July 30, 2024, presidential campaign news

Sen. Mark Kelly speaks to reporters after a vote in the Capitol on Tuesday, July 30.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly brushed aside concerns about the vulnerability of his seat should he be selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.

Kelly, while acknowledging “it’s important” Democrats maintain control of the Senate, lauded the party for its historical performance in Arizona.

“Democrats have been really good about winning statewide races in the state of Arizona,” he said to reporters Tuesday.

“We, you know, we figured this out. We have a strong state party, and I imagine we’re going to be successful, you know, from now going into the future. … No, I don’t, I don’t think it’ll be an issue. I think we’ve got a great slate of other Democrats, but this is not about me,” he added.

Context: If Harris chose Kelly and won, it would prompt a special election in Arizona in 2026, leaving Democrats in the Senate with a vulnerable seat that could flip red. Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs would appoint a replacement until that time.

CNN previously reported that Kelly is on the short list of potential running mates for Harris. Supporters of Harris in Arizona told CNN they hope she chooses Kelly, touting his background and arguing that he would help deliver the battleground state for Democrats.

Vice President Kamala Harris will continue to “prosecute the case” against former President Donald Trump’s agenda during a campaign rally in Atlanta on Tuesday, her campaign said, as she seeks to mobilize Black voters in the key battleground state.

With fewer than 100 days until the election, the campaign outlined an “intense” road ahead.

“As the vice president herself said on Saturday, we are the underdogs in this race, but the groundswell of support around the vice president is real and meaningful. Our task is to translate that enthusiasm into action,” said Dan Kanninen, the campaign’s battleground states director. 

A series of viral posts on social media this week promoted claims that NFL quarterbacks Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, Jared Goff of the Detroit Lions and Daniel Jones of the New York Giants had joined a public “White Dudes for Harris” online fundraising call Monday night in support of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Facts First: The viral posts are false. A source connected to Burrow, a source connected to Goff and a source connected to Jones told CNN on Tuesday that each of them was not on the call. The three quarterbacks have not publicly endorsed a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. 

Posts claiming the quarterbacks were on the pro-Harris call — or that they “reportedly” or “apparently” were on the call — generated millions of views on X. The claims also made their way to some sports websites.

The claims were previously debunked Tuesday by publications including Front Office Sports.

The claim about Burrow in particular had been propelled by a Harris supporter account called Kamala’s Wins, which has more than 500,000 followers. The account received more than 3.5 million views on a post Monday night claiming the Bengals star is supporting Harris and was on the call.

Kamala’s Wins deleted the post Tuesday. The account, which is run anonymously, did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment later in the day.

One major lesson from Vice President Kamala Harris’ sudden ascension to be the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is that running mates matter.

Backup quarterbacks need to be ready for big games, and vice presidents need to be ready for the Oval Office, as this election year has proven on both sides of the political aisle.

Former President Donald Trump was nearly killed by a would-be assassin before he officially selected Sen. JD Vance. Harris is set to be Democrats’ consensus nominee only because President Joe Biden stepped aside after questions were raised about his ability to do the job for four more years.

It’s a point not lost on some Republicans who are second-guessing Trump’s selection of Vance and Democrats who are anticipating Harris’ pick any day.

“Veepstakes,” as the informal selection process is frequently called, can feel irrelevant and overwrought as pundits pick apart the attributes and drawbacks of potential vice presidents. Trump compared the process to his old reality show, “The Apprentice,” in which he picked the best person to hire.

CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere reports the Harris campaign plans to hold up Trump’s pick of Vance as evidence that the former president is not good at hiring people and that Vance is unqualified to be president.

Harris’ selection of a running mate – the first major decision of her unexpected campaign – is expected before planned joint appearances next week and in time for Democrats to include the potential veep’s name when delegates officially select the Democratic ticket during the first week of August.

Read more analysis here.

As the burgeoning Kamala Harris campaign works behind the scenes to refine its policy platform, the vice president has increasingly found herself clarifying which of her positions have shifted over the years.

From fracking to single-payer health care, several cornerstones of her 2020 presidential run, as well as her time as a US senator and California attorney general, now appear at odds with the policies that have crystallized during the Biden-Harris administration and emerged as critical issues in battleground states.

The policy changes reflect the differences between the moderation that has come with governing during the current administration’s time in office and the demands of the 2020 Democratic primary, when both Joe Biden and Harris reversed course on certain policies in an attempt to move to the left.

But the recent clarifications on her current positions, and the speed at which her fledgling campaign moved to make them, also demonstrate the Harris team’s need to define the presumptive Democratic nominee – lest Republicans beat them to it. Even as Harris has energized Democrats and boosted the ticket’s appeal to Black, Latino and younger voters, she is also seeking a running mate who is likely to be a White man with a more centrist persona.

Read more about where Harris now stands on some major policy questions here.

Sen. JD Vance speaks at a campaign rally at Liberty High School on July 30 in Henderson, Nevada. 

GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Tuesday continued to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, saying if she’s elected president, the country will be less safe and citizens will be “sitting ducks” to crime.

