WASHINGTON — As President Joe Biden continues to face pressure to step aside as the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris is balancing being ready to replace him with defending him to donors and party operatives — including some who have already begun investing in supporting Harris no matter where she ends up on the ticket.
The effort to devote resources to advertising and collecting polling data on public perception of Harris comes as many Democrats begin to coalesce around the idea that she could not be passed over if Biden drops out and Republicans step up their attacks on her since the dismal Biden debate. .
And while Harris has made clear she remains loyal to Biden, her supporters within the party have surged in the past two weeks, especially as polls from some Democratic groups reveal she may be particularly good at mobilizing young, black and Latino voters.
“All of her political supporters are excited about her being the presidential candidate,” said Jamal Simmons, who worked for a year as Harris’ communications director. “I’m sure it’s strange to have so many people talking about her replacing the president on the ticket while she’s still in the White House, working with the president’s team every day and seeing him every day.”
Simmons, however, added that he is not surprised that Harris has remained so loyal to Biden because when she served in the White House, Harris made it clear in her actions and words that she saw her role as Biden’s partner.
“She’s doing what her job is, which is to help hold the party together and be a strong partner,” Simmons said. “In recent weeks, many people who previously wouldn’t describe themselves as fans have come to her side because of how strong she has been and how the process of nominating a new person and getting a campaign up and running takes you to Kamala Harris as the best possible alternative. The more people do the math, the quicker they come to Kamala Harris for the answer.”
That math has led groups like Way to Win, a national strategy center for donors aligned with Democratic causes, to pour money over the past two weeks into studying how voters view Harris and how they can best help support her, no matter as Biden decides. Go straight on.
As part of those efforts, Tory Gavito, president of Way to Win, said he funded two polls in the past two weeks researching how Democratic and independent voters in swing states viewed Biden and Harris after the debate and how voters were more likely to vote for the Republicans. I saw the candidates in the aftermath of the debate. As part of the push, Gavito said the group was collecting information about which groups viewed Harris favorably, but also what kind of messages about her resonated with voters.
“It has not gone unnoticed by anyone that Biden has had very challenging days following the debate, and in this period, Kamala has really shown with strength that she can prosecute the case against Trump and MAGA,” Gavito said. “We can’t afford to stop, which means we have to play the pass we know we have at full strength.”
Way to Win did not take a position on whether Biden should drop out of the race. But Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, co-founder of the group, posted on social media that Democrats could be open to changing the ticket. “It doesn’t have to be a war. It could be a discussion!” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Being able to have a democratic discussion is part of what makes us different from our opposition.”
Way to Win found that Biden and Harris polled similarly among Democrats and independents and had more work to do among independent voters. But the group found that Harris got a “significant boost” from “younger voter segments that Biden has struggled with” and performed well with black and female voters. They also found that Harris’ work as the administration’s most prominent advocate for access to abortion care following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, two years ago, resonated strongly with Democrats and independents.
It is a change in Harris insightsthat at the beginning of Biden’s presidency was seen by some in the Democratic Party as a nuisance, not an asst. Some critics within the party argued that she fought to gain a political foothold with American voters. And long before the debate, Republicans have often focused attacks about her for years, hoping to drum up opposition to Biden, painting her as a liberal force pushing him away from the center.
Gavito also said groups like hers are acutely aware that Republicans have turned even more attention to Harris.
On Friday, the Trump campaign sent an email titled “Crooked Biden Recap: Harris is Biden 2.0” and clearly attacked her with claims that Harris is a “liar” and “anti-worker.” Earlier this week, the Trump campaign released an online ad dubbed “Kamala’s Big Cover-Up,” featuring Harris speaking positively about Biden’s ability to serve as president with the words “Kamala lied to us for years about Biden” featured in the first seconds.
The Republican National Committee has also gone after Harris, including posting this week on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “Democratic policies have destroyed America. It doesn’t matter which unpopular candidate they choose.”
Gavito said such efforts illustrate why Democrats need to work on crafting messages designed to defend Harris. “It’s important that KHive is activated and grows,” she said, referring to the term used to describe Harris supporters online. “Unfortunately, the social media environment thrives on fighting, and so if Kamala doesn’t have an active base that can combat right-wing misogyny, these stories will start to stick.”
Pamela Shifman, president of the Democracy Alliance, a network of major liberal donors, shares this sentiment. “We will always continue to elevate the leadership of our Vice President Kamala Harris,” she said in a statement. “Next week, Republican racist and sexist attacks on our vice president will increase, and it is our job to help fight back.”
Harris has been crisscrossing the country talking to Democratic donors, elected officials, civil rights leaders, party activists and voters to make the case for Biden as the party’s nominee.
Since the June debate, her office said she has traveled to six states (including Nevada twice) and given four national interviews in which she urged people to judge Biden by his overall performance as president over the past three years and where she attacked Trump as a threat to democracy.
On Saturday, Harris will travel to her seventh state since the debate when she delivers a speech at the Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote Presidential Town Hall in Philadelphia.
A source familiar with the vice president’s planning said her trips were purposefully designed to bring her in front of Black, Latino and Asian and Pacific Islander communities in order to bolster support among Democrats.
“Over the past week, the Vice President spoke with elected officials across the country to thank them for their support of the President and his ticket and reiterated the need for Democrats to be united in our focus and mission to defeat Donald Trump again in November,” an aide to Harris’ office said in a statement.
Their efforts stood out to longtime Democrats as an example of how the party needs to weather the uncertainty plaguing it as Biden tries to recover from the damage of the debate.
Representative Frederica Wilson, Democrat of Florida, who supports Biden remaining at the top of the ticket, said Harris staying in line for the president shows the strength of her character.
“She’s trying to be very cautious because she doesn’t want to seem like she’s trying to hurt him,” Wilson said of Harris and Biden. “This shows the character of a black woman. And that’s what we’re used to doing because we carry the nation on our shoulders. We carry everyone. And that’s what she’s doing. And that’s what she will continue to do. And that’s why I love her.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
