In 2008 when Barack Obama received the Democratic nomination for president, it amazed the world as many didn’t see that coming — a Black man contesting the highest office in the United States. Obama campaigned on a message of hope amid the global financial crisis and war in Iraq. It did wonders for him as he raised a record $150 million for his campaign by September 2008. He more than doubled the $66 million he brought in for August, which had also been a record.
Indeed, Obama broke all records for campaign fundraising partly due to his Internet presence (mainly on YouTube), analysts said at the time. Ahead of 2012 when he won four more years, The Wall Street Journal reported that Obama’s reelection campaign raised more than $150 million by September of that year, matching his record-shattering September 2008 figure.
Twelve years down the line, Kamala Harris is stepping in as the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee, and support for her is being increasingly compared to the excitement around former President Obama in 2008.
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If Harris becomes the Democratic nominee and defeats Republican candidate Donald Trump in November, she will not only be the first woman to serve as president but also the first black woman and first person of South Asian descent to be president, representing even more “firsts” than Obama.
While Obama ran on hope, she has chosen “freedom” as the theme of her campaign.
“There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos. Of fear. Of hate,” Harris says in the voiceover for her first campaign ad. “We choose freedom.”
“The freedom not just to get by, but get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body. We choose a future where no child lives in poverty. Where we all can afford health care, where no one is above the law,” Harris says in the ad as Beyoncé’s 2016 song “Freedom” plays in the background.
Harris using “Freedom” as the song of her campaign speaks to her “understanding of what’s happening in this cultural moment so much more than so many politicians out there,” 2008 Obama campaign press secretary Bill Burton told the Chronicle.
Certainly, these factors seem to be working for her, and experts even believe that Harris’ momentum could be bigger than Obama’s in 2008 and 2012. Here’s why.
While Obama raised $150 million for his whole campaign in 2012, Harris raised a stunning $200 million in just one week. On Sunday, the Harris campaign team said that in her first week since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Harris raised over $200 million in donations.
“In the week since we got started, Kamala Harris has raised $200 million dollars. 66% of that is from new donors. We’ve signed up 170,000 new volunteers,” Harris’ deputy campaign manager, Rob Flaherty, stated on X.
In fact, her campaign recently revealed that it raised a record $81 million in the first 24 hours after Biden dropped out of the race and Harris became the presumptive nominee. The figure, which was a new presidential donation record, included money raised across the campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and joint fundraising committees. Her campaign said over 888,000 grassroots donors contributed in those 24 hours.
And on Sunday night after Biden left the race, the group “Win With Black Women”, mostly members of Harris’ sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority Inc., also helped raise over $1 million for her campaign.
“There were 44,000 women on this call, that just shows you the power that we have, and it made you feel proud to be a part of the movement,” Shariah Dixon-Turner, the president of the Rho Theta Omega Chapter of AKA, told 6abc.com. “Once President Biden endorsed Harris the money started rolling in immediately,” Dixon-Turner said, adding that over $1 million came in in just under three hours.
Surely, the momentum Harris is gaining in terms of campaign donations is not going to slow down anytime soon as over 170,000 volunteers have also signed up to help her campaign with “phone banking, canvassing and other get-out-the-vote efforts,” Fortune.com reported.
“The momentum and energy for Vice President Harris is real — and so are the fundamentals of this race: this election will be very close and decided by a small number of voters in just a few states,” Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director, wrote in a memo.
With less than 100 days to the election, Harris has earned the support of leading Democratic figures including Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
She is also catching up with the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, according to the latest polls.
Harris’ party will hold an online vote at the beginning of August which may officially confirm her nomination for the general election.
