Democratic party’s presumptive nominee 2.1 points over Trump in FiveThirtyEight’s national average
Kamala Harris continues to gain strength in the US presidential election, as polls nationally and in battleground states show her building leads or catching Donald Trump.
On Friday morning, FiveThirtyEight, a leading polling analysis site, puts Harris, the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee for president, up by 2.1 points over her Republican rival in its national average.
Continue reading...Congress members are saying asylum seekers are ‘forced to wait in danger’ as advocates try to get them legal protection
In early June, Ofelia Arrellano said a gang in Mexico City threatened to kidnap her younger son if she didn’t pay a $160 monthly fee for keeping her toy store afloat.
Arellano, 37, and her two sons gathered enough money and fled. She feared the gangs’ reach if she stayed in Mexico, so they went north, towards the US, she said.
Continue reading...Harris campaigns with Walz in Detroit; ABC News confirms Trump and Harris will debate on 10 September
In a new tweet on Thursday ahead of her address with workers from the United Auto Workers union in Detroit, Michigan Kamala Harris wrote:
“This campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. Our campaign is about fighting for the future.”
Continue reading...Former House speaker on how she concluded the president couldn’t beat Trump and should step aside
Nancy Pelosi has “never been that impressed” with Joe Biden’s “political operation”, the former US House speaker said, discussing a judgment that helped her conclude the president could not beat Donald Trump and should step aside.
“They won the White House [in 2020]. Bravo. But my concern was: this ain’t happening, and we have to make a decision for [Biden’s withdrawal] to happen,” Pelosi told the New Yorker, in an interview published on Thursday.
Continue reading...President says in CBS News clip that Trump ‘means what he says’ about ‘a bloodbath for the country’ if he loses election
Joe Biden has said he is not confident there will be a peaceful transfer of power after the November presidential election.
“If Trump wins, no, I’m not confident at all. I mean, if Trump loses, I’m not confident at all,” the president said in an interview with CBS News that is due to air in full this Sunday.
Reuters contributed reporting
Continue reading...Trump tells Fox News that he announced Walz was a ‘good person’ to dissuade protesters from surrounding his house
Donald Trump claimed to have saved Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, from rightwing protesters in 2020 during unrest in Minnesota after the police murder of George Floyd, a statement that appears to contradict Walz’s own descriptions of calls between the two politicians.
Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Trump said, without offering evidence or specific dates or times, that he publicly announced Walz was “a good person” in order to dissuade protesters from surrounding Walz’s house.
Continue reading...Walz can continue serving as Minnesota’s governor until the election, but if he and Harris are successful, Flanagan will take over
Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, could become the first US female Indigenous governor if Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz, resigns from office. Walz can continue serving as the state’s governor until the November election, but if he and Harris are successful, Flanagan will take over his gubernatorial duties.
In fact, a series of firsts would be triggered should the Harris-Walz ticket win: Harris would become the nation’s first woman, first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to ascend to the country’s top office. Flanagan, already the highest-ranking Native woman in a state-level executive office, would become Minnesota’s first female governor and the first Indigenous woman to serve as governor of a US state. And Minnesota’s senate president, Bobby Joe Champion, would become Minnesota’s first Black lieutenant governor.
Continue reading...St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress with about 51% of the vote
A prominent member of the progressive “Squad” in Congress, Cori Bush, has lost her Democratic primary in St Louis after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza.
St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress with about 51% of the vote. Bush took about 46%.
Continue reading...Harris praises Walz’s time as a football coach as her VP pick says he’ll debate JD Vance ‘if he’s willing to get off the couch’
Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, to supporters at a packed, energetic rally at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The event, which kicks off a week-long tour through the most politically competitive US states, marks a new chapter for the Harris campaign after securing enough delegates to be the Democratic nominee.
Continue reading...Democratic nominee calls Walz ‘the kind of vice-president America deserves’ as pair vow to take fight to Donald Trump
Kamala Harris introduced her running mate Tim Walz as “the kind of vice-president America deserves” at a raucous rally in Philadelphia that showcased Democratic unity and enthusiasm for the party’s presidential ticket ahead of the November election.
Casting their campaign as a “fight for the future”, Harris and Walz were repeatedly interrupted by applause and cheering as they addressed thousands of battleground-state voters wearing bracelets that twinkled red, white and blue at Temple University’s Liacouras Center – a crowd Harris’s team said was its largest to date.
Continue reading...Democrats welcome choice of Minnesota governor to be Harris’s running mate in race against Donald Trump and JD Vance
As we await Kamala Harris’s running mate announcement, Americans in some states are heading to the polls today.
Voters in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington state will cast ballots in their congressional primaries today. Results in Michigan will be especially scrutinized, as the battleground state will play a key role in the presidential election.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) pumped more than $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district in support of Bush’s rival, St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell, through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP). …
The UDP accounts for more than half of all the money spent on the race outside of the campaigns themselves. Much of it comes from billionaires who fund hardline pro-Israel causes and Republicans in other races, including some who have given to Donald Trump’s campaign.