As the Trump campaign zeroes in on Harris’ immigration record, Vance blamed the presumptive Democratic nominee and the Biden administration for exacerbating problems at the border by ending Trump-era policies, saying that “every state became a border state.”

Vance reiterated the Trump team’s attack that Harris is “dangerously liberal,” and continued to bash the vice president for saying Vance was more concerned with loyalty to Trump than the country.

A TV displays news from former President Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Saturday, July 13.

Americans were highly tuned in to this year’s presidential campaign throughout a month of momentous political news, with more now reporting hearing news about the major candidates than those who did so at this point in the 2020 cycle, according to the initial results of a CNN polling project called The Breakthrough.

Over that time, conversations were dominated by the first presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, the assassination attempt against Trump and ongoing discussions about Biden’s health and electability.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ entrance into the race offers Democrats the possibility of a major campaign reset heading into this year’s Democratic convention – and as she made her campaign debut, the survey suggests Americans are far more focused on the change in the ticket than about her or her policies, leaving a lot of space to define her in voters’ minds.

The survey, conducted by SSRS and Verasight on behalf of a research team from CNN, Georgetown University and the University of Michigan, asks Americans what they have heard, read or seen about presidential candidates each week from Friday through Monday. In initial data from late June and through July, about 8 in 10 Americans said each week that they’d read or heard at least something about Biden or Trump, respectively.

That’s higher than the share who were following the candidates at this time four years ago. The roughly comparable levels of attention to Biden and Trump also mark a shift from 2020, when Trump – then the incumbent – attracted more attention than Biden throughout most of the campaign.

Read more about what Americans are tuning in to here.

Government officials revealed new details about the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on Tuesday. 

Forceful testimony: At a Senate hearing about the Secret Service’s failures at the Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally, acting Director Ronald Rowe said that information about the would-be assassin, Thomas Mathew Crooks, was “siloed” and “stuck” in local law enforcement channels.

Technical problems: Connectivity issues prevented a counter-drone system from being deployed at the Butler rally earlier in the day, Rowe said.  

The issue has “cost me a lot of sleep,” Rowe continued, adding that if the system had been up, law enforcement may have been able to see Crooks’ use of his own drone and approached him well before the shooting.

Shouting matches: Some GOP senators got into heated exchanges with Rowe, with some demanding to know why the interim director has not yet fired any members in his agency.

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last week, a day after she testified before a House hearing on the assassination attempt.

Crooks’ online presence: Federal investigators are also looking into a YouTube account possibly connected to Crooks in which the user espoused political violence as well as antisemitic and anti-immigration themes, CNN reported Tuesday.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate spoke about the finding at Tuesday’s congressional hearing, adding that the user of the account espoused political violence, among other things. 

Read more about the congressional hearing here.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer takes the stage during a "Harris for President" event in the gymnasium of Wissahickon High Schoolin Ambler, Pennsylvania, on July 29.

Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Tuesday that it would be “great” if Vice President Kamala Harris selected a running mate from the Midwest, but that it’s more important that the pick can help the Democratic ticket win.

“I do think someone from the Midwest would be great. That being said, it doesn’t have to be someone from the Midwest, but it’s got to be someone who can resonate with people and help get the work done and help win,” she continued.

Whitmer has repeatedly said that she is not part of the vetting process to be Harris’ running mate and that she intends to serve out her term through 2026. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as well as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who resides with his family in Traverse City, Michigan, and is a former mayor from Indiana — are among the names that have been floated.

Whitmer herself was on the campaign trail Monday in Pennsylvania with Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is seen as a top contender.

The Michigan governor linked her state with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, seen together as a key stronghold for Democrats, saying, “you cannot take any of these states for granted.”

Rep. Ruben Gallego during a hearing on Capitol Hill on December 13, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego on Tuesday accused his likely GOP Senate race opponent, Kari Lake, of “running away from tradition” after she said earlier today that she would not want to participate in a debate sponsored by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission.

“I don’t understand why Kari Lake is afraid of an even-grounded debate. So again, she’s avoiding or running away from tradition,” Gallego told reporters after voting in South Phoenix on Tuesday.

“Traditionally, you also concede after you lose an election, you don’t wait until two years later to file to overturn the election. But I guess now she’s comfortable and wants to get rid of another tradition,” he added, referring to Lake’s grievances over her failed 2022 gubernatorial bid.

Pressed on whether he’d be open to a different format, Gallego said he would not negotiate that in public and argued that Senate debates have traditionally been done by the Clean Elections Commission.

“I don’t understand what she’s afraid of a public debate style that’s very even-handed,” he said.

After voting in her primary Tuesday, Lake told reporters that her and Gallego’s teams should “discuss a fair place, a fair platform” to debate, but that she wouldn’t want to work with the commission. This primary cycle, Lake also declined to debate her Republican opponent, Sheriff Mark Lamb, in a debate sponsored by the commission.

Vice President Kamala Harris walks to board Air Force Two at Indianapolis International Airport in Indianapolis, Indiana, on July 24.

Vice President Kamala Harris is in the thick of choosing a running mate, with her campaign eying an announcement in the coming days that would be immediately followed by a joint tour of a series of battleground states.

