By Stephanie Kelly
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – Kamala Harris’s presidential marketing campaign is staffing up in battleground states over the following two weeks together with within the ‘Solar Belt’ that more and more regarded out of attain for Joe Biden, citing momentum for her White Home bid as grassroots engagement and fundraising soar.
“Our grassroots engagement is proving that Kamala Harris is strong in both the Sunbelt and the Blue Wall – with multiple pathways to 270 (electoral votes),” wrote Dan Kanninen, the marketing campaign’s battleground states director in a memo on Saturday.
The Sunbelt refers to states together with Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, and the Blue Wall consists of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. U.S. President Joe Biden gained all six of these states in 2020 by skinny margins, however simply weeks in the past, his marketing campaign stated the Solar Belt and North Carolina regarded more and more out of attain.
Harris’ takeover of Biden’s marketing campaign has injected new power, cash and enthusiasm into the race, which is translating right into a shift in polls that present her pulling even with Trump or forward in some battleground states.
Since Biden endorsed Harris on July 21, 200,000 volunteers have joined the Harris marketing campaign, whereas over 350,000 supporters attended their first cellphone financial institution, rally or different marketing campaign occasion – an over 350% improve in occasion attendees, Kanninen stated.
Her marketing campaign introduced on Friday it raised $310 million in July, fueled by small-dollar donations.
Within the subsequent two weeks, the marketing campaign will add 150 extra employees within the “Blue Wall,” and can greater than double its employees in Arizona and North Carolina, Kanninen stated.
Harris marketing campaign’s operations on the bottom are extra in depth than Republican nominee former President Donald Trump, he stated.
“In Nevada, Team Harris has 13 offices, while Trump has just one,” Kanninen wrote. “In Pennsylvania, we have 36 coordinated offices while Trump has just 3. In Georgia, we have 24 offices while the Trump team didn’t open their first until June.”
The Trump marketing campaign didn’t instantly affirm the accuracy of these numbers, and didn’t reply to a request for remark.
This week Trump’s marketing campaign was set to launch a $10 million promoting blitz in six battleground states. A brilliant PAC supporting Trump, MAGA Inc., kicked off a parallel advert blitz after it stated it would spend $32 million in three states with new advertisements criticizing Harris.
Some political consultants have questioned Trump’s lack of marketing campaign infrastructure in latest days.
“Those of us who are interested in voting are like, ‘Why don’t you need a ground game?'” political historian Heather Cox Richardson stated in a Fb (NASDAQ:) livestream. “It really takes feet on the ground, knuckles on doors, meetings with people, everything to get money circulating … He is not trying to get enough votes.”
Harris held a marginal one-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump in a latest Reuters/Ipsos ballot, closing the hole that opened within the remaining weeks of President Joe Biden’s reelection bid.
The three-day ballot confirmed Vice President Harris supported by 43% of registered voters, with former President Trump supported by 42%, throughout the ballot’s 3.5 share level margin of error.
