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    Harris Campaign Reserves $370 Million for Swing-State Fall Ad Blitz

    $200 million of that will be spent to reach voters on their phones and other devices, as Kamala Harris’s aides race to define her while drawing a contrast with Donald Trump.Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign announced on Saturday that it was reserving $370 million in advertising to begin after Labor Day and run through the November election, including $200 million on digital ads.The Harris campaign said it believed this was the largest digital ad reservation ever in American politics, reflecting the need to reach voters on their phones and other devices. Just $170 million is being reserved so far on television, as traditional television audiences continue to fragment and shrink.“This is a modern campaign in 2024 and we’re not just stuck in the times of old, where 80 percent of the budget has to be on television,” Quentin Fulks, Ms. Harris’s principal deputy campaign manager, said in an interview.The Harris campaign did not say how much it would spend in each state. But it said its purchases of television advertising would total twice what President Biden’s 2020 campaign spent in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, four times what he spent in Georgia and six times what he spent in Nevada, the least populous of the battleground states.The Harris campaign is advertising now in seven swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — as part of a $150 million summer ad blitz. Mr. Fulks said advertising would continue in all of those states as well as nationally.For now, Mr. Fulks said the campaign was focused on “aggressively defining” Ms. Harris in her early weeks as a presidential candidate.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    How The Times Is Covering the Democratic National Convention

    Lisa Lerer, a New York Times politics reporter, will cover the D.N.C. with a host of colleagues, building a makeshift office at the event in Chicago.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Next week in Chicago, the Democratic National Convention will cap off a few tumultuous weeks for the Democratic Party: President Biden dropped out of the race. Vice President Kamala Harris secured the nomination and soon selected her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, in one of the fastest vetting processes in modern history.Lisa Lerer, a political correspondent who has reported on five presidential elections and joined The Times in 2018, has covered all the fast-breaking chaos this summer. She is part of a Times team of reporters, editors, photographers, audio journalists and I.T. specialists who will cover the D.N.C. from a “mobile office” inside the convention.In an interview, Ms. Lerer discussed how she focused her coverage for a multiday event like the D.N.C., which begins Monday, how The Times has prepared for the occasion and what she is looking forward to learning. This interview has been edited and condensed.What is the atmosphere going into the convention?There’s a ton of excitement for this convention. In 2020, Democrats had a virtual convention, which was largely like a television production because of the pandemic. Now we’re returning to a more standard convention, but it’s unique because the ticket was just picked in the past month. There are a lot of Democrats who are very anxious about this race and were anxious about President Biden’s prospects for months. And now there’s pent-up energy being released.There’s this unbelievable sense of enthusiasm in the party. There’s a level of energy that I think many of us who have covered politics for a while haven’t seen since, on the Democratic side, Obama ran in 2008.What are you doing to prepare? Are there certain lines of coverage you’re already thinking about?Normally you start planning for a convention several weeks out. This year that was really hard to do because there were so many things happening: the debate, which really scrambled the race. Then there was the period when it wasn’t clear whether Biden was going to remain on the ticket. Then there was an assassination attempt on Trump, and there was the Republican Convention, and then vice presidents were picked. An outrageous amount of transformative political events happened in a tight period of time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Biden’s Goodbye to Politics Will Begin in Earnest With His Convention Speech

    President Biden’s goodbye to a half century in national politics will begin in earnest on Monday.When he takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that evening, Mr. Biden will establish his time in office and his political legacy as the foundation for the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris, the new Democratic nominee.According to Biden aides who previewed the themes of the president’s remarks, he will say that she is the best person to finish a campaign he started — one that remains rooted in protecting democratic ideals and preventing a second term for former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to detail the plans.It will be a bittersweet moment for Mr. Biden, who left the race and turned the keys of his campaign over to Ms. Harris less than a month ago. Since then, she has headlined packed rallies and delivered forceful campaign speeches, and the president has largely receded from center stage.But Mr. Biden, who is supportive of Ms. Harris and appreciates the momentum around her, the aides said, plans to ramp up his campaign schedule. He has also been focused on sealing up his legacy as a one-term president — but one who pulled the nation out of an economic spiral during the coronavirus pandemic, a point he will make in his speech.On Friday, Mr. Biden left Washington for Camp David for the weekend; he was scheduled to workshop his speech with Mike Donilon, a close adviser, and Vinay Reddy, his chief speechwriter.In his speech, the president will also frame Ms. Harris’s campaign as continuing policies and ideals he has long championed. Mr. Biden’s remarks will make the case that “democracy prevailed” with his election in 2020. A win for Ms. Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, in November will mean that “democracy is preserved.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    How to Watch the 2024 DNC Live

    The Democratic National Convention will begin in Chicago on Monday, about a month after Republicans held their convention in Milwaukee.It runs through Thursday, when Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to take the stage during prime time. While conventions are traditionally used to formally nominate the party’s presidential candidate, Ms. Harris was voted in through a virtual roll call earlier this month. Even so, the party’s gathering will be a high-profile affair as top Democrats make the case for a Harris-Walz administration.Here’s how to watch it (all times are Eastern):How to stream the D.N.C.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The Democratic Party’s Money Machine

