WASHINGTON – It's a daunting to-do list. Vice President Kamala Harris suddenly needs to whip up a presidential campaign almost from scratch.
It's a process that usually takes months, even years. Harris has only about two months before early voting starts. And, of course, nothing is guaranteed, despite her getting the endorsement of President Joe Biden — and significant pieces of his campaign — after he exited the race on Sunday.
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That means she is in a rush to raise money, figure out a strategy, hire staff, set up a website, make some ads, plan a convention and on and on. The checklist is long, but at least, as of Monday morning, she had a campaign logo.
And Harris does have a big advantage in that she's already on the Democratic ticket as the vice presidential nominee and had run previously in 2020 for the presidency. With a boost from Biden's endorsement, she's secured support from enough delegates to become her party's nominee.
“It’s less of a lift to do it with Harris, who has been on the national stage," says Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher.
She needs to haul in cash.
Even if the campaign is something of a start-up, Harris does have a leg up. That's thanks to the existing Biden campaign infrastructure that she will inherit. There are campaign offices already in Wilmington, Delaware. The official campaign committee has been renamed for her, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. She can retain much of Biden's campaign staff and layer in her own people.
“Campaigns are basically startup companies with hundreds, of millions of dollars, with hundreds of staff, all trying to do a lot of things in a very short period of time,” says Joe Caiazzo, who was the 2020 state director in New Hampshire for Bernie Sanders’ presidential bid. “And there’s a whole Democratic operating class that is ready and waiting.”
But the big thing might be money: As of the start of July, the campaign committee already had nearly $96 million in cash-on-hand. That allows her to launch without waiting for checks to come in. And her ascendance has generated newfound enthusiasm after Biden's June 27 debate debacle shook the confidence of Democratic supporters and voters. Within a day of receiving Biden's endorsement, Harris had raised $81 million, the largest 24-hour haul this year by any campaign, according to her team.
There are also independent committees supporting each campaign that also increase their spending totals. But Harris enters the race as Republican Donald Trump has some financial momentum, with his campaign reporting $128.1 million in cash on hand.
She needs to make sure of Biden's delegates.
It takes 1,976 delegates to win the Democratic nomination. Harris has more than that. The quick exit by Biden allows the delegates he won in the primary process to back whomever they want. This is where endorsements from lawmakers and major Democratic allies matter.
The AFL-CIO on Monday unanimously backed Harris, after previously endorsing Biden and Harris as a joint ticket. That's a big show of support from a major Democratic bloc, as the AFL-CIO is composed of 60 labor unions representing 12.5 million workers.
Several leading Democrats who were viewed as presidential contenders in their own right have come out for Harris, a likely sign that their states' delegates will follow if they haven't already.
Harris has already received endorsements from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. She also has the backing of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Those endorsements are also key if Harris is looking for a vice presidential pick who can go toe-to-toe with Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump's Republican running mate.
A running mate must be chosen.
In 2020, Biden announced Harris as his running mate on August 11. To meet that same date, Harris would, in theory, have less than three weeks to make her own choice. She had previously agreed to debate Vance on Aug. 13, although the two candidates never settled on terms. But Harris could also stretch her vice presidential pick to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which starts Aug. 19.
Unlike in 2020, Harris will not be able to engage in the same extensive vetting process as Biden’s team with its interviews and research. It’s unclear where Harris is in this process, but vice presidential candidates usually exist to help balance out the top of the ticket and help rally major voting blocs.
She'll make ads, hold rallies.
The Biden campaign had been cranking out ads, all of them devoted to positioning the president as the best man to take on Trump. The ads involved access to abortions, Trump's policies, and Trump's criminal conviction in New York. Now that Biden is out of the race. Harris needs to craft her own identity even as she defends the president's record in office.
Similarly, Harris will need to hit the campaign trail much more aggressively as the top of the ticket. Biden made nine trips so far this year to Pennsylvania, five to Wisconsin, four to Michigan, four to North Carolina and three to Georgia. These are all states that the campaign saw before the June 27 debate as paths for Biden's releection, a task that now falls to Harris.
She must build a presence online.
According to the FEC filings, her official campaign website is: kamalaharris.com.
It’s not the first link that surfaces when someone googles her name. But the address is in the profile of her personal account on X, formerly Twitter. It’s also where users are directed when trying to access Biden’s former campaign site.
As of now, Harris’ site is a placeholder. There is a picture of her smiling in profile, the text of Biden’s endorsement and a form to donate money to her campaign.
She’ll need to build out something bigger. Trump’s campaign site includes his policy platform, videos, news updates, a listing of events, ways to get involved, and a lot of merchandise. That kind of setup is needed in part so that Harris supporters can organize and network across the country.
Harris needs to get social media platforms geared to her as well to make it easy to draw audiences to her campaign events.
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AP writers Chris Megerian and Will Weissert contributed to this report.