The enthusiasm and energy at the United Center was palpable — but that enthusiasm extended well beyond Chicago, spreading far and wide throughout the battleground states that will decide this election.
The Convention marked our biggest week of organizing since the start of the campaign, with volunteers signing up for nearly 200,000 shifts since Monday.
Headed into the Convention, our campaign hosted a weekend of action, and volunteers completed 10,000 shifts and contacted over 1 million voters. The convention itself helped build on that momentum, generating nearly 200,000 new volunteer shifts since the Monday of convention. On Thursday and Friday alone, volunteers signed up for 90,000 shifts, motivated by the extraordinary excitement around the Vice President’s speech.
We head into September with a virtual army of volunteers ready to do the hard work of talking to their neighbors, friends and colleagues. Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s battleground infrastructure remains incredibly sparse.
In just over a month since we launched our campaign, Team Harris-Walz raised $540 million – a record for any campaign in history.
Not only are our volunteers doing the work, but this week we saw unprecedented grassroots donations. Just before Vice President Harris’ acceptance speech Thursday night, we officially crossed the $500 million mark. Immediately after her speech, we saw our best fundraising hour since launch day.
Even more encouraging than the total figure is where these donations are coming from:
- A third of this week’s donations originated from first-time contributors.
- Almost one-fifth of those first-time contributors were young voters and two-thirds of which were women — both of which are poised to be deciding constituencies in November.
- Teachers and nurses also continue to be among the most common donor occupations.
This fundraising reflects totals raised across Harris for President, the Democratic National Committee, and joint fundraising committees.
This week, the diversity of our coalition was on display not only in Chicago, but throughout our campaign’s engagement across the country.
- Women for Harris engaged over 10,000 women voters through its in-person and virtual programming, including phone banks and volunteer training.
- We launched our Latinos con Biden Harris WhatsApp group on Sunday, heading into the Convention week, and saw nearly 4,000 supporters join.
- Several other coalitions groups also ran Convention programming this weeks – including AANHPIs for Harris-Walz, Educators for Harris-Walz, Military and Veterans for Harris-Walz, Young Voters for Harris-Walz, Seniors for Harris-Walz, Small Businesses for Harris-Walz and more.
The Convention also supercharged our campaign’s outreach to conservative and independent voters: six Republican speakers were featured on stage and several more appeared in videos, including a number of former Trump administration officials — the most ever for a Democratic convention. In fact, our Convention was the most bipartisan national political event in recent American history. Also, this week, Judge J. Michael Luttig, a conservative legal scholar and George H. W. Bush appointee, along with a dozen Republican lawyers who worked for Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush endorsed the Vice President. He joins the ranks of Congressman Joe Walsh, Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, and many others who issued similar endorsements over the past few weeks.
Following the Convention, our campaign isn’t taking our foot off the gas.
In the states, organizers will be making a push this week with voters to talk about critical and mobilizing issues, including reproductive freedom, the cost of living, and protecting Social Security and Medicare.
On Wednesday, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will kick off a bus tour in South Georgia – their first time campaigning together in the state. This part of the Peach State represents the diverse coalition that makes up the Harris-Walz coalition, including rural, suburban, and urban Georgians – with a large proportion of Black voters and working class families. On Thursday night, in Savannah, the Vice President will host a rally to speak directly to Georgians about the stakes of this election. These rallies also help to build the campaign’s volunteer efforts. In the last month, Vice President Harris’ rallies have helped generate thousands of volunteer sign ups across the battlegrounds. Following her Miluwakee rally on Tuesday night, Wisconsin volunteers signed up for 2,800 shifts.
The campaign also continues its strong paid outreach program. On Friday, the Harris-Walz campaign released a new TV ad, airing across media markets in battleground states, reinforcing the Vice President’s economic vision and belief in building up the middle class, lowering costs, and creating an opportunity economy where everyone who works hard can get ahead. This ad will run as part of a $150 million television buy for August, and then, starting immediately after Labor Day, we already have $370 million in television and digital reservations through Election Day. This fall buy includes the largest digital reservation in the history of American politics, reflecting the campaign’s commitment to meet voters wherever they are.
Bottom line: The Convention was a galvanizing moment for the Harris-Walz coalition throughout the country, energizing and mobilizing volunteer and grassroots donors alike. Headed into Labor Day, our campaign is using those resources and enthusiasm to build on our momentum, taking no voters for granted and communicating relentlessly with battleground voters every single day between now and Election Day – all the while Trump is focused on very little beyond online tantrums and attacking the voters critical to winning 270 electoral votes.
Thank you for doing everything you are doing to elect Kamala Harris this November.
Kamala Harris for President
