El Paso County voters have mixed feelings about VP Harris as the Democratic candidate

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -  President Biden announced yesterday he's stepping aside to focus his efforts on his role as the president while Democrat leaders scramble to find a new candidate.

On Sunday night ActBlue, a nonprofit fundraising organization, reported the new Kamala Harris campaign raised $46.7 million less than 24 hours after her official announcement.

On Monday, the Harris Team announced that number grew to $81 million in the 24 hours since her announcement. The most money raised ever by a presidential campaign.

KRDO13 Investigates spoke to people on their lunch break downtown and overall it was a mixed bag.

Democratic voters are riding high saying they were even more excited to vote for VP Harris than they were for President Biden.

"I'm excited to vote for her. I think she's going to do an excellent job and I'm excited she is the nominee," said El Paso County voter, Alex McCreary-Ellis.

Locally, the El Paso County Democrats are seeing some of that energy too saying they've seen a large influx of volunteer requests. El Paso County Vice Chair Rob Rodgers believes this will continue until election day.

"The unity that emerged spontaneously and very, very fast is a really, really good sign about voter enthusiasm going into November," Rodgers said.

Everyone is feeling the new energy in the race, but not everyone is swept up in the Harris wave.

"I'm leaning towards voting for her, but I'm also interested in seeing kind of how the next few months go and how good of a candidate she is because I feel like, we haven't really seen her in the spotlight a whole lot," remarked El Paso County Voter, Bailey Glassford.

When asked if VP Harris winning the nomination would change his vote, El Paso County voter Ted Skroback said, "I don't think it changes [my vote]. I think, it just brings some more excitement and energy to that side of things."

Several other people told KRDO13 Investigates that the presumptive switch to Harris still won't do enough to draw them out to the ballot box this November.

On the other side of the party lines, local Republicans are saying there isn't unity in the democratic party.

El Paso county GOP chairwoman Vickie Tonkins told KRDO13 Investigates "The democrats are in total disarray.  It will be interesting to see what happens at the DNC. Follow the money, honey.  Republicans will win big in 2024."

In Colorado, Governor Jared Polis, Senators Hickenlooper and Bennet, and numerous Democratic elected officials in Colorado have announced their support of VP Harris' efforts to win the nomination.

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