Vice President Kamala Harris is making history not only as the first woman of color to receive the Democratic nomination for president but also for her overnight popularity in the polls.
On Aug. 22, Harris officially accepted the Democratic nomination.The long awaited nomination makes Harris the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to lead a major party’s presidential ticket.
The Harris campaign took off seemingly overnight. It all started on July 21, 2024, when current President Joseph R. Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race.
Harris quickly became the new Democratic nominee and raised more than $100 million a day after President Biden announced his withdrawal from the race. President Biden endorsed Vice President Harris as the Democratic nominee, with many notable politicians following suit.
Since July, approval ratings for the Harris campaign have increased in nearly every battleground state in the country, even in states where President Biden had been lagging. A New York Times/Siena College poll found Harris’ ratings jumped from 36 percent to 46 percent between February and July.
A new Gallup poll found that Harris’ favorability rating among American adults jumped from 34 percent in June to 47 percent in August. Among Democrats, the vice president also saw a large improvement in ratings from 77 percent in June to 93 percent this month.
Even among independents, Harris’ favorability has also increased by double digits, from 28 percent two months ago to 41 percent in August.
In early August, Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. The Harris-Walz campaign has been traveling nonstop across the country, specifically in the Midwest.
A poll from the Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) for Public Affairs Research found Walz is viewed more favorably than the Republican nominee for Vice President, J.D. Vance. 27% of U.S. adults say Vance is favorable while 44% find him unfavorable, compared to 36% who think Walz is favorable and 25% who find him unfavorable—and more Democrats are supportive of Walz (62%) than Republicans of Vance (57%).
This past week, Harris saw yet another rise in her approval ratings after winning 99 percent of the votes from participating delegates during the Democratic National Committee’s virtual roll call.
To receive the nomination, Harris needed to secure support from 2,350 delegates out of more than 4,000 pledged and superdelegates. The Democratic National Committee reported 4,567 delegates voted for Harris.
Shortly after, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) was held on Aug. 19 in Chicago, IL. The DNC saw some of its highest viewership ratings in years with more than 108 million combined views on broadcast and streaming, and more than 350 million views on social media.
On television, the final night of the DNC pulled in an estimated 26.2 million viewers across 15 networks, outrating the Republican National Convention on all four nights with a total estimate of 87.2 million viewers over the course of the week.
This year’s Democratic National Convention saw appearances and speeches by major politicians including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former President Barack H. Obama and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past,” Harris said at the DNC in Chicago, IL.
The Harris-Walz campaign announced this past Sunday that it raised $82 million during the DNC. The campaign has received a total of $540 million since her presidential bid in July, in contrast to the campaign of former President Donald Trump who raised about $327 million as of Aug. 2024.
Harris and Trump now stand at the top of the ticket ahead of November and are expected to have their first presidential debate on Tuesday, Sept. 10. The debate will be hosted by ABC News at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Trump has also proposed two debates with Fox News on Sept. 4 and NBC News on Sept. 25.
Vice President Harris has yet to agree to these additional debates with a campaign spokesperson citing that Harris is, “open to and eager to discuss more debates, but Trump has to show up to the September 10th debate first.”
With less than three months to go, the race for president seems to have just gotten started. Polls reveal that Democrats, in particular, have a renewed hope ahead of November.
“She’s going to work to support and lead pragmatic common sense policies that are going to directly relate to improving the lives of Americans,” said Harris’ Senior Campaign Policy Adviser Brian Nelson.
This upcoming election is slated to have some of the highest rates of voter turnout in United States history. A national poll released by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard Kennedy School indicates that among 18-to-29-year-olds nationwide, more than half of young Americans say they will definitely be voting in the presidential election this fall.
With Harris on the ballot, the presidential election is set to make history in more ways than one.
Though the election is creeping up on us, this race is far from over. In fact, it has just gotten started. A once stagnant election cycle is shaping up to be one of the most fierce elections of the 21st century. There is now a new feeling emerging for this November.
