A supporter holds a sign as members of the San Francisco Democratic Party rally in support of Kamala Harris, following the announcement by President Joe Biden that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, on July 22, 2024, at City Hall in San Francisco, California. Biden has endorsed Harris, the former San Francisco district attorney, to be the Democratic nominee. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)
A maxim attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca says luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.
This adage fits Democrats’ rising fortunes perfectly. After an agonizing period of fretfulness and deep depression, Dems find themselves in a place few could have imagined six months ago.
Until three weeks ago, Americans faced the grim prospect of two old white men — each bringing traits voters didn’t want or desire — locked in a bitter contest to decide who would lead the country. Poll after poll illustrated the depth of public unease about President Joe Biden, 81, going up against former President Donald Trump, 78.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump walks to speak to the media after being found guilty following his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024, in New York City. (Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)
Then something unexpected happened: Biden, bowing to concentrated pressure from Democratic leadership, rank-and-file politicians, and big-money donors, abandoned his chase for a second term. He promptly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, triggering the reawakening of the Democratic Party.
Over a whirlwind three weeks, the party has experienced a metamorphosis and has, for the first time in a long time, grabbed a firm hold of its destiny.
Harris sits atop the ticket. She and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — an unflappable former football coach, teacher, and ex-military man — are riding an enormous wave of popularity. Finally, the race has blossomed into a real competition.
Alarmed by Harris’ and Walz’s momentum and by their surge in the polls, Trump has tried and failed to blunt the campaign’s domination of the news cycle.
For someone like Trump, with his strange obsession with crowd sizes, the numbers that Harris and Walz are clocking are giving him serious heartburn.
Outpouring of support
The numbers are staggering: The Harris campaign took in more than $200 million in small-money donations during her first week as a presidential candidate; 66% are first-time donors; more than 200,000 volunteers signed up to help the Harris campaign with canvassing, answering telephones, and getting out the work.
Together, the pair raised more than $310 million in July.
Harris, and then Walz, have thrilled and invigorated the Democratic grassroots. African American women have led the way. Shortly after Harris’ entry into the presidential sweepstakes, ‘Win with Black Women,’ founded by Jotaka Eaddy, had 44,000 Black women and 50,000 more allies viewing a Zoom call. They raised more than $1.5 million in three hours. The Collective PAC’s 44,000 participants raised $1.3 million. “White Women: Answer the Call,” organized by Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, brought together nearly 200,000 women who raised $11 million.
‘Win with Black Men,’ led by attorney and commentator Bakari Sellers and journalist Roland Martin, with 53,000 contributors, generated more than $1.5 million, while 150,000 ‘White Dudes for Harris’ pulled together $4 million.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign’s 1,100 virtual attendees raised more than $300,000 and enlisted more than 1,500 volunteers to support Harris’ presidential campaign with the organization’s “Out for Kamala Harris” virtual event.
As Harris and Walz barnstorm across swing states, they’ve drawn enthusiastic and diverse crowds of 10,000 in Atlanta; 14,000 in Philadelphia; 15,000 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where a line of thousands stretched more than half a mile; more than 15,000 rapturous supporters in an airplane hangar in Michigan; and 15,000 at an event in Glendale, Arizona.
‘Freedom, compassion’
There are 80+ days left before the election. A lot can happen between now and then, but Harris and Walz have captured the imagination of a wary, weary, beaten-down electorate. Most Americans support their progressive agenda, including reproductive rights; paid family leave; workers’ rights; a childcare tax credit; “freedom, compassion, and rule of law.”
Not long ago, Republicans seemed on top of the world, crowing about the ease with which they would sweep Democrats in November. Some Trump advisers and others predicted a landslide. That may turn out to have been a pipedream.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on the stump in Iowa on Jan. 14, 2024. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
It’s hard to understand how Republicans, in their wisdom, never planned for contingencies should Biden opt out from a second term. Life is nothing if not interesting and, when you least expect it, it will upend your carefully ordered world with a wicked curveball or two.
Republicans were caught with their pants down, and when Biden promptly endorsed Harris, Democrats looked past their myriad differences and quickly coalesced around her.
It didn’t take long for Florida’s “fearless leader” to jump into the fray.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Twitter/X that “Harris was complicit in a massive coverup to hide and deny the fact that Joe Biden was not capable of discharging the duties of the office.” He described Harris as “the border czar during the worst border crisis in American history.”
And in a stunning example of irony, DeSantis characterized Democrats as “just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Perhaps DeSantis has been too busy with the weighty affairs of state to notice that Republicans are the ones who’re in full panic mode.
The old man in the race
Trump’s team structured their campaign around Biden; with Biden out, Trump, now the old man in the race, is rattled and off-balance, left to spew tired tropes questioning Harris’ race, gender, and ethnicity. Trump claims Harris is pretending to be Black, mispronounces her name, and tries to bait her, but both she and her running mate have ignored him and his sidekick J.D. Vance while defining who they are to the American electorate.
DeSantis and Trump are avatars of a racist, sexist, xenophobic political party that reflects a dystopian worldview, attempting to weaponize people’s deep fear and uncertainty about their daily lives, the present, and their futures.
The governor and what remains of the party have tried to tap into that fear to deepen ruptures along racial, class, and political lines. In Florida, DeSantis has worked tirelessly to demonize and endanger young people, the LGBTQ community, and trans children. He has banned abortion access, loosened gun laws, denied needy children food and protection, and packed the state Supreme Court with right wing extremists to do his bidding.
DeSantis’ run for the presidency, while attempting to satisfy his personal ambition, was also an effort to inject the entire country with his toxic brew of racial resentment, anger, and fury at the prospect of becoming a minority in the country they doggedly deem their own.
No one expected this spontaneous and unrehearsed explosion of support for the Harris-Walz ticket. Republicans — Trump in particular — are realizing this juggernaut is threatening to crush them.
Joyful alternative
Americans are tired of feeling exhausted, as evidenced by vast crowds eagerly embracing the Harris and Walz message, the music and dancing. Harris and Walz are the buoyant, joyful alternative, putting lie to Trump’s assertion that America “is a very, very sick country … it’s gonna get worse, it’s gonna get worse …”
The Harris-Waltz campaign has motivated a populace that had nowhere else to go. It is not lost on political pundits that Walz, a 60-year-old white man who hunts, fishes, and is unapologetic about his masculinity, is bringing white people, and white men in particular, into the Democratic tent.
And Millennials; Gen X’ers; disaffected traditional Republicans; the apathetic; and middle-of-the-road voters are responding to the possibilities the campaign offers. There is a growing belief that Harris and Walz are building a new “pro-democracy” movement that could expand the electorate and broaden the electoral map in ways that will make it easier for the campaign to reach 270 electoral votes.
If Harris and Walz win, America will have escaped the immediate danger of a second Donald presidency, but neither Trump, Christian nationalists, white evangelicals and his MAGA supporters are going away. So, we’d better buckle up because it’s gonna be a loooong ride.
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