Harris, abruptly thrust into the role of presidential candidate fewer than 10 days ago, has been studying notebooks filled with information about each of the top vice presidential contenders. She has had preliminary conversations with some of those candidates, and has been asking close advisers involved in the process who would make the strongest governing partner for her at the White House, sources familiar with the process said.

Harris has not yet conducted formal interviews with the top contenders, one source familiar told CNN. That process is expected to begin this week.

Meanwhile, her team has been swiftly researching and testing out the top candidates, including by studying videos of those being vetted.

Among the top contenders include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear are also still in conversation, but people close to the process believe they are not top contenders. 

As is typical in vice presidential searches, the Harris campaign has been intently focused on who could help strengthen the Harris ticket’s electoral chances. Polling has been conducted of how at least some candidates, particularly Shapiro and Kelly, could influence the race in battleground states.

The Harris campaign declined to comment for this story.

Read more about Harris’ search for a running mate here.

President Joe Biden is accompanied by senior advisors Anita Dunn, center, as they depart the White House on April 23 in Washington, DC.

Longtime Biden aide Anita Dunn is leaving the White House next week, according to a source familiar, and joining a super PAC supporting Vice President Kamala Harris.

This marks the first big departure from the White House in the wake of President Joe Biden’s decision to step down from the 2024 Democratic ticket. Dunn is leaving the White House to serve as a senior adviser to Future Forward and Future Forward USA Action.

Biden thanked Dunn for her work in a statement Tuesday, calling her “an invaluable part of our White House.”

Dunn called it an “an honor and privilege to serve in this White House” in a statement to CNN. “I am grateful to President Biden and Vice President Harris for their leadership and giving me the opportunity to be part of what they have accomplished for the American people.”

Some context: Dunn spent much of the Biden administration as one of the president’s closest advisers. However, as Biden mulled departing the 2024 race earlier this month, CNN reported that Dunn was left in the dark until minutes before he posted his announcement on social media. Dunn and her husband, Bob Bauer, were among Biden’s debate prep team and had faced the ire of the president’s family in the aftermath of the performance.

Quavo poses for a portrait at the White House in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023.

Rapper Quavo is set to appear at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday night in Atlanta, according to a campaign official.

Quavo, known as the frontman of the now-defunct hip-hop trio Migos, is expected to make remarks on the issue of gun violence at the rally, two sources said. A source familiar with his speech said the rapper will endorse Harris for president onstage and will remind the crowd how important the Georgia vote is.

Gun violence is an issue that hits close to home for Quavo, who lost his nephew and Migos bandmate, Takeoff, in a fatal 2022 shooting. Quavo launched the Rocket Foundation in 2022 to honor Takeoff. The foundation works on gun violence prevention and criminal violence intervention.

Quavo is an institution in the Atlanta rap scene, being born and raised in the area. A source close to the rapper said he is excited to welcome Harris to his hometown for her first presidential campaign rally in Georgia; the two have formed a bond over the past year, having worked closely together to raise awareness for gun violence prevention.

Quavo isn’t the only rapper expected at the Atlanta rally — Megan Thee Stallion is also set to perform.

Read more about Quavo, his relationship to Harris and the Atlanta rally here.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is asked question by reporters at a press conference following the weekly Senate caucus luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on July 9.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a staunch advocate for Ukraine, wouldn’t say directly whether he had any concerns with the selection of Sen. JD Vance on the GOP ticket — given that the party’s vice presidential nominee is a leading opponent of more aid for the country.

Instead, in an exchange with CNN about Vance’s views, the Kentucky Republican said he supports the GOP ticket and pivoted to a larger call for US support for Ukraine.

“I support the ticket,” McConnell said, “but I also support Ukraine.”

McConnell also took aim at Viktor Orbán when asked about former President Donald Trump’s recent meeting with the Hungarian prime minister.

“Hungary is the most recent problem in NATO,” the Kentucky Republican added, calling Orbán “the weakest member.”

McConnell did not directly weigh in on Trump’s recent meeting with Orbán at Mar-a-Lago.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris each unleashed a new wave of television ads Tuesday as they race to secure an advantage in a presidential campaign dramatically altered in recent weeks.

In its first major ad blitz targeting Harris, the Trump campaign is zeroing in on her immigration record in ads running across several key battleground states. It’s a sign the former president has settled on a long-standing GOP line of attack against the vice president, after grappling with the abrupt change atop the Democratic ticket.

Harris, meanwhile, unveiled a minutelong ad titled “Fearless” that offers highlights of her career dating to her tenure as a prosecutor in the Bay Area of California. It’s part of what the Harris campaign said will be a $50 million blitz in the run-up to next month’s Democratic National Convention — fueled, in part, by the record-breaking fundraising the campaign has seen since President Joe Biden’s departure from the race and endorsement of her candidacy a little more than a week ago.

Trump, in two new campaign ads, seeks to define Harris on his terms by relying on what has been a political liability for the Biden administration: the management of the US-Mexico border.

In response, Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said that Trump is “running on his trademark lies” and that he opposed a congressional border deal that would have helped with enforcement.

The Trump campaign has reserved about $12.2 million in advertising across six battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — through August 12, according to data from AdImpact, which tracks media buying.

