Harris gives House Democrats new hope for November: 'A game changer'

The stunning ascension of Vice President Harris as the Democrats’ probable presidential nominee has rejuvenated House Democrats, lending vulnerable lawmakers a new chance to go on offense while breathing new life into the party’s hopes of flipping the lower chamber in November.

Democrats have been on the ropes for most of the last month, deflated by President Biden’s devastating debate performance in Atlanta and fearful that the incumbent’s place at the top of the ticket would be a drag on the party all down the ballot.

Biden’s extraordinary decision to step out of the race over the weekend — and the party’s near-immediate move to rally behind Harris as his replacement — has altered those dynamics overnight, as Democrats say district voters are newly energized, fundraising has skyrocketed and volunteers are coming out in droves to help keep former President Trump from winning a second term. 

“This has been a shot in the arm for our party,” Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) said. “My phone blew up in the last 24 hours with people asking how they can help, where they can go, and how they can be a part of this campaign.”

“The emergence of Vice President Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee has been a game changer,” echoed Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). “It represents an infusion of new energy into the Democratic Party and the presidential race … I’m proud to report that the enthusiasm gap, the voter enthusiasm gap, has all but collapsed.”

Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said that enthusiasm is evident even in places like Michigan, which is one of a handful of battleground states that will decide the outcome of the presidential contest. Since the June 27 debate, Trump’s lead over Biden had grown notably, sounding alarm bells across Democratic circles. But Harris’s entrance into the race seems to have resuscitated the Democrats’ ground game, Kildee said, as hundreds of new volunteers flooded party field offices in the 24 hours after Biden’s exit. 

“A couple of weeks ago, there was a lot of anxiety, there was a lot of concern about where we were and where we were going … But I think now there's a much greater sense of looking forward to this campaign, looking forward to the contrast [with Trump],” Kildee said.

“It certainly doesn't guarantee victory, but it puts us in a better position,” he added. “I think about the state of Michigan, and we've got a path, we've got a shot.”

Harris on Monday evening secured the backing of enough delegates to get the presidential nomination when the party meets in Chicago next month, a remarkable achievement that came just two days after Biden dropped out and endorsed her as his successor.

The announcement from Biden followed weeks of speculation about the president’s reelection plans and, simultaneously, mounting concerns among Democrats that their chances of winning up and down the ballot would be tarnished if the incumbent remained in the race.

Democrats quickly rallied behind Harris following Biden’s announcement, throwing their support behind the new candidate and voicing a newfound sense of optimism about the party’s chances up and down the ballot come November. The circling of the wagons culminated Tuesday with an endorsement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), which had been delayed as Harris worked to lock down enough delegates to secure the nomination.

“I'm proud to strongly endorse Kamala Harris to be the 47th president of the United States of America,” Jeffries said. “We're gonna hold the Senate, we're gonna win the House, we're gonna elect Kamala Harris as our next president in November.”

With Biden out and Harris in, Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), a front-liner who had called for Biden to withdraw, said he is happier to run with Harris at the top of the ticket.

“She’ll do what so many of these voters who have been, you know, expressing frustration and concern, she will help energize and engage them in a way that will help folks up and down the ticket,” Landsman said. “She is what they’ve been asking for, which is something new, something different, an end to the chaos and extremism and an end to this situation where we’re all having to worry about our politicians.”

That excitement, Democrats say, is evident both anecdotally and numerically. Several lawmakers have said their phones are ringing off the hook with constituents asking for tickets to next month’s convention in Chicago and the inauguration in January, while others have noted that tens of thousands of new volunteers signed up to work for the campaign.

“I was also really blown away by the fact that 58,000 new volunteers signed up for the Harris campaign since she announced that she was seeking the nomination,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “That is the juice behind the campaign, that is the wind behind our sails. That is the volunteers, that is the organizing, that is the door knocking that’s gonna get people to care about the election and be able to see themselves in it.”

The personnel change has also given a huge boost to the Democrats’ finances. 

Harris’s campaign said it raked in more than $100 million between Sunday afternoon — the official launch of her bid — and Monday evening, which was from upwards of 1.1 million individual donors.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has also reported a boom in fundraising: The campaign arm said it raised nearly $1 million in the 24 hours after Biden endorsed Harris, marking its best online fundraising day this cycle.

“It speaks to the energy that’s present,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who serves as battleground leadership representative in the House Democratic Caucus, said of the surge in fundraising. “People are excited. They’re excited about her candidacy, they're excited about what she brings to the ticket.”

“I don't know that I've ever seen so much money, in small sums, contributed over such a short period of time,” echoed Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a 43-year veteran of the House. “There's just a lot of enthusiasm.”

The tone marks a sharp departure from the gloomy mood hanging over Democrats just a few weeks ago, in the wake of the Trump-Biden debate, when concerns over the president’s fitness snowballed into a full panic that Trump would trounce Biden if he remained on the ticket. In response, some major donors vowed to withhold funds; celebrity backers like George Clooney and Rob Reiner urged Biden to exit the race; and a slow drip of Democratic lawmakers joined those calls.

In the early stages of the process, it was unclear how a potential replacement would be determined, as party leaders as prominent as Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) were calling for a “mini-primary.”

In the end, however, no challengers to Harris emerged, and the flood of top Democrats who endorsed her — beginning with Biden himself — appeared to end such a contest before it could ever launch. Many Democrats, including those who had supported the idea of keeping Biden as the nominee, said the sense of urgency in keeping Trump out of the White House fueled the move to unite quickly behind Harris. 

"What we're seeing right now is a rallying for stability,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said.

Still, some Democrats — particularly those running in close races this fall — have stopped short of endorsing Harris, raising some eyebrows.

Reps. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) and Josh Harder (D-Calif.), two front-liners, declined to answer questions from The Hill on Monday about whether or not they support Harris.

“I as a rule do not believe in endorsements,” Peltola said. “As a human being I do support her, I do not make any endorsements, though, politically.”

But by and large, the Democratic Party is coalescing around Harris, hoping that the broad show of support will turn the page on the previous weeks of discontent and help amplify the campaign in the roughly 100 days to go before Election Day.

“Obviously, the last month has been a lot of bickering and debating and not campaigning,” Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) said. “Now we can put that aside and go campaign.”