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      ‘I was not voting before, now I am’: gen Z voters on what they think of Kamala Harris

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      American gen Z voters share how they feel about Kamala Harris’s presidential bid, why they like or dislike her as a candidate and whether they think she could beat Donald Trump, as the vice-president races towards winning the Democratic nomination for November’s election.‘I think she’s just what we need’“I think [Kamala Harris] is the only one that makes sense. She will get the votes Biden couldn’t. She could get the Black, Asian, Latino, women’s, LGBTQ+ and youth votes. She stands more for progress and equality than an old white dude and if she wins it will be historic. The Democrats need a bold move and I think she’s just what we need.“I hope the Democrats realize what an opportunity this is for them.” Will, 22, construction worker from Portland, Oregon‘We are fired up’“I have so much renewed passion and hope now that Kamala is the endorsed candidate. She made history when she was elected VP and I believe she can make history again. I get emotional just thinking about it. And despite having just purchased a new home and having hardly any extra cash lying around, my husband and I just donated $100 to a campaign for the first time this election cycle. We are fired up.“My concern is we are facing a self-fulfilling prophecy; that people think it’s an impossible task to elect a Black woman to the highest office and as a result it becomes one. I think it’s quite the opposite actually. I feel Kamala is just what we need to energize young voters and get them to the polls.” Lizzie, 28, engineer from Idaho‘I’m concerned that she is silly or not serious’“I feel mixed about it. I am a Democrat and at first I thought: ‘Oh well, we’re stuck with Joe we’ll get him elected if it means no Donald Trump.’ Then after the debate I thought: ‘Omg this guy is way too old!’ I guess Biden seemed so set on still running I thought he would never drop out. I liked Kamala when she ran back in 2020 but I’m not sure how I feel about her today.“My biggest concern with her is this perception that she is silly, or not serious. She laughs in every interview and the “You think you fell out of a coconut tree? You are the sum of everything … ” is a huge meme on TikTok. I guess I wouldn’t say it paints her in a horrible light, but I just think people don’t take her seriously.” Georgie, 25, research associate from Massachusetts‘Kamala is not perfect, but I’m more optimistic now than with Biden’“I and everyone I know are THRILLED that Kamala Harris is now leading the ticket. Joe Biden could not win. Kamala is not a perfect candidate, but she can campaign; she is running against the oldest major party nominee in history; she can make the case for a new Democratic administration. Joe Biden could do none of these things, so while I think Democrats still face an uphill battle, I am infinitely more optimistic now that we have a likely nominee who is physically and mentally capable of running an energetic campaign.“Kamala is not a perfect candidate, and I probably would have supported someone else if Biden had stepped down a year ago. I’m worried that she will struggle to differentiate herself from the administration’s policy on Gaza (as Hubert Humphrey struggled to differentiate himself from the Johnson administration’s policy on Vietnam), that she’ll be blamed for voters’ dissatisfaction with the status quo, and, of course, she will certainly face racist and sexist headwinds that Biden did not. BUT, and it’s a big ‘but’, I thought Biden was a certain loser after the debate, so even if Harris’s chances to win are 30%, that’s still better than 0%. I don’t have any concerns about her ability to do the job if elected, and I think she is perfectly capable of running a winning campaign, at least in theory.” Peter, 27, museum educator from Indiana‘That Harris was picked by delegates, not voters, is a disaster for her campaign’“I watched the 2019 debates (eg Harris’s inability to perform under pressure from opponents like Tulsi Gabbard) and her recent interviews (eg her disastrous response to Lester Holt when asked if she’d been to the border) and don’t think she’s the strongest the Democratic party can offer. She doesn’t bring the fact-based, logical responses needed to counter a populist candidate like Trump nor does she present clear policy beyond typical stump-speech moralizing.