Kamala Harris assailed Donald Trump on Tuesday at her first campaign rally since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate in the US election, while a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll showed her taking a marginal lead over Mr Trump, the Republican nominee.
“In this campaign, I promise you I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week,” the vice-president told a cheering crowd of several thousands at West Allis Central High School in a Milwaukee suburb in Wisconsin, a crucial battleground state in the November 5th election.
“Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate?” she asked.
Ms Harris led Mr Trump by 44 per cent to 42 per cent among registered voters in the national poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday after President Joe Biden dropped out of the contest on Sunday and endorsed Ms Harris as his successor.
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Previous surveys taken before Mr Biden’s exit found Ms Harris and Mr Trump tied at 44 per cent a week ago and Mr Trump ahead of her by a percentage point at the beginning of the month.
In all three cases, the difference was within the poll’s three-point margin of error, but the results could signal some limited momentum in the Democrats’ direction – and also suggest Mr Trump may not have got the typical bump for a candidate following his party’s national convention last week in Milwaukee.
Ms Harris swiftly consolidated her party’s support after Mr Biden (81) abandoned his re-election campaign under pressure from members of his party who worried about his ability to beat Mr Trump or to serve for another four-year term.
Mr Biden’s dramatic exit followed Mr Trump’s narrow survival of a July 13th assassination attempt that raised questions about security failures in the US Secret Service. The agency director, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned on Tuesday after numerous lawmakers called for her to step down.
Biden is out, but is Kamala Harris ready to win the White House?
Ms Harris, meanwhile, wrapped up the Democratic nomination on Monday night by winning pledges from a majority of the delegates who at next month’s party convention will determine the nominee, the campaign said.
Most Democratic lawmakers have lined up behind her candidacy, including the party’s leaders in the Senate and House, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, who endorsed Ms Harris on Tuesday at a joint press conference.
An unofficial survey of delegates by the Associated Press showed Ms Harris with more than 2,500 delegates, well over the 1,976 needed for the nomination. Delegates could still change their minds, but no one else received any votes in the AP survey; 54 delegates said they were undecided.
Ms Harris’s rise dramatically reshapes an election in which many voters were unhappy with their options.
Saddled with concerns that included his health and persistent high prices crimping Americans’ household finances, Mr Biden had been losing ground against Mr Trump in opinion polls, particularly in the competitive states that are likely to decide the election, including Wisconsin and the Sun Belt states of Arizona and Nevada.
The Wisconsin event offered another opportunity for Ms Harris, the first black woman and Asian American to serve as vice-president, to reset the Democrats’ campaign.
Ms Harris (59) previewed how she plans to attack Mr Trump on Monday, referring to her past roles pursuing “predators” and “fraudsters” as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general. “So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said of her rival, who has a felony conviction and was found liable for sexual assault in civil court.
The vice-president has been raking in campaign contributions. Her campaign said on Monday she had raised $100 million (€92 million) since Sunday, topping the $95 million that the Biden campaign had in the bank at the end of June.
While a wave of senior Democrats have lined up behind Ms Harris, the racial justice group Black Lives Matter on Tuesday challenged the party’s swift move.
It called for a national virtual snap primary ahead of the August 19th-22nd Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where the party will formally nominate its candidate.
[ Kamala Harris spoiled for choice of potential running matesOpens in new window ]
Mr Biden said on X that he would deliver a speech on Wednesday night from the Oval Office explaining his decision to end his campaign. He was returning to Washington on Tuesday after spending several days in isolation at home with Covid-19. The president has tested negative and no longer has symptoms, the White House doctor said in a letter on Tuesday.
Mr Trump and his allies have tried to tether Ms Harris to some of Biden’s more unpopular policies, including his administration’s handling of the surge of migrants at the southern border with Mexico.
“Kamala Harris’s dismal record is one of complete failure and utter incompetence. Her policies are Biden’s policies, and vice versa,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said.
Wisconsin is among a trio of Rust Belt states, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, that are critical for Democrats’ chances of defeating Trump.
Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison, in an interview on NBC’s Today programme, said the party had to move quickly to get the ticket on ballots in all 50 states, and that the vice presidential pick needed to be made by August 7th.
“This process is going to be fair, transparent, open but it’s going to be fast,” Mr Harrison said.
Potential running mates include Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, US secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, Arizona senator Mark Kelly, Illinois governor JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, according to people familiar with internal policy discussions. – Reuters