Possible Kamala Harris candidacy, a challenge for Donald Trump

The tension that had dominated the Democratic Party since the disastrous debate between Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump seems to have been forgotten.

Now voters and donors have turned their attention to supporting the possible candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is projected to challenge Trump with less time left in the campaign, with just a few months remaining until November.

Reuters news agency reported that Harris raised nearly $50 million for her campaign in less than a day after Biden’s announcement through donations from supporters.

Biden’s exit

This represents a relief after recent polls showed that nearly ⅔ of Democratic supporters said Biden should drop out of the presidential race and let the party nominate another candidate.

Furthermore, one of the most recent polls found that only 3 in 10 Democrats were “overly” confident in his mental ability to serve as president.

Joe Biden, 81, had been facing accusations for more than a year about his health and mental health, which after the debate increased criticism until high-profile Democrats encouraged him to abandon his re-election bid, despite his resistance for nearly a month.

Opportunity against Trump

On July 17, polls had positioned Democratic politicians with better chances of beating Donald Trump than Joe Biden himself, who after the debate had been losing ground and even faced a clear defeat.

Democrats with a chance to defeat Trump include Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Mark Kelly and Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

While the future is not decided, as Harris must win enough delegates before the National Convention, the field seems to be clearer, after one of the most important figures of the Democrats, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, officially extended her support to her.

Pelosi, according to outlets such as The Hill, played a key role in pressuring Biden behind the scenes to rethink his decision to remain in the presidential race.

“Today, it is with immense pride and boundless optimism for the future of our country that I endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States,” Pelosi said.

Left loses ground by supporting Biden

The stance of the most official Democrats clashed in the last week with that expressed by the leftist senator Bernie Sanders and the progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who remained loyal to President Biden, after he allowed them certain concessions to beat Trump.

Considered strategists, the two succeeded in getting Biden to support expanding Social Security benefits and eliminating “medical debt” as one of the goals in the first 100 days of Biden’s now-defunct campaign.

Sanders even published an opinion column in The New York Times declaring that he would “do everything in his power to see President Biden re-elected.”

Fears rise in Donald Trump’s campaign

A report by journalist Tim Alberta for The Atlantic magazine makes it clear that Donald Trump’s campaign did not expect Biden to withdraw and had focused all its speeches and actions on attacking him as a candidate.

While they were aware that the Democratic Party was “a machine,” their concern was less given that he as a candidate had rejected his allies’ efforts to leave the race.

“We are forced to spend time and money fighting dishonest Joe Biden, he polls poorly after a terrible debate and drops out of the race… Now we have to start all over again,” Trump claimed on his social media.

The Alberta publication adds that even the selection of Senator JD Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate was a “luxury” to increase margins with the base rather than persuade undecided voters.

“For the first time in a long time, Trump does not control the narrative for 2024,” the article concludes.