Read more about the ad wars between the likely 2024 opponents here.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks at a news conference on July 23 in Washington, DC.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday he has “total confidence” in Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate choice when asked whether he would support Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona as the VP pick.

If Harris chose Kelly and won, it would prompt a special election in Arizona in 2026, leaving Schumer with a vulnerable seat that could flip red. Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs would appoint a replacement until that time.

“I have total confidence that Vice President Harris will choose a great vice presidential candidate,” Schumer told reporters. 

Pressed by CNN about whether he is concerned about the prospect of a special election in Arizona, Schumer said, “I have complete faith in Vice President Harris’ choice.”

CNN previously reported that Kelly is on the short list of potential running mates for Harris. Supporters of Harris in Arizona told CNN they hope she chooses Kelly, touting his background and arguing that he would help deliver the battleground state for Democrats.

Remember: Arizonans on Tuesday night will also decide on who will be running to replace independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who announced she would be retiring earlier this year. GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake, an ally of former President Donald Trump and one of the Republican Party’s most prominent election deniers, is expected to win her primary against Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb. The winner of the Republican primary will win a spot in November’s general election against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who ran unopposed, in an election that could decide control of the nearly equally split Senate, which is currently in Democrats’ hands. 

Paul Dans, director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation, speaks at the National Religious Broadcasters convention on February 22 in Nashville.

Paul Dans has stepped down as director of Project 2025, the conservative playbook for a potential second Donald Trump term, amid intense criticism including from the former president.

Dans’ departure was confirmed in a statement to CNN by Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, which launched Project 2025. Before joining Heritage to lead Project 2025, Dans served as a top official in Trump’s White House. 

Designed to give the next Republican president a road map for their first 180 days in office, Project 2025’s conservative proposals provided ample criticism for Democrats to warn against a second Trump presidency. Trump himself has tried to distance himself from Heritage’s work, claiming on social media, “I have no idea who is behind it.”

They continued, “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign— it will not end well for you.”

At least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025, a CNN review found.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during a daily White House Press Briefing at the Jame S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on July 30, in Washington, DC.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted Tuesday that President Joe Biden didn’t misspeak when he called House Speaker Mike Johnson “dead on arrival” while speaking to reporters after landing in Austin, Texas, on Monday. 

Biden on Monday was asked to respond to comments from the Louisiana Republican that the president’s sweeping Supreme Court reform proposal was “dead on arrival” in the Republican-controlled House. Biden told reporters, “I think that’s what he is … dead on arrival.” 

But in his remarks at the LBJ Presidential Library announcing the proposal, Biden softened his tone.

“As the press shouted to me as I got off Air Force One, the Republican speaker of the House said, ‘Whatever he proposes is dead on arrival.’ Well, I think his thinking is dead on arrival,” Biden said. 

Jean-Pierre told reporters during Tuesday’s press briefing that she doesn’t “think he misspoke.”

“He just wanted to be really clear what he meant by ‘dead on arrival,’” she added. “You’ve been there, you know how it happens, it goes back-and-forth … but that was always his intent when he answered that question.”

Kari Lake during a book signing at "Convention Fest" during the Republican National Convention at the Baird Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Thursday, July 18.

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake said she is open to debating Rep. Ruben Gallego, who ran unopposed in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, but would not commit to a debate sponsored by the nonpartisan Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

“I think we should talk about which debate we do,” she told reporters after casting her ballot at a polling location in Paradise Valley. Lake, who ran for governor in 2022, criticized the nonpartisan group for “how they treated people in the last election cycle.”

“So I think our two teams could discuss a fair place, a fair platform to do that. But I don’t want to work with people who … operate in that way,” she added.

Lake, who is expected to win her primary against Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, had previously called on Gallego to debate on the issue of abortion. In an interview with NBC News on Monday, Gallego committed to debating Lake. 

Lake, a former Phoenix news anchor, said she believes GOP voters are backing her over Lamb because of her 30-year relationship with Arizonans and her “great understanding of the issues.”

“I’ve been here a long time and they know that I’m a fighter,” she said, adding that she’s been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. 

The race to fill retiring independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s seat could decide control of the nearly equally split Senate, which is currently in Democrats’ hands.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks during a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris on July 29 in Ambler, Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, on Tuesday called Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance “full of it.”

“I mean, he’s not exactly off to a good start,” Shapiro said when asked by CNN what he makes of the Ohio senator.

Shapiro, speaking at a community basketball center in North Philadelphia, again did not answer when asked about being in the vetting process for Harris’ running mate.

CNN previously reported that Harris’ decision on a running mate could come within a week, two people familiar with the matter said, with her goal to make an announcement before August 7. She intends to have private conversations with top contenders, sources said, but it was unclear whether those discussions have started.

“I trust she will make that decision on her own terms when she is ready, as she does every decision in the best interest of the country,” Shapiro said.

The event was held at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man Center” in North Philadelphia. Shapiro made one of the three shots he took on the court with youth basketball players.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is launching a new ad Tuesday focused on her career in public service, part of a larger $50 million media buy in battleground states ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention.

