Kamala Harris promises ‘better future’ in first campaign speech since Joe Biden’s departure

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Kamala Harris pledged to offer Americans a “better future” than the “chaos, fear and hate” proposed by Donald Trump as she won enough support in her party to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination.

The vice president was speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, on Monday, the first full day since President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid and endorsed her for the Democratic presidential nomination, upending the 2024 White House race.

Harris’ first campaign speech came after she won the endorsements of dozens of lawmakers and Washington’s most influential Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Later in the day, an Associated Press tally showed she was on pace to win enough delegates at the Democratic National Convention in August to clinch the party’s nomination for the White House.

The vice president’s momentum has also been buoyed by a surge in fundraising: In the first 24 hours of her campaign, she raised a record $81 million in contributions, more than Biden raised in the first two months of his own campaign.

“In the days and weeks ahead, I will work with you to do everything in my power to unite our Democratic Party, to unite our nation, and to win this election,” Harris said.

Harris quickly came out against Trump, saying that as a prosecutor in California before being elected to the Senate and then vice president, she encountered “perpetrators of all kinds,” including “predators” who abused women, as well as “fraudsters” and “cheaters.” “Listen to me when I say I know the type of Donald Trump,” she said.

But Harris added that her campaign for the Oval Office would have a broader goal. “Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time when many of our fellow Americans did not yet have their full freedoms and rights. But we believe in a better future that has room for all Americans,” she said, asking: “What kind of country do we want to live in? A country of freedom, compassion and the rule of law? Or a country of chaos, fear and hate?”

Harris’ remarks were preceded by a live call from Biden, who is sick with COVID-19 at his vacation home on the Delaware coast. “The name has changed at the top of the ticket. But the mission has not changed,” the president told the campaign. To Harris, he said: “I’m watching you, son. I love you.”

Many Democratic donors welcomed Biden’s decision to step down, describing his age as a major liability that could have brought down many other Democrats in Congress and doomed the White House race. Most were encouraged by the prospect of Harris taking the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.

Harris’ campaign said more than 888,000 people had donated in the day since she was endorsed by Biden, 60% of whom had not given money this election cycle.

The astonishing single-day haul is more than Biden raised in his first 66 days on the campaign trail last year, more than he raised at a Hollywood fundraiser hosted by George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and more than three presidents — Biden, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — have raised together at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

That amount also surpassed Harris’ fundraising during her entire failed 2020 presidential campaign, and surpassed the colossal haul reported by Trump’s campaign the day after he became the first former president to be convicted of a felony.

During her speech in Wilmington, Harris said she had asked Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager, to take over her presidential campaign. She added that Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign manager, would also remain in her position.

Harris hopes her entry into the race will boost the party’s chances of retaking the White House by energizing women and young black and Hispanic voters, as well as attracting support from independent and swing voters turned off by Trump.

But it may still be difficult for Harris to gain ground against the Republican nominee, who has built a solid lead in polls since Biden’s disastrous performance in their televised debate last month and after surviving an assassination attempt.

Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita released a memo Monday saying Biden’s decision had changed nothing.

“The liberal elite and the deep state – sensing the American public’s disgust with their legal war, and now in a desperate Hail Mary – have swapped an incumbent president for the incumbent vice president in a ploy to try to shake up the race,” they wrote.

They added: “The problem for the left and the media elite? Kamala Harris is as bad, if not worse, than Joe Biden.”