Harris Holds First Fundraiser as Democrats Rally: ‘We Are the Underdogs’

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Vice President Kamala Harris warned a crowd of supporters Saturday that former President Donald Trump held the advantage in their contest for the White House given the short window until Election Day.

“We got a fight ahead of us, and we are the underdogs in this race, OK?” Harris said in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, at her first fundraiser since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid six days ago. “Level set, we’re the underdogs in this race. But this is a people-powered campaign, and we have momentum.”

Polls have shown the vice president catching up to Trump — welcome news for Democrats after Biden had fallen significantly behind. The Harris campaign has also shown new strength in fundraising and in the number of new volunteers, with the election roughly three months away.

Since announcing her candidacy for the Democratic nomination and receiving Biden’s endorsement, Harris has deployed a sharpened message against Trump. On Saturday, she suggested he would restrict Americans’ “most fundamental rights,” including reproductive freedoms, and called him a “bully.” She also leaned into a new Democratic attack on the former president and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, saying that some of the swipes the men had taken against her were “just plain weird.”

The event, at a historic theater in the Berkshires, a popular vacation destination in western Massachusetts, raised over $1.4 million, significantly more than the $400,000 organizers had hoped to bring in, according to the Harris campaign. Roughly 800 people attended, taking in performances by singer James Taylor, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax.

Harris’ ascent to the top of the ticket has galvanized Democratic fundraising. Her campaign said it had raised at least $130 million since Biden dropped out. Big donors who abandoned him after his disastrous debate performance last month have flocked back to Harris, and supporters have held several successful online calls to raise money, drawing tens of thousands of attendees.

Even before the vice president supplanted Biden as the nominee, some signs suggested that she was generating more enthusiasm among Democrats. Last weekend, she headlined a fundraiser in Provincetown, Massachusetts, that raised more than $2 million, twice what organizers said they had expected.

While Biden led Trump in fundraising for much of the campaign, the former president pulled ahead in recent months. But Democrats still have the edge in the nuts and bolts of campaign infrastructure, such as the number of offices open in battleground states.

The Harris campaign has showcased the new energy in the party. When she landed at a regional airport before her fundraiser in Pittsfield, a crowd of more than 150 people gathered to greet her. Hundreds more, chanting “Ka-ma-la,” waited outside the Colonial Theater, where the fundraiser was held. Biden rarely saw such welcome committees.

“Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom,” Harris said at the event. “And now the baton is in our hands.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.