‘There’s a renewed sense of hope’: Dems crank up campaign as Harris clinches nomination

Even before she crossed the delegate threshold to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee on Friday, Kamala Harris could hardly have asked for a better week.

There was her packed, star-studded rally in Atlanta. She’s in the final stages of selecting a running mate to fill out her ticket. A half-dozen top Democratic strategists, from David Plouffe to Stephanie Cutter, are joining the senior ranks of her campaign . And her campaign dropped a monster fundraising total, bringing in $310 million in July .

That financial advantage is already playing out on the airwaves : Harris’ team is spending $50 million in its newest ad buy, compared with $12 million from former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

“The campaign understands how important it is to define Harris early — to not give that opening to Trump,” said Dan Sena, a Democratic strategist. “The early spend is a twofold benefit to the campaign, to define and protect Harris while continuing to build a grassroots movement. … The campaign seems to be firing on all cylinders.”

On Friday, Harris gained “presumptive nominee” status, after the Democratic National Committee chair announced in a Zoom call that the vice president had already crossed the delegate threshold. Harris, who joined the call, said she “will officially accept your nomination next week, once the virtual campaign is closed. But already, I'm happy to know that we have enough delegates to secure the nomination.”

“Later this month, we will gather in Chicago, united as one party, where we're going to have an opportunity to celebrate this historic moment together,” Harris said.

Harris hitting the delegate threshold capped off a dramatic two-week stretch that upended the 2024 election — starting with an attempted assassination of Trump and ending with Democrats elevating the first Black woman as the party’s presidential nominee next week.

Still, as well as the week went for Harris, it was not without significant warning signs. On Friday, the Labor Department announced unemployment unexpectedly rose last month, while hiring tapered off, fueling concerns that the economy may be headed for a downturn. It was a chilling development for Democrats, who saw persistent inflation dog President Joe Biden’s reelection efforts until he withdrew from the race, and it could also rise as a serious threat to Harris’ campaign.

“For Harris, the one piece of bad news came from those economic numbers, not just [lack of] job [growth], but layoffs, with agriculture in a downturn, tech in a downturn, housing on the bubble,” said Doug Herman, a California-based Democratic strategist. “There are a lot of things that aren’t controllable that are going to impact the campaign, and they’ve gotten themselves in a position to capitalize on opportunities and mitigate against pitfalls.”

“So, the economy is a problem that they have to mitigate against,” Herman added.

Mark Longabaugh, a top strategist for Bernie Sanders’ campaigns, also warned that while Democrats are “giddy” right now, “we also have to be very cognizant that the bad guys are coming, and they’re coming right at us.”

“We have to be ready for Swift Boat, for Willie Horton,” Longabaugh said, citing the effectiveness of Republican attacks from the 2004 and 1988 presidential races. “The Republican playbook is pretty well-established, and we’ve got to be ready.”

The Trump campaign, for its part, called Harris a “weak, failed, and dangerously liberal” politician who “has proudly and repeatedly celebrated her role as Joe Biden’s co-pilot on ‘Bidenomics,’” in a statement from Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary.

For now, though, Harris appears to have momentum. A revitalized Democratic Party is reaching down into the battleground states, where the Harris campaign is sinking in its extra cash.

The vice president’s operation is doubling on-the-ground staff in North Carolina and Arizona, as well as hiring another 150 staffers in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania over the next two weeks, the campaign said. In the first 24 hours of Harris’ candidacy, the campaign received 2,000 new job applications to work on the campaign.

In Arizona, the Maricopa County Democratic Party is fielding 50 calls a day from new volunteers since Harris jumped to the top of the ticket, said the party’s chair, Patti O’Neil. In Michigan, Alysa Diebolt, chair of the Macomb County Democratic Committee, said that in the last week the party’s office has been flooded with requests for yard signs from supporters. They’re waiting to print them until after Harris announces her running mate.

"There's a renewed sense of hope," Diebolt said. "There's a lot more energy than there was a month ago."

That energy has also translated into small-dollar giving. Two-thirds of the $310 million that the Harris campaign raised in July came from people who donated $200 or less. A slew of Zoom calls — from Latinas for Harris to White Dudes for Harris — raised more than $20 million in recent days, the campaign said.

Harris is on the verge of another pivotal week, as she’s expected to reveal her vice presidential pick ahead of a five-day barnstorm through Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. She’s holding one-on-one interviews with some of the finalists at the end of this week. Her selection — and her appearances on the trail — will be closely scrutinized.

But Harris will also be formally nominated early next week, after the DNC opted for a virtual roll call, instead of in-person nomination in Chicago. Democrats feared a potential Republican-led legal challenge to the party’s ballot access in Ohio.

“We will gather in Chicago, united as one party, where we're going to have an opportunity to celebrate this historic moment together,” Harris said.

Liz Crampton contributed to this report.