Welcome to the Party, Vice President Harris

What a wild 24 hours it has been

In the past 24 hours:

— Joe Biden published a surprise letter on social media explaining his decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential campaign. I don’t even like to use the word “patriotic” because it’s been hijacked by so many people to promote inauthentic jingoism, but Biden’s sacrifice is one of the most selfless, patriotic things that a Presidential candidate has ever done for this country.

After the smoke had cleared on the 2024 election, Biden’s legacy would have already been a great one as someone who had saved us from another Donald Trump term — and his legislative achievements are many — but this will improve his standing among all of America.

He is passing the torch to the next generation, and while MAGA Republicans will continue to whine about the unfairness of it all, there are a lot of Republicans (and independents and even Democrats) who think Trump should do the same but also understand that he will never sacrifice personal gain for the good of the country. It’s like when the athlete turns to Bob Sugar at the end of Jerry Maguire and says, “Why can’t you be more like Jerry?” The Bob Sugar factor will follow Trump over the next four months, and it will be hard to counter with anything other than sour grapes.

— Lawmakers, celebrities, donors, and Democratic voters, including Presidents Obama and Clinton, praised Joe Biden for the sacrifice. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Biden’s approval rating jump 20 points in the next few weeks as Americans really begin to take in the significance of the decision.

— Soon after publishing his letter, Joe Biden endorsed his Vice President, Kamala Harris, for the Democratic nomination. The number of folks who immediately threw their support behind Harris is impossible to overstate. I’ve never seen anything like it. Governors, Senators, Representatives, celebrities, and entire coalitions had unified behind Kamala Harris within hours. It was quicker than anyone could have imagined.

The chairs of the Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus, Progressive Caucus and Asian Pacific American Caucus have also all endorsed Harris. Here’s my favorite endorsement from the governor of Hawaii.

— Harris made her intent to run as the Democratic nominee known, explicitly noting that she would be running against “Donald Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda.” She will be prosecuting the case against Trump and Project 2025. Trump will not be able to escape association.

— The momentum of whatever RNC bump that Trump received has stopped cold. Now, the Democrats have almost a month to unify behind Harris and give her the DNC bump she deserves. Every poll published before Sunday is even more meaningless than usual.

— The highest ranking Democrats — Schumer, Pelosi, and Jeffries, as well as President Obama — have made the calculated decision not to throw their immediate support behind Harris because they don’t it to look like she’s being coronated. They believe an open primary would benefit Harris, but an open primary is only possible if someone else challenges Harris. Given the massive support she’s already received, that seems unlikely (Whitmer and Manchin have already declined). The DNC delegations in a number of states — Louisiana, Tennessee, New Hampshire, and South Carolina — have already thrown their support behind Harris, and several other states plan to do the same this week. The Service Employees International Union — the country’s second biggest labor union — also threw in their support for Harris.

— The Trump campaign is already releasing ads tying Kamala Harris to Joe Biden’s record. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Biden’s agenda was largely popular with the American people. The biggest problem most had with Biden was his age. Trump cannot tie Biden’s age to Harris, but the Democrats can — and already have done — the opposite. Social media is littered with posts about how Trump is now the oldest major party nominee in American history. He’s 78 now. Can you imagine what he might be like when he’s 82? Is he even fit to run for President?

— Yesterday, Trump was trying to tweet through it. It was ugly. He was asking for a refund on all the money the Republicans spent attacking Biden. He was claiming that Biden’s COVID was fake, and he couldn't stop attacking the President, which is actually both meaningless now and overly petty. He hasn’t quite figured out how to attack Kamala Harris yet, except to make fun of her laugh. Has Trump ever laughed?

— I barely know who Charli XCX is, but she threw her support behind Harris, which is a very big deal worth millions in free advertising. TikTok, meanwhile, is burning up with support for Kamala. She has reenergized the youth vote. Every social media platform already seems to have a Kamala HQ account, and they’re all adding thousands of subscribers by the hour. Hank Green is in, too!

— In three hours, Win with Black Women also raised $1 million.

— Finally, through ActBlue, Kamala Harris raised over $50 million yesterday, the second biggest fundraising day ever for ActBlue, behind only the day that Ruth Bader Ginsberg died. $46 million of that came from small donors like me. The Big Donors have not even turned the spigots back on yet (but they will). Money is not going to be a problem for Kamala Harris, and it increasingly seems that neither will enthusiasm.