Kamala Harris’s $200 Million Vibe Shift

The Run-Up

The New York Times

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2024

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It has been less than two weeks since President Biden dropped his re-election bid and threw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. Already, Ms. Harris has closed the gap with former President Donald J. Trump in some national polls. The Harris campaign said it had raised more than $200 million in a week. Ms. Harris’s supporters even broke attendance records on Zoom, with one group gathering more than 160,000 people on a single call. After more than a year of a presidential contest that was defined by its stability — and people who said they really didn’t like their options — there has been a clear vibe shift. With just under 100 days left until Election Day, we wanted to check in on this brand-new race. We spoke to Zoom rally organizers, first-time campaign donors and people who were previously planning to sit the whole thing out. Where did the new energy come from, and how sustainable is it?

Transcript

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0:00.0	There are a lot of ways to measure enthusiasm and energy in the political campaign.
0:09.0	Some are more scientific, like tracking polling or first-time political donors.
0:15.0	Others are more vibes-based, like how much a candidate breaks through on social media,
0:21.0	or in group chats of family and friends.
0:25.0	And when it comes to Vice President Kamala Harris,
0:28.0	there may not be a better indicator of newfound energy
0:32.0	than a series of zooms recently organized on her behalf.
0:37.5	Just hours after President Biden dropped his re-election bid less than two weeks ago, a group of black women held a fundraising call, which
0:45.4	organizers said ended up drawing more than 40,000 people. We all knew that in that
0:50.7	moment, one, we wanted to be united. united to we wanted to be in sisterhood with each other and
0:55.8	three we knew we had to get to work there was a zoom for black man then another
1:01.5	spin-off white, this is our opportunity to show up not only for ourselves, but for black women.
1:09.0	White women for Kamala Harris, which broke internet records.
1:15.4	In the end, the Harris campaign said it closed its first official week, having raised $200 million. So today, with just under 100 days to go until election day, we check
1:29.6	in on this
1:33.0	democratic energy come from
1:35.0	and how sustainable is it.
1:40.0	From the New York Times,
1:41.0	I'm Estad Herndon.
1:43.0	This is the run-up. So considering all those big numbers, on Monday afternoon, I checked in with the organizer of that record-breaking Zoom call.
2:04.2	My name is Shannon Watts.
2:05.4	I'm the founder of Mom's Demand Action,
	...

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