The Harris for President numbers don't lie

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Three weeks ago I made the case for candidate Kamala Harris, and here we are. My fear of her candidacy dredging up the bitter 2020 primary proved to be unfounded: Her former opponents have by and large lined up behind her, and more importantly, so have their supporters. Biden diehards and Bernie Bros alike are all in. Democrats haven’t been this jacked up since President Biden defeated Trump four years ago. 

But I’m not here to talk about feelings, vibes or what it means to be brat. I’m here to talk about numbers. 

I should start by saying I’m terrible at math. Always have been, always will be. My dad still talks about sitting at the dining room table with me in 6th grade and trying to explain new equations and the way my face would just go completely blank—knock, knock, no one’s home. But this week we’re seeing numbers that even the most numerically-challenged among us can easily grasp.

Since President Biden announced Sunday that he wouldn’t be accepting the Democratic nomination and would be endorsing Vice President Harris to top the ticket, the numbers haven’t lied. According to the campaign, Harris raised more than $100 million between Sunday and Monday. Her haul came from more than 1.1 million unique donors, 62% of whom were donating for the first time. The $81 million she raised in the first 24 hours alone set a single-day presidential fundraising record. Like, in all of history. 

People aren’t this enthusiastic in a vacuum: Democrats have been enthusiastic about wanting to be enthusiastic for so long, and now they’re finally able to be. The feeling of pure relief cannot be understated as a motivating factor for voters.

While those numbers are astonishing, there’s another number that’s even more important to my mind: 58,000. That’s the amount of people the campaign says have signed up to volunteer for the Harris campaign since Sunday. So not only are people putting their money where their mouths are; they’re putting their feet there, too.

For those of you who’ve followed me for some years now, you might recall my work co-creating Crush the Midterms (in 2018) and Crush 2020, online platforms that created personalized plans for voting, volunteering and donating for elections. Getting involved in elections at any level is something of a love language to me, and seeing others speak it is pretty damn magical. And even more exciting is seeing people learn it for the first time.

As soon as the news broke Sunday, I received a flurry of texts—some ecstatic, some worried, some a mixture of both. For the friends who were apprehensive about what Harris as the candidate means about the chances of a second Trump term, my advice to quell their anxiety was simple: volunteer. I got one friend to commit to writing postcards to voters in swing states, and she said my assurances paired with action helped settle her nerves. Another friend said she definitely wanted to stop Trump but was going to learn more about Harris before volunteering.

When I posted some of these anecdotes online, I receive replies from so many others who’d signed up to volunteer and/or heard from family and friends who did the same. And for me personally, I had not intended to knock doors for Biden; I will, however, be pounding the pavement for Harris. 

Walking up to strangers’ homes or calling them out of the blue is scary. But you know what’s even scarier? A second Trump presidency and the innumerable sinister promises of Project 2025. 

I had a call with someone who works in Democratic spaces the other day and he recalled leaving it all on the field in the run up to the 2004 presidential election. While George W. Bush’s defeat of John Kerry was a crushing blow, knowing he’d personally done all he could, this person recalled, softened the blow. So there are deeply personal reasons to get involved, but if everyone makes the personal political, the chances of us having a blow we need to soften reduces dramatically. 

Once the votes are in, there’s nothing you can do (despite what Trump supporters will tell you.) But now? Now there’s a massive opportunity for you to make an impact. Yes, you.

As the dust continues to settle on the news of Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, I can’t help but think of a guy on Long Island whose two cars are covered in vulgar anti-Biden flags and stickers—and how fucking hilarious it is that he now needs to redecorate. 

Quick reminder: I’m heading to Marion, Kansas on Thursday to report on the one year anniversary of the unprecedented police raid on the local newspaper. If you need a refresher on that monumental story, click here. 

As mentioned the other day, I’m completely self-financing this reporting trip. If you’ve already signed up for a premium subscription or sent money to help cover travel and iced coffees, thank you from the bottom of my heart. And if you haven’t already, it’s not too late! Become a premium subscriber if you’re not one already and/or securely send financial support via Venmo or Ko-fi.

I can’t wait to share what I—along with the great folks at the Kansas Reflector with whom I’m partnering for this project—uncover on the trip.