With the support of 99% of all participating delegates in the virtual roll call, Vice-President Harris has historic momentum at her back as we embark on the final steps in officially certifying her as our Party’s nominee.
We thank the thousands of delegates from all across the country who took seriously their responsibility throughout this process to make their voices – and the voices of their communities – heard.
Continue reading...Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota has seen progressive legislative wins, and his simple retort that Republicans are ‘weird’ went viral
Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee for US president, has named Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, as her running mate ahead of the November election.
The decision ends intense speculation over which candidate Harris would pick to go up against Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and former president, and his choice for vice-president, the Ohio senator JD Vance.
Continue reading...This blog is closed. You can read the latest US election coverage here.
Climate activist, feminist and screen legend Jane Fonda has put out a video message endorsing Kamala Harris to win the White House in November.
“Today I’m proud to endorse Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States,” Fonda begins, talking to camera in close-up.
Continue reading...Senate finance committee learned of additional undisclosed travel on Harlan Crow’s jet, says Ron Wyden
The conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose more private travel on a jet owned by the rightwing mega-donor Harlan Crow, a Democratic senator said on Monday, amid a swirling ethics scandal and demands for judiciary reform.
“I am deeply concerned that Mr Crow may have been showering a public official with extravagant gifts, then writing off those gifts to lower his tax bill,” Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Senate finance committee chair, told a lawyer for Crow in a letter.
Continue reading...Florida representative Byron Donalds spars with ABC host over Republicans’ questioning of vice-president’s heritage
Donald Trump ally Byron Donalds and ABC host George Stephanopoulos sparred on Sunday over Republicans’ attack line questioning Kamala Harris’s racial identity.
During an interview on ABC’s This Week, the Republican Florida representative called the issue a “phony controversy” and said “I don’t really care.” He then proceeded to double down on the issues – which the former president brought up earlier this week at the NABJ conference – by saying: “When Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was AP that said she was the first Indian American United States senator … Now she’s running nationally, obviously the campaign has shifted. They’re talking much more about her father’s heritage and her Black identity.”
Continue reading...Congressional race could head for recount as Yassamin Ansari leads Raquel Terán by 67 votes as of yesterday
The Democratic primary in Arizona’s third congressional district still remains too close to call and could be headed for a recount.
Former Phoenix city council member Yassamin Ansari led former state lawmaker Raquel Terán by 67 votes with nearly 44,000 ballots counted as of Saturday evening.
Continue reading...Doug Emhoff and Chasten Buttigieg’s success spurred talk about transportation secretary’s veepstakes chances
While Kamala Harris cleared her campaign diary this weekend to finalize her choice of running mate ahead of a swing-state presidential campaign blitz next week, political spouses were hard at work.
The vice-president’s husband, Doug Emhoff, and Chasten Buttigieg, husband of the US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg – a potential running mate for Harris at the top of November’s Democratic ticket whose candidacy has been strengthening in recent days – were on New York’s Fire Island on Friday for a sold-out event that raised $321,000.
Continue reading...Hullabaloo over clip posted by Cherelle L Parker dispersed when it emerged it was in support of Josh Shapiro and not an announcement
A political and media “firestorm” broke out briefly in Philadelphia on Friday over whether the city’s mayor had published a tweet and video mistakenly revealing that Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, was Kamala Harris’s eagerly awaited vice-presidential pick.
Heralding a “scoop”, Ernest Owens, a reporter for outlets including Philadelphia Magazine, said: “Philly political sources have told me that a staffer connected with Mayor Cherelle Parker’s team accidentally posted the video today.
Continue reading...This blog has now closed. Read more on the Harris delegate story here
Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, is widely speculated to be among Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential finalists.
Martin Pengelly explores Shapiro’s background for the Guardian:
July was the best grassroots fundraising month in presidential history.
Team Harris raised more across grassroots channels in the four days following President Biden’s endorsement of Vice-President Harris than Trump’s big donor-reliant operation raised in the entire month.
More than 3 million donors made over 4.2m contributions – with more than 2 million donors making their first donation this cycle.
This month, 94% of all our donations were under $200, and teachers and nurses continue to be among the most common donor occupations.
Compared with June, we saw more than 10 times the number of gen Z donors, and more than eight times the number of millennial donors.
Sixty per cent of all donors in July were women.
Coalition groups that organized calls since launch – like Black Women for Harris, Latinas for Harris, and White Dudes for Harris – raised more than $20m for Team Harris.
Continue reading...Vice-president ‘honored’ to be nominee after securing delegate votes – but nomination not official until Monday
Kamala Harris said on Friday she was “honored” to have secured enough votes from delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee, making her the first Black woman and person of south Asian heritage to lead a major party ticket.
Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, announced that the vice-president had earned the majority of delegates’ votes to become the party’s nominee to challenge Donald Trump in November, though her nomination would not be official until Monday, the end of the virtual roll-call vote.
Continue reading...