The ad begins with images of her as a child before including video of her as a prosecutor and California’s attorney general. The ad also uses some of the vice president’s remarks at her first rally as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

The ad, per the campaign, will air during a number of programs in the next few weeks, including the Olympics, “The Bachelorette,” “Big Brother,” “The Daily Show,” “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” and “The Simpsons.”

The ad “outlines her vision for the future where every American has the ability not just to get by, but to get ahead. It puts a spotlight on the dangerous and extreme plan Donald Trump has for the country: tax cuts to billionaires, big corporations, and ending the Affordable Care Act,” campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

Supporters hold signs at a rally in support of Vice President Kamala Harris' Democratic presidential election campaign in Ambler, Pennsylvania, on July 29.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign plans to beef up her fundraising apparatus as donors show renewed interest in pouring in big money in the lead-up to November, according to sources familiar with the discussions. 

The Harris campaign announced that it raised $200 million in just one week after President Joe Biden exited the race, in part because donors had lost confidence in his reelection effort. A surge in momentum — and money — accompanied Harris’ ascension to the top of the ticket, which the campaign is now trying to codify with infrastructure that complements its new candidate. 

In calls with donors, campaign officials have indicated they will include new staff at various levels of seniority to harness Harris’ relationships with grassroots organizations and titans of high finance alike. 

Campaign finance chair Rufus Gifford, who has steered the fundraising through the change in nominees, told major Wall Street donors last week that “additions” to the team would be needed, according to participants on the call. Gifford, according to these people, said the campaign was pleasantly surprised by the influx of money and energy at the outset of Harris’ candidacy and will need to move quickly to capitalize on that. 

“There’s a clear desire for her to put her stamp on it,” said a former Harris aide. “It can’t just be a wholesale adoption of Joe Biden’s campaign — it’s got to have some other people” who have the institutional knowledge of who she knows and what she’s done.  

During the first whirlwind week of her second presidential campaign, Kamala Harris locked up the support of the Democratic Party, recruited thousands of volunteers and hauled in $200 million in donations.

But the challenge over the next 98 days will be whether she can harness that energy to power electoral victories in both traditional party strongholds and the newer battlegrounds that had appeared to be slipping away under President Joe Biden.

The next test of Harris’ appeal will take place Tuesday in Georgia, where her campaign is hosting an Atlanta rally. The vice president will be joined by Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and other guests. Rapper Megan Thee Stallion is set to perform.

That Harris would make a high-profile visit to Georgia early in her White House bid indicates the renewed push the campaign is making in a state that’s now back in play for Democrats.

“The groundswell of support around the vice president is real and it is meaningful,” Dan Kanninen, Harris’ battleground state director, told reporters Monday. “Our task now is to translate that enthusiasm into action.”

Any Democratic path to victory almost certainly runs through the so-called Blue Wall states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where polls showed a tied race between former President Donald Trump and his then-Democratic opponent, Biden, for months. But, with Harris now the party’s presumptive nominee, keeping Sun Belt states like Georgia – as well as Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina – competitive could give Democrats much-needed breathing room.

Read more about how Harris’s campaign is mobilizing to win over battleground states here.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a Biden-Harris campaign and DNC press conference on July 17, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The way Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz tells it, the stakes of the coming presidential election are both astronomically high and strikingly simple.

On one side, the former high school teacher and congressman says, is Vice President Kamala Harris — a serious, competent and experienced candidate whom he believes is aligned with Americans’ best interests.

Across the way, Walz insists, is former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance — a pair of “weird dudes” using populist and, in Vance’s case, implausibly homespun rhetoric to disguise their dangerous political agenda.

That kind of clear and caustic messaging, delivered with an ebullient Minnesota accent, has transformed Walz from a relatively anonymous — despite his estimable progressive record — Midwestern Democrat to a potential vice presidential pick for Harris. At the same time, Walz is carving out a new — at least to polite liberal politics — line of attack on MAGA movement Republican leaders, whom he has repeatedly described as “strange” while railing against both their political agenda and public manners.

Walz was, again, a swirl of acid and honey during his remarks Monday night to the “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom fundraiser. This time out, though, he also sounded every bit the former high school football coach, first asking supporters to “keep hammering on” Trump and Vance, to “shrink them.”

Then he offered the evening’s headline.

“How often in a hundred days do you get to change the trajectory of the world? How often in a hundred days do you get to do something that’s going to impact generations to come?” Walz asked. “And how often in the world do you make that bastard wake up afterwards and know that a Black woman kicked his a**, sent him on the road?”

Keep reading.

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers' 88th National Convention in Houston on July 25.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly chosen vice presidential running mate will travel to a series of battleground states next week, a source familiar told CNN. 

The exact details on which states – and when – have not yet been firmed up, the source said, but it would mark an important next stage of the campaign ahead of the Democratic National Convention next month.

CNN has previously reported that Harris’ decision on a running mate could come within a week, with her goal to make an announcement before August 7. She intends to have private conversations with top contenders, sources said, but it was unclear whether those discussions have started.

Reuters first reported that Harris and her running mate would travel to battleground states next week.

The sun shines above a shale gas drilling site in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, in 2020.

