Wherever Vice President Kamala Harris goes, enthusiasm follows. The Democratic presidential nominee has the crowds, she has the polls, and she’s getting the money. That’s all great news, but what she really needs in order to win is a strong field operation and armies of volunteers deployed across the nation—and she has just 82 days to do it.
Fortunately, Harris is already ahead of GOP nominee Donald Trump when it comes to registering new voters this cycle, and is growing the ground game it will take for the campaign to get them to the polls on Nov. 5.
Harris’ campaign has signed up masses of volunteers wherever she’s been. In Arizona, 3,000 volunteer shifts were filled as people left the record-breaking rally there. In Nevada, her campaign has recruited more than 10,500 volunteers. People are even signing up in places she hasn’t been: The campaign has gained more than 17,000 volunteers in Florida during her nascent run.
The pleasant surprises don’t end there. Check out Indiana.
"We've had more calls from people wanting to volunteer, wanting merchandise, yard signs," Cheryl Schultz, chair of the Vanderburgh County Democrats, told Axios. "I think there's an increase in hope and excitement, too."
“We have this very organic, very real, very palpable energy from people that want to support the ticket,” Dan Kanninen, the Harris campaign’s battleground states director, told NBC News earlier this week.
We are turning that energy and that enthusiasm into action. And at all of these events, because we’re organized, because there is a large campaign presence across the battleground states—more than 1,500 staff, more than 260 offices—those teams are able to effectively marshal that enthusiasm into volunteer shifts that mean a direct line into additional volunteer recruitment, into voter contact, knocking doors, making phone calls and driving that forward in a way that actually appreciably changes the margins in these very, very close states.
That’s how it’s done—getting the word out, persuading voters, and getting them to cast their ballots. That also means getting more people registered to vote so they can be persuaded, and it looks like that pool of potential Harris voters is growing as well. The New York Times reports that Democrats have reversed the GOP’s edge in new registrations in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
There was a verifiable earlier surge in Democratic registrations right after Harris launched her campaign. But there’s ground to make up. Pennsylvania has four times as many registered Republicans as Democrats and nationally, “in 28 of the 30 states that require voters to register with a party, Republicans have net more voter registrations than Democrats (Colorado and California withstanding).”
Kamala Harris and running-mate Tim Walz made their campaign debut together at a rally on Aug. 6 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On the other hand, the Trump campaign is a mess and anyone who might have Trump’s ear is trying to get him to, well, not be so Trumpy. It’s not working. The campaign is in disarray because their candidate is in disarray. Trump is losing supporters and spiraling.
And Trump’s big plan for defeating President Joe Biden has been hilariously upended. Check out this CBS News headline from June: “Trump campaign bets big on Minnesota, Virginia with new field offices.”
Thanks to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who Harris tapped as her running mate, Trump can kiss his dream of winning the North Star State goodbye. As for Virginia? Project 2025 and Trump’s Agenda 47 are going to get in his way there.
Looking to volunteer to help get out the vote? Click here to view multiple ways you can help reach voters—textbanking, phonebanking, letters, postcards, parties, canvassing —we’ve got you covered!
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