Why Kamala Harris’s Shocking Fundraising Numbers Should Terrify Trump

In the less than 24 hours since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris has already begun bringing in the big bucks for the Democratic Party.

Biden announced Sunday that he would be withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race, after weeks of mounting concerns over his age and mental acuity from his fellow Democrats. Moments after he withdrew, he endorsed Harris to be the new Democratic nominee. And it appears that the prospect of a new nominee may have led people to open their wallets.

By the end of the day Sunday, ActBlue, a popular fundraising site for Democratic candidates and causes, posted a surprising update.

“As of 9pm ET, grassroots supporters have raised $46.7 million through ActBlue following Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign launch,” the post read. “This has been the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle. Small-dollar donors are fired up and ready to take on this election.”

By the end of the day, ActBlue had raised more than $50 million dollars, according to an estimate from The New York Times, the third-biggest day for online fundraising in the site’s history.

While not all of that money might’ve gone to Harris, as ActBlue raises funds for the entire slate of Democratic candidates, it indicates a significant upswing in enthusiasm among donors after weeks of turmoil and reports of frozen cash flows into Biden’s campaign.

President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 race on Sunday, caving to increasing concerns over his age and ability to take on another four years in arguably the world’s most critical and tenuous position.

“Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation,” Biden wrote in a statement, citing victories in lowering prescription drug costs, expanding affordable health care, helping veterans, passing “the first gun safety law in 30 years,” and appointing the first African American woman to the Supreme Court.

“I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people,” the statement read. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

In a follow-up tweet, Biden announced he is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made,” he said. “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats—it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

The president has effectively opened up the Democratic Party’s nominating process to a near-total free for all, just four months out from the presidential election.

Top Democratic contenders for the final leg of the race include Harris, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, all of whom outperformed Biden in polling match-ups against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Conversation around whether Biden would exit quickly overtook his campaign after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June. During the match-up, the 81-year-old Biden shocked the nation by repeatedly losing his train of thought, forgetting the softball questions tossed to him, and utterly failing to challenge Trump by any measure of the word.

This story has been updated.

Senator Chris Coons, the national co-chair of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, said on Friday that the president was “weighing” the viability of his candidacy as more and more elected Democrats call for him to step aside.

“This is an internal party matter and a matter of the campaign that is playing out very publicly,” Coons said at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual security and foreign policy conference, according to The Hill. “I think our president is weighing what he should weigh, which is: Who is the best candidate to win in November and to carry forward the Democratic Party’s values and priorities in this campaign?”

The Delaware Democrat was effusive about Biden’s “exceptional presidency,” and lauded him for his performance during last week’s NATO Summit. “He chaired … meeting after meeting, three days of the NATO summit—strongest NATO has ever been—did a press conference, did campaign events, did campaign rallies, and there are folks still saying he’s not strong enough or capable enough to be our next president. I disagree,” Coons said.

Shortly after speaking, Coons reaffirmed his support for Biden in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “I fully support the President. He’s told me he’s in it to win it,” Coons wrote. “I’m with him 100% because I know he can beat Trump just like he did last time.”

Biden, who remains in isolation after being diagnosed with Covid-19 earlier this week, has made no indication that he intends to withdraw. But he’s reportedly grown “more receptive” to concerns about his reelection chances and has begun some serious “soul searching.”

Meanwhile, on Friday alone, a whopping 11 congressional Democrats called for Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, including Representatives Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, Kathy Castor of Florida, Morgan McGarvey of Kentucky, Greg Landsman of Ohio, Betty McCollum of Minnesota, Zoe Lofgren of California, Jared Huffman of California, Marc Veasey of Texas, Chuy Garcia of Illinois, Marc Pocan of Wisconsin, and Sean Casten of Illinois.

Also on Friday, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich became the third senator to call for the president to withdraw.

The CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage has left countless disruptions across the world, including the cancellation of more than 2,500 U.S. flights, issues with 911 systems and government agencies, and countless headaches for IT workers.

Naturally, the right wing is blaming corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion principles, better known as DEI.

Early Friday morning, Twitter CEO Elon Musk found an old CrowdStrike post from 2022 highlighting diversity with a picture of a woman wearing a hijab and took a shot at DEI.

Steve Guest, a former staffer for Senator Ted Cruz, looked up the company’s statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion and blamed the company for grounding flights.

Conservative pundit Steven Crowder attacked one of the company’s posts about Pride Month from June.

Right-wing election fraud conspiracist and pardoned felon Dinesh D’Souza also took aim at the company’s statement.

And the right’s point man on tearing down America’s education system, Christopher Rufo, similarly saw something nefarious in the company’s DEI efforts.

American conservatives blame everything on DEI these days, whether it’s the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the rise in train derailments, or even Republican election losses. To them, every negative event somehow is because there are minorities, women, and queer people having jobs.

However, while the right might see all of the damning evidence on display, is CrowdStrike really committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion? The makeup of its board of directors suggests that it only goes so far.

A Massachusetts congressman who describes President Joe Biden as a “mentor and friend” says that Biden should step down. In an op-ed in The Boston Globe Friday, Representative Seth Moulton recounted how Biden appeared to not recognize him at an event last month.

Moulton came clean about the troubling interaction after previously calling for Biden to step down July 4. “I saw him in a small group at Normandy for the eightieth anniversary of D-Day. For the first time, he didn’t seem to recognize me,” wrote Moulton. “It was a crushing realization, and not because a person I care about had a rough night but because everything is riding on Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump in November.”

On Friday, nine more lawmakers publicly called on Biden to drop out, including, notably, the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Marc Veasey.

But Moulton isn’t just a random House Democrat. The politician from Massachusetts’ 6th congressional district said his previous relationship with Biden was warm, with breakfasts, phone calls, and smiles from across the hall. “I have treasured him as a mentor and friend,” wrote Moulton.

Moulton warned that the change he has seen both interpersonally with Biden and on the national debate stage calls for action from his fellow politicians. “The harsh reality is that all the characteristics that have made Biden an irrepressible force—the energy, the vitality, the sharp, scrappy wit—are flickering.”

In order for Democrats to win the election, Moulton said, Biden must go. “Just as Republicans need to find the courage to speak out against Trump, my fellow Democrats need to find the courage to speak the truth about President Biden before it’s too late.”