By This was CNBC’s live blog covering news and updates on the U.S. presidential campaign for July 22, 2024.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris hit the campaign trail today for the first time since President Joe Biden announced that he would end his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris for president.
Harris was in the battleground city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Republicans Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance were nominated by their party at a massive convention last week.
Three high-quality new polls now show Harris running essentially even with Trump, signaling that the dynamics of the presidential race could be shifting.
Excitement among Democrats is palpable. The vice president delivered her first rally speech as the de facto Democratic nominiee to a very fired-up audience, who cheered and chanted and answered her calls.
“We’re not going back, because ours is a fight for the future,” she said. “It is a fight for freedom. Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom. And now, Wisconsin, the baton is in our hands.”
The Harris campaign said it received so many RSVPs for the event that it had to move to a larger venue at the last minute. The campaign said today’s rally drew 3,000 people, making it the single-biggest rally of the 2024 cycle for a Democratic presidential candidate.
NBC News now projects that Harris has won endorsements from a majority of the Democratic party’s pledged delegates, cementing her position as the front-runner and further discouraging any potential challengers.
The Harris campaign is actively vetting potential running mates for the vice president.
The campaign has requested vetting materials for five VP contenders, two sources told NBC News: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who had also been floated as a potential VP pick, said on MSNBC that he had not received vetting materials.
Harris has been a proponent for affordable housing policies both during her tenure as Biden’s vice president and as senator.
As senator, Harris presented the Housing is Infrastructure Act alongside Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., in 2019. The bill would allocate funds toward building and renovating public housing.
Harris has been involved in Biden’s broader housing policy and “hammering home” on issues of affordability, new construction and potential tax breaks to help lower costs for mortgage borrowers, said Jacob Channel, senior economist at LendingTree.
“We’ll probably continue to see the Kamala Harris campaign do the exact same thing,” said Channel.
— Ana Teresa Solá
The polling margin between Harris and Trump is paper-thin and the vice president is gaining ground, another new poll has found.
An NPR/PBS/Marist poll shows Trump ahead of Harris by just one point, though that is within the survey’s margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. The poll surveyed 1,117 registered voters on July 22, a day after Biden dropped out of the race.
It is the latest data point showing that Harris’ entrance into the race has shrunk Democrats’ deficit. While day-after polls are just a snapshot, they provide an initial vital sign for the Harris campaign to gauge the vice president’s momentum.
— Rebecca Picciotto
With trillions in tax breaks expiring after 2025, taxes and the federal budget deficit will be key issues for Harris to address as part of her platform, experts say. Without action from Congress, more than 60% of Americans could see higher taxes, according to the Tax Foundation.
Biden has called for higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations to fund tax break extensions for those making less than $400,000 only. But one big question is whether Harris will adopt Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on those making under $400,000, said Andrew Lautz, associate director for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s economic policy program.
“That’s a big one with significant consequences” for future Democratic tax proposals and TCJA negotiations, he said.
— Kate Dore
Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, introduced articles of impeachment against Harris in the House of Representatives over her purported failure to uphold U.S. immigration laws.
Ogles’ impeachment move has little, if any chance, of being approved by the House, and no chance of winning a conviction of Harris in the Senate, which is controlled by her fellow Democrats.
— Dan Mangan
Harris is painting her election battle against Trump as a choice between the future and the past, underscoring one potential advantage she has over Trump, who is 20 years her senior.
“This campaign is also about two different visions for our nation,” Harris cried out to an energized crowd in Milwaukee. “One, we are focused on the future. The other focused on the past.”
Harris pointed to Project 2025, the roughly 900-page wish list for a second Trump term from the right-wing Heritage Foundation, saying it was rife with “failed economic policies” that the U.S. has tried before.
After several months of waning voter enthusiasm for the Biden-Trump rematch, Harris is working to position herself as a forward-looking candidate, unburdened by the baggage of incumbency.
“We are not going back. We are not going back and I’ll tell you why. We’re not going back because ours is a fight for the future,” she said.
