Democratic candidates in battleground Senate and House races are breathing a sigh of relief that the party is finally turning the page on a calamitous few weeks they feared would upend their own races.
President Joe Biden’s decision to step aside and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris has, for now, ended an embarrassing intra-party feud.
With the party rapidly coalescing around Harris and tens of millions of dollars pouring in, Democrats running in the most competitive contests see this moment as a “reset” that neutralizes Republicans’ months-long efforts to tie them to Biden — and more recently, Biden’s mental acuity.
“Once [Biden’s] decision was made, the family, the coalition got put back together,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told us. “There was a lot of money [that] just came off the sidelines in a very decisive and almost joyful way… That shows the anti-Trump coalition still exists and just needs to be activated. Now everybody understands it’s go time.”
House Democrats on Monday kept referencing the newfound “energy” they felt over the past 48 hours.
“I think Harris will continue to generate a lot of enthusiasm, which has obvious positive effects down-ballot,” said Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who represents Frontliners in leadership.
“I love Joe Biden, but I think it’s a fact that we were having a difficult time activating our base,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said. “We have that problem solved.”
The Harris campaign announced Monday it raised a stunning $81 million in the 24 hours since Biden dropped out. Even more notable was the fact that 60% of the donors were giving for the first time, per the campaign.
And the DSCC on Sunday tripled its cycle record for individual grassroots donations on a single day. The DCCC also had a strong Sunday with nearly $1 million raised in the 24 hours following Biden’s announcement.
This is obviously good news for Democratic campaigns. But money isn’t everything, and Senate Democrats are still defending seats in states that Trump will win handily or is currently leading. Several vulnerable Democrats haven’t yet formally endorsed Harris.
The skeptics: The holdouts include Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) as well as Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.).
Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio) said she’s not sure how Harris will perform in swing districts like hers, despite endorsing the vice president.
“Just like any other candidate, she’ll have to let people know who she is and introduce herself,” Sykes said. “As a down-ballot candidate, you’re worried about everything.”
Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) backed Harris but also said: “A lot of swing voters back home, they don’t really know who she is.”
The key to victory for candidates like Tester and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is to distinguish themselves from the national party brand. That means they’ll need to outrun Harris by massive margins.
Democrats have long pinned their hopes on the notion that their competitive races are candidate-vs.-candidate battles. But the top of the ticket is undeniably a major factor.
Democratic campaign officials say those Democrats who called on Biden to step aside before Sunday — including Tester and Brown — showed they were willing to stand up to their party, a key element of their pitches to voters. In most battleground states, the GOP Senate challenger is running behind Trump in the polls.
GOP view: In a new memo, NRSC Executive Director Jason Thielman said Harris becoming the nominee “creates a strong down-ballot opportunity for Republicans.”
Thielman argued concerns about Biden’s mental acuity were “difficult to translate down-ballot,” and that Harris is “a bigger threat” to Democrats’ Senate majority than Biden was. And he recommends that GOP candidates “aggressively” tie their opponents to Harris, arguing she owns Biden’s record, particularly when it comes to the border.
— Andrew Desiderio, Max Cohen and Mica Soellner
