Harris is riding the high of last week’s Democratic convention in Chicago, raking in big fundraising numbers and taking the lead over Trump in the polls.
The vice president’s campaign raised $82 million during the convention, bringing her campaign haul to a staggering $540 million total since she entered the race just a month ago, The Hill’s Brett Samuels reports.
And according to the latest polling averages from Decision Desk HQ and The Hill, Harris is up 4 points over Trump nationwide, a strong shift from when President Biden was trailing Trump in late July.
But now, the newly minted Democratic nominee will have to keep her momentum up as she charges toward the Nov. 5 general election.
After criticism from the right, Harris has said she hopes to sit down for her first extended interview before the end of this month. Her media appearances have so far consisted of rally speeches, her convention remarks and gaggles with reporters, and an unscripted back-and-forth will be a high-stakes test for the White House hopeful.
Next month, Harris and Trump are also set to clash on the debate stage. Trump already faced off with Biden in a debate seen as a catalyst to the incumbent’s withdrawal from the 2024 race, and the showdown scheduled for Sept. 10 on ABC News would mark the first Trump-Harris head-to-head.
The two campaigns clashed this week over disagreement about whether microphones should be muted during the scheduled debate, raising questions about whether the showdown would move forward, The Hill’s Samuels and Alex Gangitano report — though Trump on Tuesday said in a Truth Social post that he’s agreed to terms for the event.
Read more about looming challenges for the vice president from The Hill’s Niall Stanage.
The Harris campaign is now in the middle of a $90 million paid media buy for the last few weeks of August. This week, the team is highlighting a plan to lower housing costs and end the housing shortage as Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), kick off a bus tour of Georgia.
The Trump campaign this week added independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to its presidential transition team on the heels of an endorsement from the candidate seen as a potential “spoiler,” and the former president is hammering Harris over the border as she edges past him in polls of key battlegrounds.
Though the election is still more than two months away, the first mail ballots will be sent to voters in less than two weeks, making a critical moment for both campaigns to shift into general election mode.