— Rebecca Picciotto
Harris is gaining on Trump with voters, though the race remains tight, according to new polls taken shortly after President Biden dropped out of the race.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday showed Harris leading Trump 44% to 42% in a head-to-head matchup, though that two-point lead is within the poll’s three-point margin of error. The poll was conducted from July 22 to July 23.
A Morning Consult poll of 4,001 registered voters taken in the 24 hours after Biden dropped out also found that Harris had narrowed the voting gap with Trump, lagging him by just two points in contrast to Biden’s six-point deficit. The two-point difference between Harris and Trump was within the poll’s two-point margin of error.
Though these polls represent respondents’ knee-jerk reaction, they are key metrics to gauge whether the past few days of Harris hype will translate to a strong campaign in the longer term.
— Rebecca Picciotto
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare has endorsed Harris. This is only the second presidential race in which the group has made an endorsement.
Social Security Works is also endorsing Harris, its president Nancy Altman said. “I think she’s going to be even better” than Biden, she said of Harris’ policies for seniors.
In the past, Democrats have had a significant lead in polls on Social Security. But voter support is now spread more evenly between the parties, said Democratic pollster Jeff Liszt, partner at Impact Research.
“Social Security is a battleground issue,” Liszt said.
— Lorie Konish
Trump says he is willing to debate Harris multiple times.
Read the full story here.
— Josephine Rozzelle
A Harris administration may be good news for retired Americans.
The next presidential administration may be poised to influence Social Security and Medicare policy, as both programs have trust funds that are nearing their depletion dates. While benefits will still be available, they may be reduced if Congress does not act sooner.
As senator, Harris co-sponsored the Social Security Expansion Act, which would increase benefits and the annual cost-of-living adjustments. It would also require wealthy Americans to pay more into the program as it faces a funding shortfall.
“President [Joe Biden] and I will protect Social Security. Donald Trump will not,” Harris posted on social media site X in June. “The contrast is clear.”
— Annie Nova and Lorie Konish
Harris is taking aim at Trump’s relationship with billionaires and corporate America, and drawing a contrast with her campaign.
“Donald Trump is relying on support from billionaires and big corporations, and is trading access in exchange for campaign contributions,” Harris said to a fired-up crowd in the battleground city of Milwaukee.
“On the other hand, we are running a people-powered campaign,” Harris roared. “Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” she declared.
Harris’ remarks echoed the pro-worker, pro-consumer sentiment that characterized President Biden’s economic platform.
— Rebecca Picciotto
Harris took aim at income inequality during her first presidential bid in 2020 and as a senator.
As a member of Congress, one of Harris’s signature proposals, known as the Lift the Middle Class Act, would have given workers additional financial support with an annual tax credit of up to $6,000 for lower- and middle-income households, on top of the benefits they already receive. Harris proposed repealing the Trump tax cuts to pay for it.
In 2019, she also unveiled a plan to tackle the gender pay gap at work.
Companies with 100 or more employees would be required to report pay and total compensation for men and women, as well as the percentage of women in leadership positions to obtain an “Equal Pay Certification.” Businesses without that certification would be fined at 1% of their average daily profits during the last fiscal year.
Women earn just 84 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the National Women’s Law Center, although the pay gap worsens significantly for Black and Latina women.
— Jessica Dickler
Harris started the first rally of her 2024 presidential campaign with a shower of compliments for President Biden.
“Joe’s legacy of accomplishment over his entire career, and over the past three and a half years is unmatched in modern history,” the vice president said in Wisconsin, a key election battleground, after taking the stage with Beyonce’s “Freedom” playing in the background.
“He has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who served two terms in office,” she added, thanking him for giving her his endorsement after dropping out of the race on Sunday.
— Rebecca Picciotto
University of Virginia Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato has some advice for the Harris campaign when it comes to picking a vice president: “Don’t get cutesy.”
“Lots of worthy observations, suggestions, and arguments. Clearly, @VP is not going to be able to please everyone,” he added in a post reply.