“I’d rather have Pete Buttigieg to be honest and feel deeply, horribly cheated because the Democratic candidate isn’t going to be chosen by a primary vote, instead relying on a couple thousand delegates in Chicago.“I’d feel better if she were at least chosen by the American people instead of being sweethearted because Biden picked her for VP. It all leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I’ll have a hard time backing Harris until there’s a broad-scale democratic process to ballast her presidential bid.“The Trump campaign is going to villainize Harris and the Democratic party over the lack of primary voting to support Harris’s candidacy. This narrative feeds exactly into the anti-establishment, deep-state messaging central to the Trump campaign, and the sad thing is that the Trump campaign will have a point: Harris was not picked by voters, she was picked by delegates. It’s a disaster for any campaign she’d hope to launch, and based on Harris’s past performances under fire, she will have no effective argument against Trump’s accusations.” Michelle, 26, from Wisconsin‘I think she can do great things’“It will be refreshing for someone new to take the lead. [Harris] has got experience, she is young and passionate. Let’s see if she can make positive changes. This country needs a levelheaded individual, not a pushover or tyrant. I think she can do great things.“I just hope she is smart and strong enough to not continue to support war and the crackdown on immigrants.“This country was built on the foundation of immigrants and the pursuit of fairness and equity. I don’t mind the basis of what it means to be a Republican but their agenda has really changed over the years. We need to support each other as people; I just hope others get over their greed so we can do just that.” Lee Ocasio, 28, medical assistant from New York‘I hope she’ll restore Roe v Wade’“I am anxious for the results, but if she’s got a good chance at victory, I’m in full support. I had switched back and forth on supporting a Biden withdrawal, but what’s done is done now.“I’m a little worried about her policies. From what I’ve read this far, she doesn’t seem to have much of a stance or plan for things like Palestine, immigration or inflation, but if she can restore Roe v Wade, she will have 110% of my support.” Kaleb Stanton, 24, grocery store worker from New Mexico‘She’ll be a tougher candidate to beat than Biden’“I have been worried about the lack of enthusiasm about Biden’s candidacy, particularly among young voters, and the implications that could have on turnout. Virtually all indicators have pointed to a strong economy under Biden; however, I think many young people feel like there is less opportunity for them today than there was for prior generations.“For this reason, I think it is unsurprising that there would be a lack of enthusiasm to support Biden or Trump because of their age (regardless of their ability to do the job or not).“I think that VP Harris will be a harder opponent for Republicans to run against. Consider the matchup: a 78-year-old male Republican nominee recently found guilty on felony charges, and responsible for appointing three supreme court justices that helped overturn Roe v Wade versus a 59-year-old female (likely) Democratic nominee with a background as a former prosecutor. Harris will be able to hammer Republicans on abortion/reproductive health, contrast her own ‘law & order’ background with Trump’s felon status, and offer a younger option to voters that were concerned about Biden’s (and Trump’s!) age.“I think Harris also has strengths that bring previously competitive southern states back into play in a way that Biden couldn’t in 2024. Harris would be the first female president, first female African-American president, and first Asian-American president. She represents America’s cultural melting pot in a way that no previous presidential candidate has and I believe this could help boost African- and Asian-American turnout, two historically strong Democratic voter bases that some polls have shown to be slightly wavering in their support in recent years.” Anonymous policy researcher at a thinktank in their 20s‘She appeals way more to gen Z than Biden’“[Kamala Harris] is a much better candidate for the country, and appeals way more to gen Z voters than Biden did. I was not voting before, and now I am.” Javier, 25, a gay Latino voter from New York More

