Tag: democratic party
Harris Campaign Brings In Over $81M During First 24 Hours After Biden Nod

Harris Campaign Brings In Over $81M During First 24 Hours After Biden Nod

President Joe Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris at 2:13 PM ET on Sunday afternoon. Almost immediately, donations to the Democratic fundraising site ActBlue exploded, reportedly peaking at over $12 million an hour on Sunday night.

On Monday afternoon, the Harris campaign reported that it had collected $81 million in the first 24 hours after Biden’s endorsement. That number is the largest 24-hour haul in the 2024 race so far, greatly exceeding the $52.8 million that Donald Trump reportedly brought in following his conviction on 34 felony counts. Harris’ campaign added 43,000 new recurring donors, with over half signing up for weekly donations, the campaign said in a press release on Monday.

But the good news doesn’t stop there. Because the burst of money into Harris’ campaign may have also generated millions for Democrats up and down the ticket.

ObservableHQ tracks contributions to ActBlue by regularly checking the site’s overall ticker. (The operator of ObservableHQ does note that we shouldn’t assume the ticker is as reliable as ActBlue’s FEC reports, however.) It reported a daily total of over $66 million for Sunday. On Monday morning, that number swiftly passed $80 million, and as the clock counted down to the same time as Biden’s Sunday endorsement, the total for the 24-hour period hit: $97.99 million. So close. About 30 minutes later, it topped the $100 million line.

As of this writing, the estimated amount raised since the endorsement stands at $107.7 million, with contributions still coming in at a rate of about $3 million per hour. This is still only Monday afternoon, and this is already the biggest week that ActBlue has seen through this election cycle.

In fact, Sunday’s estimated $66,813,025 in contributions put it at the top of ActBlue’s all-time best days, barely beating out Sept. 19, 2020, when a wash of contributions followed the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. At 4:45 PM ET, Monday’s total stood at $40,924,752. That puts it in the top five days overall, with several hours of prime-time fundraising remaining.

The contributions being reported by ActBlue are not exclusively funds going to the Harris campaign. This is a compilation of all ActBlue candidate contributions over this period. Some part of these totals—hopefully millions—is sloshing over into Senate, House, and state government races.

In addition, Harris is certainly collecting money from other sources. ActBlue generally handles smaller contributions from individuals. It’s just one route for funds to reach Harris’ campaign. A single massive Zoom call on Sunday evening hosted by the organization Win With Black Women reportedly attracted so many participants that the COO of Zoom had to step in to raise the limits. That call alone raised approximately $1.5 million in grassroots contributions. When the final totals are in, the Harris team may have eclipsed their reported $81 million haul.

What’s clear is that Biden ending his campaign and endorsing Harris uncorked a flood of Democratic contributions. A lot of that money is going to Harris. Some of it is going elsewhere.

It’s all good.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Kellyanne Conway

Kellyanne Conway Spews Racist Tropes In Attack On Harris

The attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris, now the leading candidate to become the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee after President Joe Biden’s historic decision to exit his race for re-election, have begun, as one expert on authoritarianism and fascism points to former top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway’s remarks Sunday as an example of the racism and propaganda voters can expect to see.

“Pay attention to propaganda narratives that will consolidate in next days. Propagandists know you should build on existing prejudices when introducing a new hate object or theme,” writes Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders.

“Here Conway invokes racist stereotypes already familiar to many in MAGA,” she adds, pointing to remarks Conway made (video below) just hours after President Biden’s announcement Sunday afternoon.

“She had disastrous staff turnover as vice president,” Conway told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “I check it on the daily. Her public schedule, gentlemen, rarely has anything on it or one or two things on it. She does not speak well. She does not work hard, and she should not be the standard bearer for the party.”

Conway was the first woman campaign manager to land a presidential candidate, Donald Trump, in the White House, and later served as Senior Counselor to the President. Her record includes coining the terms “alternative facts,” and the nonexistent “Bowling Green massacre.” Statista looked at presidential turnover from President Ronald Reagan to Trump and found Trump’s record is higher than any president in modern history, including at the cabinet level.

“Kellyanne Conway is parroting the racist stereotypes,” responded Adam Cohen, Vice Chair, Lawyers for Good Government, “[that] Black people are stupid and lazy.”

“Of course, she will vociferously deny it,” he added. “But too late-we already know exactly who Conway is.”

“After all, she spent years promoting Trump.”