Vulnerable Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania defended Vice President Kamala Harris’ reversal on fracking, after Harris said in 2019 that she supported banning it. 

Casey told CNN that Harris’ position that she would not ban fracking if elected reflects the Biden administration’s view, and he defended her against accusations of flip-flopping.

He added: “She’s the vice president in an administration that has contributed greatly to our development of new energy sources. And I think that’s reflective of her work and the work of the administration.” 

Another vulnerable Democrat, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, insisted he is not concerned by Harris’ reversal, and that he has endorsed Harris. However, he dodged on the specifics, saying, “I don’t know what she said on fracking.” 

Former President Donald Trump has highlighted Harris’ previous support for a fracking ban — a dramatic step that could significantly hurt US supply of oil.

“She wants no fracking,” Trump said during a rally last week in North Carolina. “You’re going to be paying a lot of money.”

As a 2020 presidential candidate, Harris supported a fracking ban, but she later walked that back. Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in a statement to CNN that “Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class.”

CNN’s Matt Egan contributed to this report.

Sen. Rick Scott speaks to reporters in Washington, DC, on July 25.

GOP Sen. Rick Scott on Tuesday defended vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance after criticism over the Ohio senator’s derisive comments about “childless cat ladies” in power. 

“I think they are always going to attack people,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju, though he insisted he had not seen Vance’s comments. 

“I haven’t seen the detail of it,” said Scott, of Vance’s now-infamous 2021 remarks deriding “childless” leaders running the country.

Pressed on whether the comments had created a distraction for the GOP ticket, Scott insisted the issue was irrelevant. “I think the election is going to be about the border, it’s gonna be about inflation,“ he said. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who is not backing former President Donald Trump, told CNN, “JD is going to do great. I mean, he just is.” 

Meanwhile, Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who is also not supporting Trump’s candidacy, dismissed concerns about Vance’s position against sending support to Ukraine. “I suspect JD Vance and I agree on 90% of the issues, which is a lot more than I agree with Kamala Harris,” he said.

Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa also praised Vance, saying, “he’s bright, energetic, now he’s drawing a very diverse crowd into the party. So I think we just need to pay attention to how he is out there on the campaign trail and addressing the issues that matter to Americans.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama replied, “I didn’t see any of that,” when asked about Vance’s “childless cat ladies” remarks. “I got no comment on that.” 

Vance tried to clean up his comments on Megyn Kelly’s podcast last week, saying, “obviously, it was a sarcastic comment.” A CNN KFile analysis found several examples over the course of a few years of Vance saying similarly disparaging things when talking about people without children — usually while targeting Democratic officials.

This post has been updated with additional reactions.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at West Allis Central High School on July 23 in West Allis, Wisconsin.

A week after announcing her run for president, Kamala Harris has yet to tell voters how she will address the key issues facing the nation.

The vice president’s platform will likely be in the same vein as that of President Joe Biden, whom she has supported for the past four years.

But Harris is expected to put her own stamp and style on matters ranging from abortion to the economy to immigration. Also, she’ll have to walk a fine line between taking credit for the administration’s accomplishments while not being jointly blamed by voters for its shortcomings.

Read more to find out what we know about some of Harris’ views, including health care, debt, climate and the war in Gaza.

Lake speaks to a reporter at the Fiserv Forum in July at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

As the drama unfolds in the 2024 presidential race, down-ballot races for the House and Senate in Arizona will be set Tuesday night in primaries with national implications.

GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake, an ally of former President Donald Trump and one of the Republican Party’s most prominent election deniers,  is expected to win her primary against Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb. The winner of the Republican primary will win a spot in November’s general election against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, who ran unopposed, in an election that could decide control of the nearly equally split Senate, which is currently in Democrats’ hands. The seat was vacated by independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who announced she would be retiring earlier this year.

In the House, the race to replace Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko and take on Democratic candidate Greg Whitten in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District has attracted several notable GOP candidates, including 2022 Senate Republican nominee Blake Masters, state House Speaker Ben Toma, 2022 attorney general nominee Abe Hamadeh and former Rep. Trent Franks.

On Monday, Trump endorsed both Masters and Hamadeh in a primary race that has turned ugly, with Masters attacking Hamadeh as “dishonest Abe” and Hamadeh calling Masters a “snake.”

Trump endorsed Hamadeh for the seat last year, but his support of Masters came just ahead of Arizona’s primary. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, previously endorsed Masters. 

Polls for those races will close in Arizona at 10 p.m. ET. 

Sen. Gary Peters attends at the NAACP Detroit Branch annual "Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner" in Detroit on May 19. 

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters refused to say if he is being vetted as a potential vice presidential pick for the Democrats’ presumptive nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, after reports contended that he was in the mix. 

Pressed on whether he would accept the nod if he got it, Peters wouldn’t rule it out. “Whoever she picks as the vice president, I will fully support,” he replied. 

Read more about the shortlist of Democrats who could be a VP pick for Harris.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has falsely claimed on social media that a video clip from 2021 shows Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance endorsing a conservative initiative known as Project 2025.