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      Democrats are poised to win. But only if they make the election about Trump | Michael Podhorzer

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      Now that Kamala Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee, you’ll be hearing a lot of speculation about how she might poll against Trump. What if I told you that the polls are almost immaterial to the final election result? Instead of making much ado about who is up and who is down, let’s keep our eyes on a different question – in October, what will voters think this election is about?The evidence of voter behavior over the last eight years paints a clear picture of what lies ahead. Critically, we can’t use polls today to predict this outcome. That’s because the winner in November will be determined by what, to most voters, the election seems to be “about” by the time voting starts. This will determine whether the voters Democrats need to win will turn out, or stay home.There are two possible scenarios for what the election will be “about”. We could have what I call the “Maga election”, where the election is “about” what Trump will do if he is returned to the White House to continue to roll back freedoms Americans have taken for granted, and to further tip the balance of power to plutocrats. Or we could have what I call the “normal election”, where the election is “about” anything else – Democrats’ governing record, prices and crime rates.If it’s a Maga election, Trump will almost certainly lose. If it’s a normal election, he will almost certainly win.Since Trump’s shocking victory in 2016, we have had the same basic election over and over. The basic question of that election is: should we live in a Maga future or not? Every time voters have understood these stakes, they have turned out in record numbers to reject Maga. This trend started with the “blue wave” in 2018, it continued with Biden’s victory in 2020, and it defied pollsters’ predictions of a “red wave” in 2022.But here’s something most people don’t know about 2022: it was a natural experiment that clearly showed the difference between a Maga election and a normal election. Most states really did see the predicted red wave. But a blue undertow in the electoral college battleground states stopped Maga short of total victory. In those battlegrounds, the election was “about” Maga. In all of them, a Maga candidate had a credible chance of winning a major statewide race – and Democrats won. But everywhere else, we saw a normal election dominated by “normal” issues – and Democrats lost.You might have heard talk about how Biden and Democrats need a “low turnout” election to win, but the opposite has been true. In the 2022 Maga elections, as many people voted as had in the highest turnout election ever, four years before. But, in the normal elections, they did not. Nationwide, 6% fewer people cast ballots in 2022 than in 2018. And, in the three states I call the “blue state blues” – California, New Jersey and New York – fully 11% fewer ballots were cast in 2022 than in 2018. Those three states alone cost Democrats six seats and control of the House of Representatives.Why did this happen? Simple. People turn out to vote if they think they have something to lose by staying home. In the battleground states, Maga candidates like Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano posed a credible threat to the way of life of people who lived there. The blue state blues, on the other hand, lulled too many voters into complacency. It was extremely unlikely for Maga to actually take away abortion rights or voting rights in their backyard. It never occurred to them, and the media never made it clear enough to them, that their failure to vote could hand Maga the keys to the House of Representatives.The people who surged to the polls to give Democrats victories in 2018, 2020 and 2022 were not “swing voters” in the sense we typically imagine. These voters were not undecided between Trump or Biden; they were undecided about whether to vote at all. And they wouldn’t have voted if they didn’t feel their freedoms were on the line – freedom to control their bodies, breathe clean air, drink clean water and live free from oppressive minority rule. America has an anti-Maga majority that will come off the sidelines to stop these freedoms from being taken away. But if they don’t believe their freedoms are really at stake, they just won’t vote.I’m not saying the top of the Democratic ticket won’t impact the results. I am saying that when we think about America’s future, only one question really matters: will this person help or hurt our chances of having a Maga election in November?

      Michael Podhorzer, the former longtime political director of the AFL-CIO, is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, the chair of the Analyst Institute, the Research Collaborative and the Defend Democracy Project and writes the Substack Weekend Reading. More

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      Trump nephew reveals Uncle Donald’s racist outburst in new book

