Democrat’s rise slows momentum tycoon had since Republican Convention: poll
▲ Vice President Kamala Harris, yesterday, at a campaign event in Wisconsin.Afp Photo
Reuters and AP
The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, July 24, 2024, p. 26
Milwaukee. Vice President Kamala Harris lashed out at Donald Trump at her first campaign rally since replacing President Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee on Tuesday, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll showing her with a slight lead over the Republican challenger.
In this campaign I promise you that I will proudly put my record against yours any day of the week.he told several thousand supporters at West Allis Central High School in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a battleground state for the November 5 election.
Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or in a country of chaos, fear and hatred?asked.
Harris leads Trump 44 percent to 42 percent among registered voters in a Reuters/Ipsos national poll conducted Monday and Tuesday after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed the incumbent vice president as his replacement.
Previous polls had Harris and Trump tied at 44 percent a week ago and the Republican ahead by one percentage point earlier this month.
In all three cases, the difference is within the poll’s 3-point margin of error, but the results could indicate some limited movement in the Democrats’ direction — and suggest that Harris’ rise to the front of the ticket has slowed any momentum Trump may have gained at the Republican National Convention.
Harris quickly consolidated her party’s support after Biden, 81, abandoned his re-election campaign on Sunday following weeks of calls from within his own party to end his candidacy, questioning his ability to beat Trump or complete another term.
Harris secured the nomination by securing a commitment from a majority of the delegates who will determine the nominee at next month’s party convention, her campaign said.
Support from leaders
Most Democratic lawmakers backed her, including the party’s leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, who supported her yesterday in a joint press conference.
An unofficial poll of delegates by the AP showed Harris with more than 2,500 delegates, well above the 1,976 needed to win a vote in the coming weeks. Delegates could still technically change their minds, but no one else received a vote in the AP poll, and about 54 delegates declared themselves undecided.
Harris’s rise radically changes an election in which many voters were unhappy with their choices.
Burdened by concerns about his age and high prices that continue to weigh on the economy, Biden had been losing ground to Trump in the polls, especially in states likely to determine the election, including Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada.
The Wisconsin rally offered another opportunity for Harris, the first black woman to hold the vice presidency, to reinvigorate the Democratic campaign.
Harris, whose father was from Jamaica and her mother from India, has also been raising money for her campaign, which announced the day before yesterday that it has received $100 million since Biden dropped out, surpassing the $95 million the Biden campaign had in the bank at the end of June.
While a large number of Democrats have lined up behind Harris, the racial justice group Black Lives Matter yesterday questioned the speed with which her candidacy was decided.
He called for holding a virtual national primary before the Democratic National Convention, which will be held from August 19 to 22 in Chicago, where the party will designate the nominee.
Biden posted on X that he would deliver a speech tonight to explain his decision to end his campaign. Biden’s dramatic exit was announced after Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13.
Trump and his allies have sought to tie Harris to some of Biden’s most unpopular policies, including his administration’s handling of the surge of migrants at the southern border with Mexico.
Kamala Harris’s dismal record is one of complete failure and total incompetence. Her policies are the same as Biden’s, and vice versasaid Trump spokesman Steven Cheung.
Wisconsin is among a trio of Rust Belt states that include Michigan and Pennsylvania that are critical to Democrats’ chances of defeating Trump.
There are independents and young people who didn’t like their options, and Harris has a chance to win them over.said Paul Kendrick, executive director of the Democratic group Rust Belt Rising.