Vice President Kamala Harris‘ allies are privately discussing what his candidacy would look like if he were to become president Joe Biden dropped out of the race for White Houseand how they can help Biden after Thursday’s disastrous debate performance, according to people familiar with the matter.
The conversations were conducted over phone calls and text messages between some of the people who raised money for the vice president in the failed 2020 campaign. Democratic The primary campaign against Biden and other candidates, these people explained.
Key issues include whether Harris will control the massive Biden-Harris campaign war chest run by the Biden team if the president drops out of the race.
Harris emerged as the early favorite to replace the president at the top of the ticket, but that Democratic National Convention There will be no more contenders and a potentially messy battle for the nomination in Chicago.
According to Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris will likely have the keys to most of the money. he admitted rules during the final call with party donors. According to Federal Election Commission records, Biden’s campaign began in June with $91 million in cash. Including the whole political operation Biden’s Joint fundraising committees came in with $240 million in July, according to the campaign.
There are discussions among Harris confidantes about the need to begin scheduling meetings for the vice president with some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors if Biden leaves, these people said.
Harris’ allies are pushing other donors and party officials to reconsider the potential benefits the vice president’s policy portfolio could bring to the Democratic campaign platform: His focus reproductive rightshis propaganda Black constituencies and marginalized communities and its notes In February, he emphasized the strength of US support in Germany Ukraine According to a person familiar with the engagement, in the fight against Russian occupation.
Some of Harris’ former fundraisers are also sending old one-minute messages video It reflects the vice president’s acceptance of former President Donald Trump’s appointees while he was a U.S. senator, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. It shows clips of Harris confronting the likes of former attorneys general Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions and later Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The video also underscores a key message, they say: Harris’ willingness to confront Trump’s allies shows he has what it takes to take on the former president. “Going head-to-head with Trump, Kamala will use her backbone, her values and her experience as a prosecutor to expose Trump,” the ad proclaims.
The video was made for a political action committee called Strong People, which Harris never fully activated because he dropped out of school. 2019 shortly after its creation. The PAC reportedly earmarked about $300,000 worth of advertising in the Iowa primary, but the ads did not run because Harris was released before the state’s caucus.
White House spokesmen for Harris and the Biden campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Any discussion of what it might take for Harris to win the convention race for the nomination was unthinkable for Democrats ahead of Thursday’s debate, where Biden tried to make a re-election bid and failed to hold off Trump.
Biden’s poor debate performance has significantly changed the mood among donors, with many privately discussing the need for the president to step aside to give the party the best chance to defeat Trump in November.
For example, the donors who posted the video have been “all confused, scared and sad” since the controversy, said a longtime strategist close to many of California’s top fundraisers. “They are desperate to defeat Trump.”
Dmitri Mehlhorn, a longtime adviser to Democratic donors, including tech investor Reid Hoffman, said in an email to allies shared with CNBC on Wednesday that while he continued to support Biden, Harris said he would be a solid alternative to deal with. and potentially defeat Trump.
“Let me be clear, Vice President Harris is a villain. A top ticket with someone who balances his trademark weaknesses (examples include Mark Kelly to Andy Bechard to Roy Cooper to Josh Shapiro and many others) can absolutely compete with a convicted felon on the other side of criminal insanity. I have committed to nominating his candidacy,” wrote Mehlhorn. “We’d lose Joe’s brand of superpower, but we’d gain other advantages and still be competitive.”
Biden’s team said the president is not out of the race. Meanwhile, Harris remains committed and plans to have dinner with the president at the White House on Wednesday.
Despite his public promise that he would not drop out, The New York Times and CNN reported on Wednesday that Biden had told an ally that he could not save his candidacy.
The spokesman of the White House, Andrew Bates, strongly denied this news in his post on the social network. CNBC and NBC News have not independently confirmed the conversation.
Harris defended the president’s debate performance to a group of former donors in San Francisco on Tuesday.
The event was at the home of real estate executive Susan Lowenberg, and the crowd included former Harris donors from her days as a San Francisco District Attorney, according to the pool report.
“We have to fight and we know how to fight,” Harris told the crowd. “When we fight, we win”
Since the debate, there has been a chorus of party donors, mostly in private, and a group questioning whether several MPs voted in public. Biden it is his duty to be president for four more years, and if not, it is right for him to be the party’s candidate in November.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, came in first Democratic A lawmaker in Congress on Tuesday to call on Biden to resign.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Jim Clyburn, D-Calif., longtime Biden allies, said in interviews on MSNBC that it was fair for voters to ask about Biden’s health after his debate performance.
“I think, ‘Is this an episode or is this a condition?’gives an interviewnoted that the question should be asked to both Biden and Trump.
The requests There has been a mixed message for Biden since the debate.
A CNN poll shows Trump leading Biden nationally by six percentage points, the same as the network’s national poll in April.
But 75% of those polled say anyone other than Biden would have a better chance of defeating Trump.
Harris’ stock has also started to rise in online betting pools on who will be the Democratic presidential nominee.
PredicIt, which allows people to bet on political events, now ranks second only to Vice President Biden.
Before the debate, PredictIt ranked Biden’s chances for the party’s nomination this year so far behind him that he beat the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.