— Isabel Engel
Democratic megadonor and Galaxy Digital Holdings founder Mike Novogratz believes Harris will “make the race a lot tougher” for Trump, and he has some advice for the vice president.
“If she shows up as presidential, reads the temperature of the country and moves to the center, I think the Democrats are going to have a really good election,” he said in a new interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
After donating more than $1 million to help defeat Trump in 2020, Novogratz declined to back Biden this cycle.
“I worked hard in 2020” for Biden, Novogratz told CNBC late last year. This time around, he thinks Biden is “too old. I think Trump is too old, too. We need fresh people.”
— Mariapaula Gonzalez
Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff quipped “That’s all he got?” when a reporter asked about Trump’s name-calling of Harris.
“We’re going to prosecute the case against Donald Trump,” said Emhoff, whose wife was called “Lying Kamala Harris” by the Republican nominee in a social media post.
Emhoff’s clapback came during a visit to a reproductive health clinic in McLean, Virginia.
“Kamala Harris has united the party. She’s going to unite the country. She’s going to earn this nomination,” the second gentleman said.
— Dan Mangan
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are enthusiastically endorsing Harris after what they described as a “grassroots, bottom-up” process.
“When I spoke with her Sunday, she said she wanted the opportunity to win the nomination on her own, and to do so from the grassroots up, not top down. We deeply respected that,” Schumer said. “Now that the process is played out, from the grassroots bottom up, we are here today to throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.”
“Kamala Harris is a commonsense leader who knows how to deliver real results for hardworking American taxpayers,” Jeffries said. “Kamala Harris is a courageous leader who has worked hard throughout her entire career to keep our communities safe. Kamala Harris is a compassionate leader who will build an affordable economy that makes life better for everyday Americans.”
“Kamala Harris will fight for our freedom. Kamala Harris will fight for our families, Kamala Harris will fight for our future,” the minority leader said.
— Josephine Rozzelle
Biden has tested negative for Covid-19, nearly a week after testing positive for the virus in Las Vegas.
“The President’s symptoms have resolved,” wrote White House doctor Kevin O’Connor in a letter released as Biden left his beach home in Rehoboth, Delaware, where he had been isolating after testing positive for Covid-19 last Wednesday, to head back to the White House.
“Over the course of his infection, he never manifested a fever, and his vital signs remained normal, to include pulse oximetry. His lungs remained clear,” O’Connor wrote.
“BINAX rapid antigen testing is negative. He will continue to be monitored for any recurrence of illness.”
— Dan Mangan
Two Black voter groups, Win With Black Men and Win With Black Women, collectively raised more than $2.8 million for Harris on separate fundraising Zoom calls Monday night.
Roughly 17,000 donors raised $1.3 million on the Win With Black Men video call, according to Roland Martin, one of the hosts of the call. He said nearly 54,000 people tuned in.
The Win With Black Women video call raised more than $1.5 million in three hours, the organization announced on social media. It said 44,000 people attended the call.
— Rebecca Picciotto
A majority of all delegates to the Democratic National Convention have endorsed Harris’ candidacy for the party’s presidential nomination.
The backing from at least 2,540 pledged delegates makes Harris the de facto Democratic nominee. She has drawn no significant opposition to her candidacy.
— Dan Mangan
Harris’ campaign hammered Vance over signing on as Trump’s running mate, years after Vance had indicated he believed Trump had sexually assaulted women.
“Vance is enthusiastically running with someone he believed committed sexual violence so they can enact their cruel Project 2025 agenda together,” Harris’ campaign said in a statement, hours after CNN published a report on Vance’s past statements about Trump and allegations of sexual assault against him.
In October 2016, a month before Trump was elected president, Vance tweeted in a since-deleted post, “What percentage of the American population has @realDonaldTrump sexually assaulted?”
That same month, Vance addressed the claim by Jessica Leeds that Trump had groped and kissed her against her will on a flight during the 1970s.
“At a fundamental level, this is sort of a ‘he said, she said,’ right?” Vance said on MSNBC. “And at the end of the day, do you believe Donald Trump, who always tells the truth? Just kidding. Or do you believe that woman on that tape?”
