It’s been about three weeks since VP Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for president. In that short period, Harris has raised over $310 million with 66% of it coming from first-time contributors.[1]

During that brief stretch, Harris has gone from down one or two points in the polls as President Biden’s running mate to up by four in each of the critical swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.[2] At the same time, the Cook Political Report has moved three other swing states, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada, from “lean Republican” to tossups.[3]

Meanwhile, Harris is leading Trump by close to 20 points among registered voters under 30.[4] In a new August poll, she is also leading Trump by 9 points with Independent voters. That’s a 23-point turn around from a July poll where she was 14 points behind Trump.[5] And support for Harris among Black voters is surging as well.[6]

Perhaps, most importantly, support for Harris among women voters is building rapidly. A poll at the end of July showed Harris had gained 9 points with women in just three weeks. That poll found Harris was the choice of 50 percent of women voters, while Trump was preferred by just 39 percent.[7]

The momentum for the Harris-Walz campaign is exploding. The enthusiasm for this duo is palpable. While anything can happen in the next three months, the possibility of a blue-wave election appears more likely day by day.

Even Republicans are getting on board. A fair number of them “see Trump as anathema or the kind of existential threat to democracy that would compel them to cross party lines and who had bought into Biden as an acceptable alternative.”[8] The list includes former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former Virginia Rep. Denver Riggleman, former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, and former Rhode Island Rep. Claudine Schneider.[9]

Everyday Republicans who care about the future of our democracy, are not obsessed with holding onto power, and are not part of the Trump cult are turning to the Harris campaign. Here is what a few of them are saying:

“I’m willing to lend my vote to the Democrats for as long as the GOP continues to be the party of forced religion, forced patriotism, forced birth, white nationalism, and isolationism.”

“Trump is just too divisive, and as a nation, we desperately need to come together and find shared solutions to the problems our country is facing.”

“How is this a difficult choice for any educated, ethical human being? Trump is a horrible person, utterly devoid of any political vision, ethical compass, or personal integrity. He’s a convicted felon. Adjudicated fraudster. Indicted for multiple other felonies. A vocal supporter of the world’s worst megalomaniac dictators.”[10]

More and more Americans are waking up to what is at stake in this election. The choice couldn’t be clearer. I’m envisioning a blue wave sweeping over our country this November.

Bruce Berlin

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/.

---

[1] https://www.vox.com/politics/364964/harris-trump-fundraising-donations-campaign-2024

[2] https://www.yahoo.com/news/battleground-polls-show-harris-fundamentally-151052149.html; https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/10/us/politics/harris-trump-battleground-polls.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20240810&instance_id=131352&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=72679230&segment_id=174769&te=1&user_id=51750e72d4988f5b891f2289251150c2

[3] https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4818198-cook-political-report-arizona-georgia-nevada-tossups/

[4] https://ncnewsline.com/2024/08/02/young-voters-mobilize-for-kamala-harris-in-battleground-north-carolina/

[5] https://www.newsweek.com/kamala-harris-poll-independents-donald-trump-1936028

[6] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris-candidacy-led-surge-black-voter-enthusiasm-make/story?id=112196882

[7] https://www.newsweek.com/kamala-harris-gaining-women-voters-polling-shows-1932868

[8] https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/04/politics/republicans-for-harris-anti-trump-gop-voters/index.html

[9] Ibid.

[10] https://www.buzzfeed.com/morgansloss1/republicans-voting-for-kamala-harris-share-why