Ben-Ghiat on Sunday night also responded to a New York Times headline, “Some Black Voters Say They Wonder if a Black Woman Can Win.” She warned: “It’s starting.”

George Conway (Kellyanne’s ex-husband) last week created an anti-Trump political action committee, the Anti-Psychopath PAC. He commented on her Fox News remarks late Sunday night: “Not everyone can express themselves as eloquently and with such exquisite turns of phrase as Donald J. Trump.”

Watch Conway’s remarks below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Mike Johnson

The Republican Response To Biden's Withdrawal Is Blithering Incoherence

The right’s response to President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will not seek reelection is absurd, cynical, and self-discrediting. Reporters should not treat the resulting opportunistic hodgepodge as if it were credible.

Following weeks of Democratic Party angst after Biden’s June 27 debate performance triggered widespread concern about his ability to win reelection, the president said on Sunday afternoon that he would drop out.

“While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote in a statement.

Biden’s decision was a blow to President Donald Trump, whose campaign was built around a run against the president and reportedly believed Biden’s nomination gave Trump the best chance of winning in November. Republicans are flailing as they grapple with the prospect of a different opponent for their historically unpopular nominee.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s comments before and after Biden’s announcement are instructive.

Johnson claimed on Sunday morning that replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee would be “unlawful” and suggested Republicans would litigate to keep him on the ballot if the party tried to replace him.

“I think they would run into some legal impediments in at least a few of these jurisdictions," he said on ABC’s This Week. "I think there'll be a compelling case to be made that that shouldn't happen, and so I think they've got legal trouble. If that's their intention, and that's their plan. So we'll see how it plays out.”

The argument that Democrats can’t legally choose their own nominee at the party’s convention next month don’t deserve “any credence,” according to election expert Rick Hansen: “Joe Biden is not the party’s nominee now, and states generally point to the major party’s nominee as the one whose name is on the ballot.”

But in any case, Johnson’s argument that Republicans will sue to keep Biden on the ballot logically conflicts with his argument after Biden said he was dropping out.

On Sunday afternoon, Johnson said: “If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately.”

(Johnson, a key figure in Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021, also now claims the Democrats “invalidated” Biden’s primary voters in an affront to the democratic process.)

So Republicans are going to sue to keep Biden on the ballot to serve as president for four more years while simultaneously claiming that he should resign his office? That’s totally incoherent, a signal of obvious political desperation.

The right’s leaders have benefited at times from the low standards the news media sets for them. But Republicans are telegraphing that the coming days will feature an avalanche of bad faith nonsense — and that’s how reporters should treat their arguments.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Major Democratic Donors Reported Backing Away From Biden Campaign

Major Democratic Donors Reported Backing Away From Biden Campaign

A growing number of high-level donors to the Democratic Party and President Joe Biden's campaign now say they're in the dark about whether previously scheduled campaign fundraisers will happen.

The New York Times reported Friday that, since Biden's flat performance on the debate stage with former President Donald Trump late last month, several fundraising events Democrats were counting on have since fallen through after donors backed out. One fundraiser in Wisconsin was cancelled entirely — this was despite organizers adjusting their goal from raising $1 million to $500,000, and still not finding a way to reach that number given the number of donors who said they would not be attending.

Florida-based lawyer John Morgan — of the firm Morgan & Morgan — told the Times that a fundraiser he planned was still in flux, and that he's struggled to get concrete answers from the Biden team about whether the event would be held in August or September.


"I don’t think they know the answer," Morgan said.

The megadonor observed that the more Democratic-aligned donors speak out about their concerns over Biden's continued candidacy, the more other donors would feel emboldened to withhold their money until a candidate they felt was better equipped to win this fall emerged.

"It can become an avalanche," he said.

Later this month, Biden was scheduled to appear at a fundraiser in Austin, Texas hosted by Luci Baines Johnson — the daughter of President Lyndon Baines Johnson — to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the late president's signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, the Times reported that "people briefed on the planning" said the event may no longer be happening.

The paper reported earlier this week that several major Democratic donors were becoming bearish on Biden's chances of winning in November. And an online document calling for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee is making its rounds among other donors, who prefer the 59 year-old second-in-command to the 81 year-old president.

"In the last week the president has proven he has a strong message and a strong agenda to run on," Biden campaign finance director Rufus Gifford said. "We know our supporters will see the determination he has and ensure we have the resources to win in November."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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