Project 2025, an effort to lay out an agenda for a potential second Donald Trump presidency, was organized by The Heritage Foundation think tank and developed along with a variety of other conservative organizations.

The 920-page Project 2025 blueprint for right-wing policies and a radical reshaping of the executive branch have been a central focus of Democratic attacks during the 2024 election campaign.

On the social media platform X on Saturday, the Harris campaign posted a video of Vance being interviewed by conservative media outlet The Federalist. The Harris campaign account @KamalaHQ, which has more than one million followers, described the video like this: “JD Vance endorses Project 2025: ‘We really need to be really ruthless when it comes to the exercise of power … I don’t think there’s a compromise that we’re gonna come with … Unless we overthrow them in some way, we’re gonna keep losing.’”

Facts First: The Harris campaign’s claim that the video shows Vance endorsing Project 2025 is false. The video does not show Vance talking about Project 2025 at all. In fact, Project 2025 had not even been created at the time Vance made these comments in May 2021. The initiative was launched by The Heritage Foundation in April 2022, and its policy recommendations were released in April 2023.

Read more about what Trump and Vance have said about Project 2025.

Sen. J.D. Vance speaks during a rally on July 27 in St. Cloud, Minnesota. 

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance has a history of making disparaging remarks toward people without children, a CNN KFile review of his comments shows, including fundraising off his now-infamous “childless cat lady” remarks in a series of emails that called Democratic leaders “childless sociopaths” who “don’t have a direct stake in this country.”

In 2020, Vance said on a conservative podcast that childless Americans, especially those in the country’s “leadership class,” were “more sociopathic” than those with children and made the country “less mentally stable.” Vance added that the “most deranged” and “most psychotic” commentators on Twitter — now known as X — were typically childless.

In 2021, one month after launching his candidacy for the Senate, Vance’s campaign sent fundraising emails referring to the “radical childless leaders in this country” following his appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” where he made comments deriding “childless cat ladies” and leaders running the country. The comments sparked a widespread backlash against Vance when they resurfaced on social media following his nomination to the Republican presidential ticket.

Vance tried to clean up his comments on Megyn Kelly’s podcast last week. “Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I’ve got nothing against cats,” said Vance, adding that his remarks were not about criticizing people without children, but rather focused on policy and claimed the Democratic Party has become “anti-family” and “anti-child.”

A CNN KFile analysis found several examples over the course of a few years of Vance saying similarly disparaging things when talking about people without children — usually while targeting Democratic officials.

Read the full story.

The Trump campaign is taking aim at Vice President Kamala Harris’ immigration portfolio and using it as a line of attack in two new ads, falsely casting her as the administration’s “border czar.”

Despite an abrupt change in candidates and after a little over a week of adjusting, the Trump campaign is keeping its focus on the US-Mexico border. 

The management of the US-Mexico border had been a political liability for President Joe Biden, and it will follow Harris as Trump seizes on her task to address the root causes of migration in Central America. 

Republicans have jumped on the assignment — casting her as solely responsible for the record number of migrant arrivals at the US southern border over the last three years. 

Both Trump campaign ads pull from a 2021 NBC interview where Harris was pressed about the fact that she hadn’t yet visited the US-Mexico border and she stumbled through a response by claiming she also hadn’t yet gone to Europe—an answer that perplexed administration officials at the time.

While another shows a video of Harris dancing at an event, stating: “This is America’s border czar—and she’s failed us.” 

Both ads conclude by describing Harris as “failed. Weak. Dangerously liberal.” 

Harris campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement Tuesday, “After killing the toughest border deal in decades, Donald Trump is running on his trademark lies because his own record and ‘plans’ are extreme and unpopular.”

Harris’ record on immigration dates back to March 2021: During an influx of unaccompanied migrant children, Biden tasked the vice president with overseeing diplomatic efforts in Central America. While Harris focused on long-term fixes, the Department of Homeland Security remained responsible for overseeing border security.

As the vice president’s campaign takes shape and as immigration remains a top issue for voters, her team is forced to contend with an assignment that, sources say, has shown early success in Central America as a result of major private-sector investment but that’s been bundled with the administration’s larger migration issues.

Vice President Kamala Harris will headline a fundraiser in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday, according to an invitation obtained by CNN.

Tickets for the event range from $3,300 for a guest to $100,000 to serve as a co-host, according to the invitation. Lonnie Johnson — a former senior counsel at Exxon Mobil Corporation whom President Joe Biden appointed to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans — is among the co-hosts of the fundraiser, according to a source familiar with the event.

Cash haul: The fundraiser will cap off an 11-day sprint where Harris has hauled in major cash since launching her presidential campaign. Harris’ team announced Sunday that it had raised $200 million since President Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 race. The campaign will be required to report its full July fundraising haul by August 20. 

Harris’ campaign also is looking to add to its fundraising team amid renewed interest from big dollar and grassroots donors to contribute to her campaign, CNN reported Tuesday.

While in Houston, Harris also will speak at Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc.’s 60th International Biennial Boulé on Wednesday and deliver a eulogy at the funeral of the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee on Thursday.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is seen before President Joe Biden speaks to guests during a visit to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University on April 14, 2022 in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has taken himself out of consideration to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, in a sign that the accelerated search has entered a new phase.