— Dan Mangan
Biden will travel to Texas next week, the White House says, where he will commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the LBJ Presidential Library.
The venue will evoke the symmetry between Biden and Lyndon B. Johnson, who withdrew his bid for reelection just as Biden did Sunday. Similar to Biden, Johnson faced concerns about his health and criticisms of his handling of international conflicts.
“I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office: the Presidency of your country,” Johnson told the nation from the Oval Office in 1968.
— Josephine Rozzelle
As the Harris campaign continues to leverage social media and engage young voters, NextGen America, the nation’s largest youth vote organization, is backing her for president.
“From protecting abortion access and care, to supporting climate justice, economic justice, voting rights, and LGBTQ+ rights, Vice President Harris represents the diversity, vision, and values of young Americans,” NextGen President Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez said in a release.
The group’s president also thanked Biden for his service and his “historic” pro-youth agenda.
“From delivering the most significant climate legislation in history, to making progress on issues like student debt, gun safety, LGBTQ+ rights, labor rights, marijuana reform, and economic justice, President Biden has consistently responded to the needs and values of our generation,” she said.
— Isabel Engel
President Biden is rescheduling fundraising events in Texas, California and Colorado that were set for this week, two spokespeople for the Biden-now-Harris campaign confirmed to CNBC.
After dropping out of the race against Trump on Sunday and endorsing Harris, Biden still had the fundraising swing on his calendar for this week.
The new dates for the fundraising events have yet to be announced.
The spokespeople did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for further comment.
The president has been isolating with Covid-19 in Delaware for the past several days but is expected to return to Washington this afternoon.
— Rebecca Picciotto
Biden highlighted an Ohio lawmaker’s warning of a “civil war” if Trump loses the election in a new tweet supporting Harris’ presidential candidacy.
“Folks, calls to violence threaten our democracy’s foundation,” Biden wrote in the tweet containing a video of state Sen. George Lang’s incendiary comment.
“You can’t love your country only when you win. Let’s solve our problems with ballots and elect @KamalaHarris as the next President of the United States of America,” Biden wrote.
On Monday, Lang at a rally in Middletown, Ohio, for Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, said, “It’s going to take a civil war to save the country” if the Trump/Vance ticket loses in November.
Lang later said he regretted making that comment.
— Dan Mangan
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will endorse Harris at a press conference at 1 p.m. ET, three sources tell NBC.
The endorsement from the highest-ranking Democrats in Congress was expected. Jeffries spoke highly of Harris on Monday and said that he and Schumer were waiting to meet with Harris in person before announcing a possible endorsement. Both leaders have spoken to Harris on the phone, according to NBC.
Schumer and Jeffries are on a shrinking list of Democrats who have not yet endorsed Harris.
With the majority leader’s endorsement, Montana Sen. Jon Tester will become the only Democratic senator who has yet to back Harris, according to NBC. Independent Sens. Bernie Sanders, Angus King, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have also not endorsed the vice president.
— Josephine Rozzelle
Harris’ top fundraisers on Wall Street are planning to huddle in a private Zoom call to discuss fundraising strategies to bolster her already massive campaign war chest, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The Zoom call is being organized by Lazard President Ray McGuire; Centerview Partners co-founder Blair Effron; and Brad Karp, chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, these people explained. At least 50 major donors, with many having similar ties to the finance sector, will be on the call, one of the people said. These people were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about private matters.
McGuire, Effron and Karp raised money for Harris when she ran a failed Democratic primary campaign for president in 2019. The call is expected to take place on Wednesday, according to one of the sources, but another noted that it may end up happening another day this week.
Since Biden dropped out on Sunday and endorsed Harris, the vice president’s political operation has raised more than $100 million, according to the campaign.
A similar call took place on Monday featuring more than 200 donors to American Bridge 21st Century, a political action committee going on offense versus Trump in the key battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, according to people familiar with the matter.
That call featured longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, who had called for Biden to drop out of the race after the president’s disastrous debate performance in June.
