USA, the largest Democratic PAC, held a briefing on Tuesday and advocated prioritizing YouTube as a key way to draw in new voters, noting how much Harris is already motivating people online.
Though connecting with voters through social media can be a key campaign tool, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), the first member of Generation Z to be elected to Congress, said that Democrats, particularly front-line candidates, cannot take this momentum for granted.
“We got to do our job, right,” Frost said. “We can’t just say, ‘Oh, something’s going viral online’ and that’s it. We got to go out there and speak with these young voters and get them connected, registered to vote, and make sure they know when and where to vote.”
Another key demographic for Harris to focus on is the black vote. Biden won black voters handily in 2020, 92% to former President Donald Trump’s 8%, but polling over recent months showed black support for the president draining down to 50% or lower.
A Republican presidential candidate has not won more than 12% of the black vote in nearly 50 years. Conversely, no Democratic presidential candidate since the civil rights era has earned less than 80% of the black vote.
Brad Bannon, Democratic strategist and president of Bannon Communications Research, told the Washington Examiner that just “showing up and being a nominee” is a big asset for Harris to win over the black community.
“Young voters who are concerned about Biden’s age don’t have to worry, she doesn’t have to worry about that. She’s almost 20 years younger than Donald Trump,” Bannon said of Harris. “Voters who wanted black representation in the White House, she solved that problem just by showing up. I don’t think she has to do anything special.”
Bannon’s assessment aligns with the amount of support flowing out from the black community. On Sunday, 44,000 black women joined a call with black female congressional members with the goal to elect Harris as the next president in a little over 100 days.
Frost told the Washington Examiner that he was on a call with “tens of thousands” of black men rallying around Harris on Monday night.
“And I think that just shows she’s energizing black folks, black men, black women. … And I think it takes a special kind of leader to inspire this, like bridging this gap between cool and consciousness, and I think we see that with the vice president right now on TikTok and on social media,” Frost said. “So, now we gotta go out there and translate that into votes.”
At a Congressional Black Caucus press conference Tuesday, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) predicted Harris’s candidacy would drive the black vote to numbers higher than Biden saw in 2020.
“I thought that what I saw in 2008 could never be duplicated,” Meeks said. “I thought that I thought that that interest would fade away. But let me tell you, what we are seeing right now goes farther than what I saw at the beginning of 2008.”
“The one time in my life where I saw lines around the block of people waiting to vote, taking their time, making sure they had the right to vote and they were going to vote was 2008 — that, I will say, will be shattered in 2024 in November,” Meeks, who chairs the CBC’s political action committee, continued.
Meeks said the CBC PAC will target battleground states and predominately black areas, like Detroit, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, and Atlanta in the coming weeks to garner support for Harris.
“When you see those lines coming out in those areas, then you know what’s coming next — the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris,” Meeks said.
Ahead of Biden’s decision to withdraw from the campaign, concerns over Harris as the nominee centered largely around her ability to draw in moderate and white middle-class voters. Bannon noted, however, that many of the middle-class targets are suburban women, who will be excited to see a female candidate running for president.
“One of the advantages of her being on the ticket is, it gives women a cause to rally around her since we’ve never had a female president,” Bannon said.
He added that another way to attract moderate white voters is for Harris to draw on her experience as a prosecutor and attorney general in California and target Trump’s age now that she is the younger candidate.
“The reality is, if you look at those moderate voters, they’re concerned about, you know, Trump’s fitness for office, the felony convictions, finding the liability for sexual assault,” Bannon said. “Moderate suburban voters are concerned about those issues.”
At her meeting with campaign staff at the newly revamped Harris headquarters in Delaware, the vice president highlighted her prosecuting record against those convicted of sexual assault, fraud, and “cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.”
“So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type,” Harris told campaign volunteers and staffers to loud applause.
Goldman said if Harris focuses on conveying the message of the Biden-Harris administration’s record, she will see success with those voting blocs.
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Goldman said Harris should compare the policy differences between the administration and Project 2025, a conservative presidential transitional platform written for Trump but not endorsed by the former president. The New York Democrat also pointed to affordable healthcare, the child tax credit, and the increase in manufacturing jobs under Biden.
“Every goal of the Democrats and the Biden-Harris administration has been to lift up the lower class and expand the middle class, and that is what many of those voters are,” Goldman said. “So our challenge is to get out there and make sure that working Americans understand that Democrats are on their side and that the Republicans are on the side of their wealthy, special interests and the millionaires and billionaires.”