A decision could come within a week, two people familiar with the matter said, with Harris’ goal to make an announcement before August 7. She intends to have private conversations with top contenders, sources said, but it was unclear whether those discussions have started.

Cooper, whose friendship with Harris dates back to their time serving as the attorneys general of their respective states, was also the oldest candidate under consideration. His age, 67, was seen by some Democrats to be at odds with Harris’ push for a vigorous and younger ticket, the sources said.

There also was concern among some Democrats about elevating Mark Robinson, the state’s Republican lieutenant governor whom the state constitution says would perform the governor’s duties when the governor is absent from the state.

Polling and extensive research is underway for other top contenders, sources said, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are also seen as prospective running mates.

CNN has reached out to a representative for Cooper. The Harris campaign declined to comment.

Read the full story.

Sofia Nelson, a public defender, at a courthouse in Detroit on July 17, 2024.

A Yale Law School friend of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who has revealed years of emails the two previously exchanged, said Monday that the Republican vice presidential nominee is a “chameleon” who has changed his views on “literally every imaginable issue.”

Sofia Nelson, a transgender public defender in Detroit, shared dozens of emails she and Vance had sent between mid-2014 and early 2017. The New York Times first reported on the emails.

At the time, Vance was sharply critical of former President Donald Trump, his now-running mate; called the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “a very shrill old man”; and said he hated the police. He was also personally warm with Nelson, expressing concern over the language he had used to describe their identity in his best-selling book.

Now, Nelson told CNN’s Erin Burnett, “I don’t see any of the man that I got to know and care about. It’s really heartbreaking to see him become so callous and divisive.”

Nelson’s comments come as Vance’s political transformation — from someone who had been privately and publicly critical of Trump, to, within years, one of the former president’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail — is explored, a little more than three months from Election Day.

Read more from Nelson’s interview.

“White Dudes for Harris,” a mass fundraising and organizing call for Vice President Kamala Harris, raised over $4 million on Monday night as thousands of white men, including celebrities and politicians, rallied on a virtual call in support of her presidential bid.

The call, hosted by Ross Morales Rocketto, organizer of White Dudes for Harris, included actors Bradley Whitford, Mark Hamill, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Gad and Paul Scheer — along with Rep. Adam Schiff and Harris campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu.

Former *NSYNC member Lance Bass also made an appearance and expressed that Harris’ decision to run after President Joe Biden stepped aside has given him hope for the country’s future.

Far from the boring rematch that had many Americans tuning out politics, the 2024 presidential election has had wild twists and scary turns.

Nobody expected President Joe Biden’s campaign to implode in less than a month, from the shock of his performance at CNN’s debate in late June to his decision to step aside in the race in late July. Democrats went from literally freaking out about his candidacy to a new excitement about Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.

Nobody expected an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, an event that unified Republicans around him and has many in his party showing a sort of divine reverence for his near-death experience.

So we don’t know specifically what will happen in the sprint to Election Day on November 5, or what could come after, when the country’s unique Electoral College process gets going. But we do have some idea of what to expect:

August: Nominating Harris, picking a VP and a convention in Chicago: While the Democratic Party almost immediately rallied around Harris as its nominee, it still needs to officially select her. Delegates will do that in short order, between August 1 and August 7, before the convention, a backstop maneuver to ward against ballot changes.

Harris will also need to pick a running mate. Look for that to occur soon, according to CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, and not right before the convention, as frequently occurs.

In late August, Democrats will convene in Chicago for their convention. Expect the most incredible reception for Biden. Democrats have pivoted from worrying over his election prospects to lionizing him as a hero.

Earlier in the month, Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, turns 40. He’d be the third-youngest vice president in US history and the first millennial in nationwide elected office if the Republican ticket wins. With Biden out of the race, Vance is on the ticket with the oldest major-party nominee in history with Trump, a baby boomer.

Read more about what to expect with the presidential election less than 100 days away.

Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he would “probably end up debating” Vice President Kamala Harris but that he “could also make a case for not doing it.” 

His comments come after the Trump campaign said last week it would not commit to any future debates until the Democratic Party formally chooses a nominee. Harris has accused the former president of “backpedaling” on a debate. 

“The answer is yes, I’ll probably end up debating. I think actually the debate should take place before the votes start being cast,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News.

“I could also make a case for not doing it,” he said and attacked ABC News. Trump and President Joe Biden had previously agreed to a debate hosted by ABC in September.

“Then why not debate her?” Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked.

“Well, wait. But because they already know everything,” Trump said. 

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is launching a new ad Tuesday focused on her career in public service, part of a larger $50 million paid media buy in battleground states ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention.

The ad, titled “Fearless,” begins with pictures and images of her as a child before including video of her as a prosecutor and California’s attorney general. The ad also uses some of the vice president’s remarks at her first rally as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

The ad, per the campaign, will air during a number of programs in the next few weeks including the Olympics, The Bachelorette, and Big Brother.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, is taking aim at Harris’ immigration portfolio and using it as a line of attack in two new ads, falsely casting her as the administration’s “border czar.”