MILWAUKEE: Vice President Kamala Harris attacked Donald Trump on Tuesday at her first campaign rally since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, as a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll showed her with a marginal lead over Trump, the Republican nominee.
“In this campaign, I promise you that I will proudly compare my record to his every day of the week,” he told a cheering crowd of several thousand at West Allis Central High School, a Milwaukee suburb in Wisconsin, a crucial state in the Nov. 5 election.
“Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and the rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate?” he asked.
Harris led Trump 44% to 42% among registered voters in the national Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Monday and Tuesday after Biden withdrew from the race on Sunday and endorsed Harris as his successor.
Polls conducted before Biden's exit found Harris and Trump tied at 44 percent a week ago, while Trump had a one-percent lead earlier this month.
In all three cases, the difference was within the poll’s 3-point margin of error, but the results could signal limited movement in the Democrats’ direction and could suggest that Harris’s rise to the top of the ticket has dampened any momentum Trump may have gained since last week’s Republican National Convention, also in Milwaukee.
Harris quickly consolidated her party’s support after Biden, 81, abandoned his reelection campaign under pressure from members of his own party, who were concerned about his ability to beat Trump or serve another four-year term.
He ended his bid for the nomination on Monday night by securing the promise of a majority of delegates who will determine the nominee at next month’s party convention, the campaign said.
Most Democratic lawmakers have come out in support of her candidacy, including the party’s Senate and House leaders, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, who endorsed Harris at a joint news conference on Tuesday.
An unofficial poll of delegates by the Associated Press showed Harris with more than 2,500 delegates, well above the 1,976 needed for the nomination. Delegates could still change their minds, but no one else received votes in the AP poll; 54 delegates said they were undecided.
Harris's rise radically reshapes an election in which many voters were dissatisfied with their options.
Plagued by concerns about his health and the persistently high prices weighing on American household finances, Biden was losing ground to Trump in opinion polls, particularly in the competitive swing states likely to decide the election, including Wisconsin and the Sun Belt states of Arizona and Nevada.
CAMPAIGN RESET
The Wisconsin event provided another opportunity for Harris, the first Black and Asian-American woman to serve as vice president, to revitalize the Democratic campaign.
Harris has been raking in campaign contributions. Her campaign said Monday that it had raised $100 million since Sunday, surpassing the $95 million Biden’s campaign had in the bank at the end of June.
While a wave of Democratic Party leaders have come out in support of Harris, the racial justice group Black Lives Matter took issue with the party’s swift move on Tuesday.
He called for an early national virtual primary ahead of the Democratic National Convention Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, where the party will formally nominate its candidate.
“We are calling on the Rules Committee to create a process that allows for public participation in the nomination process, not just nomination by party delegates,” Black Lives Matter said in a statement to Reuters.
RUST BELT PUSH
Biden said on X that he would deliver a speech Wednesday night from the Oval Office to explain his decision to end the campaign. He was returning to Washington Tuesday after spending several days isolating at home with COVID-19. The president has tested negative and is no longer symptomatic, the White House physician said in a letter Tuesday.
Biden's dramatic exit followed Trump's narrow survival of a July 13 assassination attempt that raised questions about security lapses in the U.S. Secret Service. The agency's director, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned Tuesday after several lawmakers called for her resignation.
Trump and his allies have sought to tie Harris to some of Biden's less popular 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 utter incompetence. Her policies are Biden’s policies, and vice versa,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said.
Wisconsin is part of a trio of Rust Belt states, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, that are crucial to Democrats’ chances of defeating Trump.
“There are independents and young people who didn’t like their choices, and Harris has a chance to win them over,” said Paul Kendrick, executive director of the Democratic group Rust Belt Rising.
Milwaukee County Chairman David Crowley, a Democrat, said Harris could also help bring a crucial number of black voters back to the polls.
“A lot of them didn’t show up because they were distracted by his (Biden’s) age, distracted by his looks,” she said.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, in an interview on NBC's “Today” show, said the party must act quickly to get the nomination on the ballot in all 50 states and that the vice presidential nomination must be chosen by Aug. 7.
“This process will be fair, transparent, open, but it will also be fast,” Harrison said.
Possible candidates for vice president include Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, according to people familiar with the internal political discussions.