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      In a new book, Donald Trump’s nephew recalls the future US president, at the start of his New York real estate career, surveying damage to a beloved car and furiously using the N-word.The shocking scene appears in All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way by Fred C Trump III, which will be published in the US next Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy.“‘Niggers,’ I recall him saying disgustedly. ‘Look what the niggers did,’” Fred Trump writes, describing his uncle’s racist outburst.In the midst of a tumultuous election, in which Trump faces Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to be vice-president, the book may prove explosive.Allegations of racism have followed Trump through his life in business and politics.Rumours persist that tape exists of Trump using the N-word during his time on The Apprentice, the hit NBC TV show that propelled him towards politics, though none have emerged. Omarosa Manigault, a Black contestant, has said she has heard such a tape. Trump denies it.Since winning the Republican nomination for president in 2016, through four years in the White House and in his third presidential campaign, Trump has repeatedly used racist language and has faced accusations of race-baiting. He has vehemently denied all such accusations.Nonetheless, Fred C Trump III describes in detail a stunning moment he says happened in the early 1970s at the house of his grandparents, Donald Trump’s parents, in Queens, New York.It was “just a normal afternoon for preteen me”, Trump III writes, but then his uncle arrived.“Donald was pissed,” Trump III writes. “Boy, was he pissed.”Trump says his uncle showed him his “cotillon white Cadillac Eldorado convertible”. In its retractable canvas top, “there was a giant gash, at least two feet long [and] another, shorter gash next to it”.“‘Niggers,’ I recall him saying disgustedly. ‘Look at what the niggers did.’“‘I knew that was a bad word.’”His uncle, Trump III writes, had not seen whoever damaged his car. Instead, he “saw the damage, then went straight to the place where people’s minds sometimes go when they face a fresh affront. Across the racial divide.”Fred C Trump III is a successful New York real estate executive – outside the Trump firm – and, because of his experiences as a parent, a campaigner in support of the intellectually and developmentally disabled.He is not the first Trump to write a book about growing up in a family led by Fred Trump Sr, a New York construction and real estate magnate, and containing the future president.In 2020, Fred C Trump III’s sister, Mary Trump, published the bestseller Too Much and Never Enough. Promoting that book, she said her uncle was “clearly racist”, adding that she had heard him using racist language “and I don’t think that should surprise anybody given how virulently racist he is today”.Mary Trump will release another memoir this year, about the sad life and early death of her and Fred C Trump III’s father, Fred Trump Jr, the oldest son who nonetheless saw his younger brother take over the family business.When Fred Trump Sr died, Trump III and his sister were effectively disinherited by their uncles and aunts, before reaching a settlement.In 2020, when Mary Trump released her memoir and Donald Trump tried to block it, her brother distanced himself from the project. But this June, when Simon & Schuster announced Trump III’s own book, it promised “candid and revealing … never-before-told stories” that would shed “light into the darker corner of the Trump empire”.The publisher also said Trump III was motivated to write by the 2024 election, and suggested his book might “shape the decision of a nation”.The book spares little in its portrayal of Trump attitudes about race.Of Queens in the 1960s and 70s, Trump III says it was “one of the most diverse places on the planet” but also one of contrast, between Jamaica Estates, the affluent, white neighborhood where the Trumps lived, and areas where majority people of color lived.“If something bad happened” to residents of Jamaica Estates, Trump III writes, “they were the ones who did it. Almost certainly, it was them.”He considers a key question: “So, was Donald a racist?”Noting that “people have been asking for decades”, Trump III say his uncle used the N-word at a time when he says “people said all kinds of crude, thoughtless, prejudiced things”, adding: “Maybe everyone in Queens was a racist then.”Trump III says he did not hear his grandfather, Fred Trump Sr, use the N-word, but did hear him “sometimes say schvartze, the Yiddish slur for Black people, and his tenants were uniformly white. That had to mean something, didn’t it?”In 1973, Fred Trump Sr, Donald Trump and the Trump company were sued by the US justice department, alleging racial discrimination at New York housing developments.Trump III writes: “This was a painful period for the company and therefore for Donald … all the publicity was bad publicity. The ‘r’ word – racist – was thrown around.”The Trumps countersued and the case was settled “with no admission of guilt”, as Donald Trump has said.Trump III also addresses his grandfather’s apparent arrest at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1927, which he says surprised the family when it was recently reported. Detailing an incident in his own childhood in which he says three “tough-looking Black kids” stole his bike, Trump III says his Uncle Donald demanded one of the kids be “punished” and locked up.He then cites another flashpoint in Donald Trump’s adult life: the day in 1989 when he “took out full-page ads in the New York City newspapers, demanding harsh [in fact capital] punishment for the Central Park Five”, Black teenagers wrongfully imprisoned over the rape of a white woman.“I couldn’t say I was surprised,” Trump III writes. “Suddenly, I was right back … in Queens.” More

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      Secret Service urging Trump to stop outdoor rallies after shooting – report

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      Secret Service officials are reported to be encouraging Donald Trump’s campaign to stop holding outdoor rallies in the wake of the 13 July assassination attempt on the former president at a fairground in Butler, Pennsylvania.The move, reported by the Washington Post, comes as Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday following a combative grilling before a congressional committee by both Democrats and Republicans over apparent security failures before an attempt on Trump’s life by a 20-year-old gunman.In a resignation letter, Cheatle said she’d made the “difficult” decision to leave the agency “with a heavy heart” and acknowledged that the agency “fell short” of its mission “to protect our nation’s leaders”, referring to the Butler rally.The Trump campaign, which may have favored outdoor venues until the shooting because of their larger crowd capacity, is not currently planning further outdoor events and instead is looking to book indoor venues, including basketball arenas, according to the outlet.During a rally in an arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday, Trump appeared to lament that some supporters had been left outside. The Republican candidate is also known for exaggerating crowd estimates, dating back at least to his inauguration in 2017.Since launching his first presidential bid, Trump has held hundreds of outdoor rallies that have become like festivals for his most ardent supporters, featuring tailgate parties and vendors hawking Trump memorabilia and campaign merchandise.According to the Post, Trump advisers had told the Secret Service the 2024 re-election campaign was planning to hold large events, and would need increased protection and assets. But the agency is believed to have turned down the requests, citing a lack of resources.If Trump now holds rallies in more secure locations, such as sports arenas, they will prove more expensive to the campaign.The rally site in Butler where the attempted assassination took place had clear sightlines to the stage far beyond its security perimeter, including the roof from which suspected shooter Thomas Matthews Crooks fired off an estimated seven rounds before being fatally shot by Secret Service snipers.It has since been reported that Crooks was able to scout out the rally site with a drone and had been identified as “suspicious” an hour before the event. The presidential protection agency had assigned security of the roof to local law enforcement and had been notified of a suspicious person minutes before the shooting took place.Former White House physician Ronny Jackson, now a Texas representative, said at the weekend that the bullet that grazed Trump’s ear came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head”.Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, appointed Ronald Rowe, deputy director of the Secret Service, to serve as the acting director until a permanent replacement is chosen. More