Carville told CNBC that donors on the call were “fired up” about Harris’ candidacy and they believe there is “hope” now that Democrats can win in November.
— Brian Schwartz
President Biden will deliver a speech from the Oval Office on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET to explain his decision to exit the race against Trump and to lay out the plan to finish his term.
The president announced the timing of the speech in a post on social media platform X.
Biden is expected to return to Washington today from Delaware, where he was isolating with Covid-19 at his beach house.
The president’s remarks have been in preparation since Sunday when he announced in a social media post that he would drop his bid for a second term and endorsed Vice President Harris to replace him, a source told NBC News.
— Rebecca Picciotto
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is praising Harris, applauding her foreign policy experience as vice president.
“I’ve seen her on the most critical foreign policy questions of our time,” Blinken said. “And my observation is she’s a very strong, very effective and deeply respected voice for our country around the world. When she speaks, she speaks on behalf of the United States.”
Blinken noted Harris’ international trips, including her visit to Switzerland last month where she represented the U.S. at a Ukraine peace summit.
“Time and again, I’ve seen her leadership in every corner of the world,” he said.
Blinken also said he spoke to Biden after the president decided he would no longer seek reelection.
“What he is intensely focused on is the work that remains over these next six months,” Blinken said. “Trying to bring peace to the Middle East, ending the war on Gaza, putting that region on a better trajectory, continuing to deal as effectively as he has been with the ongoing aggression by Russia against Ukraine, and making sure we continue to do everything we can to strengthen Ukraine.”
— Josephine Rozzelle
Vermont Sen. Peter Welch is backing Harris, saying in a post on social media site X that “there is no candidate better equipped to take on Donald Trump and protect our democracy.”
“Throughout Kamala Harris’s career — as California’s top prosecutor, and as Senator, and as our Vice President — she has been a champion for hardworking families,” he says. “She is a leader in the fight to protect reproductive freedoms and the rights every person in this country deserves — at a time when those rights are under attack by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans.”
Welch was one of four senators who called on Biden to drop his reelection bid. After Biden did so, Welch originally said on Sunday that he would not endorse Harris at that time.
— Josephine Rozzelle
Hollywood star George Clooney, a major Democratic fundraiser, is backing Harris to replace President Biden in the race against Trump.
“President Biden has shown what true leadership is. He’s saving democracy once again,” Clooney said in a statement to CNN. “We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest.”
Earlier in July, Clooney made waves in a New York Times op-ed calling on Biden to bow out of the race, joining the Democratic pressure campaign against the president.
Clooney’s op-ed came just weeks after he hosted a June fundraising event for Biden that hauled in $30 million with other Hollywood attendees such as actress Julia Roberts and comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
— Rebecca Picciotto
Melinda French Gates, the philanthropist and former wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, is endorsing Harris for president.
“There is so much riding on the election in November. We need a leader who will stand up for reproductive freedom. A leader who understands that supporting caregivers leads to healthier families and a stronger economy. A leader who knows that when women have their full power in society, we all thrive,” French Gates says in a post on X. “I am supporting Vice President Kamala Harris because she is that leader.”
“During her years in the White House, she has proven that she knows how to lead through crises while pushing for the change we need. I want her fighting for our country for the next four years,” she writes.
French Gates made her first presidential endorsement ever in June when she announced she was backing Biden. The billionaire did not say in either endorsement whether she plans to contribute financially to the campaign.
– Josephine Rozzelle
Kamala Harris is traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the site of last week’s Republican convention, for her first campaign event as the Democratic frontrunner later today.
Several of the battleground state’s top Democrats will join her including Gov. Tony Evers and Sen. Tammy Baldwin. Some of the state’s labor leaders will also attend like the Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale.
In a speech to the Biden-now-Harris campaign staff yesterday, the vice president previewed what could become her default presidential pitch. She tried to draw contrasts with Donald Trump by leaning into her resume as a criminal prosecutor and her willingness to take on big-money interests.
“”I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said at the campaign’s Wilmington, Del. headquarters. “So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.”
