Vice President Kamala Harris’s fundraising schedule for the third quarter will include stops in donor-rich Martha’s Vineyard and Seattle, according to a person familiar with her plans, highlighting her prominent role in the campaign’s money drive.
(Bloomberg) — Vice President Kamala Harris’s fundraising schedule for the third quarter will include stops in donor-rich Martha’s Vineyard and Seattle, according to a person familiar with her plans, highlighting her prominent role in the campaign’s money drive.
Harris is on track to headline more campaign fundraisers than anyone else in Joe Biden’s reelection effort in the third quarter, including the president himself, according to the person who spoke on condition of anonymity. So far, she’s appeared at or scheduled to be at seven events this quarter, with more to be added soon.
Harris will travel to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on August 12, where she will speak at back-to-back campaign receptions for the Biden Victory Fund. That will be followed by another event on August 16 in Seattle. Other fundraising appearances are expected to be added to her schedule, the person familiar said.
Harris, the nation’s first Black, Asian and woman vice president, is assuming an outsized role in Biden’s reelection campaign. She has become a vocal advocate on issues the campaign sees as critical to bringing Black Americans, suburban women, independents and younger voters to the polls for Biden.
She has directly challenged many of Biden’s Republican opponents, in particular, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over his state’s educational curriculum and restrictions on teachings about race, gender and sexuality.
But concerns about the health of Biden, at 80 already the oldest US president, have made Harris a target of Republicans, who have sought to remind voters she would assume the presidency if he cannot finish his term.
Polls show voters at large disapprove of her performance. A CNN poll conducted in July by SSRS finds 57% disapprove of Harris with 42% approving. Among Black voters, Harris holds a 72% approval rating.
The Biden campaign, which formally launched in late April, raised $72 million in the second-quarter, allaying fears among some bid Democratic donors that the campaign was off to a slow start. The total far exceeds the amounts raised by GOP candidates, including former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
Trump raised $35 million for the quarter but his fundraising operation is burning through cash at an unsustainable rate as it pays for his legal expenses.
The upcoming Harris fundraisers follow a New York City reception in July co-hosted by Signum Global Advisors’s Charles Myers and and Phil Munger, the son of Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner, Charles Munger. That event pulled in about $650,000, exceeding a half-million dollar target. Harris also headlined a fundraiser last month hosted by Desiree Rogers, former White House social secretary in the Obama administration.
On Thursday, Harris was in Wisconsin for two fundraisers, including one at North Point Lighthouse in Milwaukee, and another at the home of Alex Lasry, an executive of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.
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