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      Trump files complaint against Harris for taking over Biden’s campaign funds

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      Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against the vice-president Kamala Harris, accusing her 2024 campaign of violating federal campaign finance laws by replacing Joe Biden’s name with her own to take control of his campaign funds.The complaint, filed by the Trump campaign’s general counsel, David Warrington, argued that the Biden campaign could not rename its committee from “Biden for President” to “Harris for President” once Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday, and roll over $91m.“This is little more than a thinly veiled $91.5m excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another, that is, from Joe Biden’s old campaign to Kamala Harris’s new campaign. This effort makes a mockery of our campaign finance laws,” the eight-page complaint said.“Federal candidates are prohibited from keeping contributions for elections in which they do not participate,” it added. “Biden for President 2024 has shown no intention to properly refund or re-designate the general election funds it has already received. This makes them all excess contributions.”Whether the complaint generates traction with the FEC remains unclear, but the Trump campaign has been looking for any way to slow down the momentum Harris has been able to generate with voters and donors after she quickly became the presumptive Democratic nominee.The strategy, according to people familiar with the matter, has included opening new legal battles to try to prevent Harris from accessing Biden’s funds, although the complaint on Tuesday stopped short of a lawsuit.Warrington made that explicit request to the FEC in the complaint, asking the agency to enjoin the transfer. And if the FEC were to deem the transfer unlawful, the complaint said, it would ask the FEC to consider issuing a fine or making a criminal referral to the US justice department.The Harris campaign has viewed the FEC complaint as a spurious legal effort to throw sand in their gears, noting that the Biden-Harris committees have always been authorized committees for either Biden or Harris, according to a person familiar with the thinking.And in a statement, the Harris campaign noted that they had raised $100m in donations in the 36 hours since Biden withdrew from the 2024 race, adding: “Baseless legal claims – like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe complaint, earlier reported by the New York Times, also argued that Harris taking over Biden’s remaining campaign funds amounted to an excessive unlawful contribution given that “Biden for President” was not an authorized committee for the Harris campaign.“If Mr Biden will not seek the Democratic party’s nomination, then he will never participate in the general election and all general election contributions received by Biden for President are excessive and must be disposed of,” the complaint said. More

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      Kamala Harris vows US not going back to ‘chaos’ of Trump years in rally speech