The rally comes as the campaign touts its past 24 hours of high-speed momentum including a deluge of party endorsements and a record fundraising haul of over $100 million from over 1.1 million unique donors since President Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris on Sunday. The campaign also said it saw a surge of over 58,000 people signing up to volunteer.
— Rebecca Picciotto
Harris’ campaign has requested vetting materials from five potential vice presidential picks, two sources tell NBC News.
The list includes North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and his law firm, Covington & Burling, are leading the vetting process, according to NBC News.
— Josephine Rozzelle
Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly-launched campaign has generated an “unprecedented” positive response, and that she is “well on her way” to clinch the party’s nomination.
Harris has been endorsed by U.S. President Joe Biden and a majority of pledged Democrats, but is yet to receive the formal nomination of her faction.
“The Vice President is well on her way to secure this nomination, based on the reports I’m getting,” Harrison said Tuesday during MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He stressed that the DNC must still undergo a formalized nomination process, which starts on Wednesday and will wrap by Aug. 7.
Harrison qualified the public response to Harris’ two-day-old campaign as “unprecedented, we’ve never seen this type of thing,” likening it to the support observed during the initial campaign of former President Barack Obama. He emphasized that the vice president has “really galvanized the party” — to such an extent that might send jitters through the rival Republican Party.
“I think they’re a bit nervous. For someone they said was not going to excite the party … she’s demonstrating that she has momentum, she has the energy on her side, and I think they’re scared about that,” Harrison said.
He refused to engage with comments such as those by Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who previously described Kamala Harris as a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hire.
“As we love to say in the South, bless his heart,” Harrison said.
— Ruxandra Iordache
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, House minority leader, jointly announced a House task force to investigate the assassination attempt against former President Trump during a Pennsylvania rally on July 13.
The task force will comprise seven Republicans and six Democrats and will be “empowered with subpoena authority and will move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and make certain such failures never happen again,” Johnson said on social media platform X.
Trump was injured in a shooting during the rally, while one bystander was killed and two were seriously hurt. The gunman was shot down by a sniper of the Secret Service, which has come under criticism for its failure to ensure the former U.S. president’s security during the event.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker said Vice President Harris is “energizing people all across the nation, young people, people of color,” while falling short of confirming whether he would join her ticket as a running mate.
“We’re doing a job of reaching out to the supporters of some of Donald Trump’s former rivals … that’s not the playbook for the Republicans,” he told “Morning Joe” on Tuesday, noting that the Republican Party is diminishing in numbers and betting on low turnout at the polls in November.
Asked whether he would consider becoming Harris’ running mate if the position were offered to him, Pritzker only said, “Look, I love being the governor of the state of Illinois, and I’ve been out on the campaign trail fighting hard for Democrats to win … I’m very interested in making sure that Kamala Harris becomes the next president of the United States.”
Chicago, the most-populous city in the state of Illinois, is set to host the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19-22.
“We know how to run conventions here in Chicago,” Pritzker said, emphasizing that “every level of law enforcement” has been engaged to provide security for the gathering, and adding that Illinois is also benefiting from help from surrounding states toward that purpose.
“We expect that the energized Democratic party is going to have an amazing convention,” the Illinois governor added.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Vice President Harris, now a favorite for the Democratic nomination, represents the “future,” according to Steven Horsford, congressman of Nevada and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
“She represents the fact that we are going to continue to address the issues from protecting women’s reproductive rights … as well as economic opportunities,” he told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday, stressing that Harris could galvanize a “move from a consumer-driven economy to one around ownership, where we all have a stake.”
By contrast, Horsford — who has endorsed Harris’ presidential bid — accused Republican nominee and former President Trump of leading a campaign of “division.”
“They want to give ultra-wealthy and big corporations tax cuts, in order to do what? Cut health care,” Horsford said of the Trump platform.
— Ruxandra Iordache
About 58,000 people signed up to volunteer for Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, her campaign said, estimating that the figure is 100 times its average sign-up rate.