    The Democratic National Committee is again raising huge sums from donors, but the rise of super PACs has forced it to adapt to a new era of big-money influence.Vice President Kamala Harris heads to next week’s Democratic National Convention on the back of a wave of enthusiasm.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesA political piggy bank The Democratic National Convention starts on Monday in Chicago, capping an extraordinary few weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris became the party’s presidential candidate.In that time, she has generated momentum and enthusiasm among voters. Some longtime political observers, like the Republican pollster Frank Luntz, are calling it unprecedented.Just one indicator: Last month, Harris’s campaign said it had raised $310 million, including $200 million in the seven days after President Biden dropped out.As Democrats gather in the United Center, one focus will be on the Democratic National Committee, the organizational backbone that coordinates the party’s electoral strategy, management and convention. Much of that involves money, and the committee raises millions that it disburses to fight in federal and state elections.DealBook dug into the numbers and spoke to experts to understand where the committee fits into the wider world of campaign finance and to show how its role has evolved.The first Democratic Party convention was in 1832. Sixteen years later, at their convention in Baltimore, party leaders established the Democratic National Committee. In 1856, the Republicans did the same, paving the way for the Republican-Democratic juggernaut that has dominated American politics ever since.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Abortion Rights Advocates Hit the D.N.C.: Free Vasectomies and an Inflatable IUD

    This convention is likely to be a head-on display of a new, unbridled abortion politics.While delegates are in Chicago for next week’s Democratic National Convention, they will engage in the typical pageantry and traditions: They’ll vote for their nominee, pose for photos with elected officials, and show off their state with cool buttons or themed hats.They will also have the option of getting a free vasectomy or a medication abortion just blocks away.A mobile health center run by Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which serves much of Missouri and part of southern Illinois, plans to park itself near the convention and offer those services early next week to anybody who makes an appointment, delegate or not. (There is so much interest in the vasectomy appointments, I’m told, there is already a waiting list.)It’s a way of showcasing how reproductive health care providers have had to get creative when operating in or near states like Missouri, which borders Illinois and has a near-total abortion ban.But it also underscores the way this convention, more than any other, is going to be a head-on display of a new, unbridled abortion politics.For years, many Democrats believed too much talk about abortion rights might drive away moderate or religious voters. Four years ago, at the Covid-dampened convention of 2020, President Biden did not utter the word abortion in his speech. Neither did Vice President Kamala Harris (although she did refer briefly to racial injustice in “reproductive and maternal health care.”)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Harris and Trump Offer a Clear Contrast on the Economy

    Both candidates embrace expansions of government power to steer economic outcomes — but in vastly different areas.Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump flew to North Carolina this week to deliver what were billed as major speeches on the economy. Neither laid out a comprehensive policy plan — not Ms. Harris in her half-hour focus on housing, groceries and prescription drugs, nor Mr. Trump in 80 minutes of sprinkling various proposals among musings about dangerous immigrants.But in their own ways, both candidates sent voters clear and important messages about their economic visions. Each embraced a vision of a powerful federal government, using its muscle to intervene in markets in pursuit of a stronger and more prosperous economy.They just disagreed, almost entirely, on when and how that power should be used.In Raleigh on Friday, Ms. Harris began to put her own stamp on the brand of progressive economics that has come to dominate Democratic politics over the last decade. That economic thinking embraces the idea that the federal government must act aggressively to foster competition and correct distortions in private markets.The approach seeks large tax increases on corporations and high earners, to fund assistance for low-income and middle-class workers who are struggling to build wealth for themselves and their children. At the same time, it provides big tax breaks to companies engaged in what Ms. Harris and other progressives see as delivering great economic benefit — like manufacturing technologies needed to fight global warming, or building affordable housing.That philosophy animated the policy agenda that Ms. Harris unveiled on Friday. She pledged to send up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance to every first-time home buyer over four years, while directing $40 billion to construction companies that build starter homes. She said she would permanently reinstate an expanded child tax credit that President Biden temporarily established with his 2021 stimulus law, while offering even more assistance to parents of newborns.She called for a federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries and for new federal enforcement tools to punish companies that unfairly push up food prices. “My plan will include new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules,” she said, adding: “We will help the food industry become more competitive, because I believe competition is the lifeblood of our economy.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Says He’s ‘Entitled’ to Attack Harris at News Conference

    Toward the end of a meandering news conference, former President Donald J. Trump on Thursday insisted he was “entitled” to continue his barrage of personal attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, even as Republican allies are pushing him to shift his tone and emphasize policy issues.Saying he was “very angry” at Ms. Harris, Mr. Trump told reporters outside the clubhouse of his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., that “I think I’m entitled to personal attacks,” and that he had little respect for his Democratic opponent.“I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president,” he said, adding, “She certainly attacks me personally.”The former president said that he didn’t need to moderate his tone to win the Republican primary, insisting that he was now running a “very calm campaign” — and even a calm news conference. “I didn’t rant and rave,” he said of his own performance as he was in the middle of it on Thursday. “I’m a very calm person.” Still, Mr. Trump repeatedly cast his opponents as “radical” and “sick.”His nearly 80-minute news conference was intended, in part, to show his renewed emphasis on the economy, inflation and other policy issues. He had props displayed on either side of him in anticipation of such a focus: a grocery-store haul that included three gallons of milk, seven Campbell’s soup cans, at least three dozen eggs and a box of Cheerios cereal that Mr. Trump said he wanted to take home with him.But during both his remarks and a question-and-answer session with reporters, Mr. Trump bounced between his proposals to fight inflation, his dry recitation of economic figures that he used to criticize Ms. Harris and the Biden administration and a number of other wide-ranging tangents, including complaints about Hillary Clinton, windmills, the news media and President Biden’s decision to exit the race.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More