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      Kamala Harris vowed on Tuesday that Americans were “not going back” to the “chaos” of the Donald Trump years, as she made her campaign trail debut in battleground Wisconsin with just over 100 days left before the election.In an fiery speech a day after securing enough Democratic delegates to win the party’s nomination, the vice-president sought to frame the contest against Trump as a choice between starkly different visions for the country, casting his as regressive and backward-looking and hers as optimistic and forward-looking. “Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law or a country of chaos, fear and hate?” she asked, drawing roaring applause and chants of “Kamala” – reflecting an enthusiasm that has eluded Democrats in recent months.As Harris arrived in Milwaukee, the two most powerful Democrats in Congress, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, threw their support behind Harris during a joint press conference in Washington DC.“Democrats are moving forward stronger and more united than ever before,” Schumer told reporters on Tuesday, adding that he had seen a “surge of enthusiasm from every corner of our party” since Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse his vice-president.In short order, Harris consolidated support among the party, ending weeks of internal drama following Biden’s calamitous debate performance last month that exacerbated voters’ concerns about the 81-year-old president’s fitness to serve another four years – and a discussion over who could replace him if he bowed out.Fears of a messy contest for the nomination never materialized, as members of Congress, party activists, labor leaders and would-be rivals lined up behind Harris. The campaign – which she inherited from Biden – was renamed, and has raised an astonishing $100m in 36 hours.At the rally on Tuesday, Harris drew a sharp contrast between herself, a history-making prosecutor, and Trump, the first president ever to be convicted of a felony.“I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” she said to roaring applause. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”She added: “I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.”During a visit to campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday, Harris acknowledged that the last few weeks had been a “rollercoaster” but sought to project calm and a sense of continuity. She announced that Jen O’Malley Dillon would continue to lead the campaign and that Julie Chávez Rodriguez would remain in her role as campaign manager.Promising a “people-powered campaign”, Harris told supporters in Milwaukee that “building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency”. She also vowed to stop Republicans’ “extreme abortion bans”, saying that Democrats “trust women to make decisions about their own body”.View image in fullscreenTuesday’s event was scheduled even before Biden dropped his bid for the presidency, but took on renewed resonance as Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket at an extraordinary moment in American politics.Just days before, Republicans left their party’s convention in Milwaukee, projecting confidence about their prospects in November after nominating Trump just days after he survived an assassination attempt, along with his running mate, the 39-year-old senator from Ohio, JD Vance. As Democrats called on their party’s leader to step aside, Republicans emerged energized and united.Surveys taken since Biden’s withdrawal have shown a nail-bitingly close contest, with Harris running marginally stronger than Biden was against Trump. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday found Harris opened up a small two-percentage-point lead over Trump.Danielle Butterfield, executive director for Priorities USA, one of the largest liberal Super Pacs, said Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid had given Democrats an opening to turn the contest into a referendum on the former president.“Without an incumbent on the ticket, we believe we have a renewed chance to make this election about the future,” she told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday. The group’s data showed Harris was exciting key Democratic constituencies, especially among Black and Hispanic voters and young people.“It’s our No 1 job to remind voters why they voted against Trump in 2020,” Butterfield added.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionRepublicans quickly pivoted to the vice-president. Trump has already assailed Harris, a former California senator, as “dangerously liberal”, part of Republicans’ effort to tie her to Biden’s record on the economy and immigration, the Democrats’ weakest issues. This week, House Republicans were weighing whether to bring to the floor a resolution condemning her handling of the border as vice-president, even though her mission was to address the “root causes” of migration, not immigration policy.“She’s the same as Biden but much more radical,” Trump said on Tuesday, on a call with reporters, aimed at hammering Harris over border security and immigration. “She’s a radical left person and this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it.”“That’s all he’s got?” Harris’s husband, the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, said of Trump’s attacks during a visit to a reproductive rights clinic in McLean, Virginia, earlier in the day. There, he raised Trump’s legacy of appointing the conservative justices who ended the constitutional right to an abortion, which he said paved the way for a “post-Dobbs hellscape”.Wisconsin is considered one of the “blue wall” battleground states that is critical to the Democrats’ hopes of winning the White House in November. Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and four years later Biden clinched the state.“The path to the White House goes through Wisconsin,” Harris told the raucous crowd.By the time Harris took the stage in Milwaukee on Tuesday, the high school where she spoke was standing room only. A campaign official said organizers received so many requests to attend the event that they were forced to find a larger venue at the last minute.“I’m glad Joe Biden is passing the torch,” said Sue Fearson, a longtime Democratic party voter who said she had been worried about what might happen if Biden stepped down – but warmed to the idea once it seemed clear Harris would take over at the top of the ticket.“I’m trying to be in the moment,” said Kami Graham, a 51-year-old secretarial worker who attended the rally. “I feel confident and excited. She knows what to do and she will get the young vote that the Democrats need.”For Olivia Della Rosa, who is 18 and votes absentee from Brazil, the 2024 presidential election will be her first opportunity to vote.“It’s very exciting,” said Della Rosa, who attended the rally with her grandmother, who lives in Milwaukee. “I can’t wait for the debate – I’m looking forward to Harris bringing down the hammer.”David Smith contributed to this report More

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      Democratic congressional leaders back Kamala Harris as campaign gains energy

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      Kamala Harris won key backing from the Democratic party’s senior congressional leadership on Tuesday as she carried the energy and momentum from her whirlwind ascent to presumptive presidential nominee into a lively first campaign rally.Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, gave the vice-president their endorsement during a lunchtime press briefing. Harris, they said, had re-energized Democrats following Joe Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he would no longer seek a second term.“We are brimming with excitement, enthusiasm, unity,” Schumer said.“In just the last 36 hours I have seen a surge of enthusiasm from every corner of our party uniting behind Vice-President Harris, an enthusiasm felt in every corner of the country. And it’s contagious among Democrats, the volunteers, the small contributions, they’re just pouring in, in ways even beyond our expectations.”Jeffries said Harris was “a commonsense leader who knows how to deliver real results for hard-working American taxpayers”.Their approval came shortly before Harris addressed cheering supporters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday afternoon in her first solo campaign appearance. Harris praised Biden, attacked the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, and predicted: “We will win this election.”“Before I was elected vice-president, before I was a US senator, I was elected attorney general of the state of California, and a courtroom prosecutor before that,” she said.“In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds, predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type. And in this campaign I promise I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.”The rally followed news that the Harris for President campaign had raised more than $100m in the day following Biden’s withdrawal, largely from first-time donors. Harris hailed it as a record: “the best 24 hours of grassroots fundraising in presidential campaign history”.It also came after confirmation on Monday night that Harris had secured the support of enough Democratic party delegates at its national convention next month to win the nomination for November’s election.Biden said in a tweet he would deliver a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday evening to explain his decision to withdraw, and lay out a vision for his final six months in the White House.Also on Tuesday, Harris’s campaign took the first formal steps towards naming a running mate. Reports in US media outlets suggested that Harris was looking at closely at two potential candidates, the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and the Arizona senator Mark Kelly, but had requested vetting materials from several others.They included the governors Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, although Whitmer has said she would serve instead as co-chair of the campaign.A surprise omission was reported to be Kentucky’s governor, Andy Beshear, a vocal Harris acolyte. He told CNN he had not received a package from the campaign, but would “at least listen” if he was called, stressing his focus was the people of Kentucky.Eric Holder, the attorney general during Barack Obama’s administration, has been hired to vet Harris’s potential picks of her running mate, according to Reuters.The news that Harris had already begun assessing potential running mates reflects the speed at which the campaign is moving towards next month’s Democratic national convention in Chicago, at which the party’s candidates must be confirmed.A survey by the Associated Press indicated that Harris had the backing of 2,688 state delegates, far more than the 1,976 needed to become the nominee.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“When I announced my campaign for president, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination. I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top,” Harris, a former California senator, said in a statement.“I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.”A CBS News/YouGov poll on Tuesday found that 83% of Democratic registered voters approved of Biden withdrawing from the race, while just 17% disapproved.Polls matching Harris against Trump were tighter, but showed Democrats gaining ground. Morning Consult found that the former president has 47% support nationally to Harris’s 45%, while Biden trailed Trump by six percentage points in an earlier poll.Harris entered the second full day of her campaign for the nomination in an almost unassailable position, following a breathless 24 hours that saw almost every senior party figure championing her candidacy.All 23 Democratic state governors have publicly backed Harris, including several who had been considered potential rivals for the nomination, such as Whitmer and JB Pritzker of Illinois.The rapid pace at which she racked up endorsements was matched by an avalanche of donations. More than $100m poured into campaign coffers in its first day, a spokesperson said on Monday, calling it the largest single-day haul of any presidential candidate in history and with most of the money coming from grassroots donors making their first contributions of the election cycle.Campaign officials, however, were equally enthused by the succession of heavyweight Democrats who voiced their support for Harris even before Schumer and Jeffries did so on Tuesday. Notable among them was Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, who called the vice-president “brilliantly astute” and “rooted in strong values, faith and a commitment to public service”.A number of organizing efforts are also under way on her behalf. The Win With Black Women advocacy group hosted a Zoom call for 44,000 people and raised more than $1.5m. A similar initiative involving more than 20,000 Black men on Monday pulled in at least another million.Among the high-profile endorsements to come in for Harris on Tuesday was that of George Clooney, the Hollywood actor who wrote a powerful opinion article earlier this month calling for Biden to step aside.“President Biden has shown what true leadership is. He’s saving democracy once again. We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice-President Harris in her historic quest,” he said in a statement. More