The campaign added that it had raised more than $100 million of donations during the same period, accruing funds from more than 1.1 million unique donors. More than 62% of these contributions came from first-time donors, the campaign said.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Biden’s decision to renounce his presidential bid signals a generational shift in American politics, said Qian Feng, senior research fellow at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University and the Taihe Institute, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
“Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, as well as the selection of JD Vance as the Republican Party’s candidate for the post of Vice President, has accelerated the process of ‘out with the old, in with the new’ in the political arena of the United States,” Feng said.
He described the upcoming presidential race — where Democratic favorite Vice President Harris would face off with former President Trump if she formally clinches her party’s bid — as a “pressure cooker.”
— Ruxandra Iordache
U.S. markets typically outperform in an election year, but greater volatility is expected in the final months before the Nov. 5 vote, Nuveen’s chief investment officer said Tuesday.
Saira Malik told CNBC that U.S. stocks could be expected to rally by around 10% in an election year, but those gains would vary by sectors depending on the expected victor.
“If the markets shift to more of a view that Republicans will win, financials and energy tend to outperform, the U.S. dollar becomes stronger,” Malik told “Squawk Box Europe.”
“If it shifts the other way to Democrats, you’ll be looking at more climate focused companies outperforming,” she said.
Malik added that health-care stocks tend to outperform in an election year, but noted that pockets of value would emerge once the result is decided.
— Karen Gilchrist
There is a renewed sense of excitement among European officials as U.S. Vice President Harris becomes the front-runner for the Democratic nomination ahead of the all-important election this fall.
The U.S. election just ‘”got way more interesting,” a senior EU diplomat, who did not want to be named due to the political sensitivity of the topic, told CNBC on Monday.
″[President Joe] Biden is a great man, with an impressive life behind him, but he is not the future,” added an EU official, who also asked to remain anonymous. They also dismissed 78-year-old former President Trump, adding that “the U.S. needs younger leaders.”
Read the full story here.
— Silvia Amaro
Vice President Harris will likely win the Democratic nomination but still lose the presidency to Republican rival Trump, according to David Roche, president and global strategist at Quantum Strategy.
“I think she’ll definitely be the [Democratic] candidate because if she wasn’t the presidential candidate of the Democrats, there would be a degree of chaos, including affecting funding, which would mean the Democrats would be wiped across the board,” he told “Street Signs Europe” on Tuesday, noting that this impact would also affect the Democrats’ position in Congress and the House of Representatives.
But despite that forecast on Harris securing the formal Democratic endorsement and foreseeing a “closer race than people imagined” during the fall elections, Roche stressed, “I don’t think she can beat Trump.”
“I suspect that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States. And markets will start to wonder about the costs to that, as we get closer to the election. Costs in terms of security policy, like say NATO and Europe, costs in terms of Taiwan, costs in terms of tariffs, which are extremely detrimental to the U.S. economy,” he said, adding that investors will likely adopt a cautious wait-and-see approach for the time being.
Some, he noted, might “even actually rejoice to some extent in the likelihood of a Trump victory, because they may see this as a way of getting more shovelfuls of money pushed their way.”
— Ruxandra Iordache
Vice President Harris, who has emerged as a favorite to clinch the Democratic nomination in the two days since launching her campaign, may have to expedite selecting a running mate, says Syga Thomas, CEO of Ensah Advisory Partners.
“That pick’s going to have to come rather quickly,” he told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Tuesday, noting that this decision will have to be made before the Democratic National Committee’s convention in Chicago, which will take place Aug. 19-22.
Several names have been floated as potential running mates, including Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
“Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro being a key one, in sort of a swing state that could prove to be very important,” Thomas said, but added that the possibility of an unexpected pick should not be discounted.
“I think it’s important to take a step back and say, potentially, she might come out and do something that is totally different,” Thomas said. “So, something that is not being touted now. So, she could come and make it an all-women ticket, which is certainly, with [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer, which would certainly be an interesting way, sort of, to approach the ticket.”
— Ruxandra Iordache
First lady Jill Biden will lead a presidential delegation to the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, scheduled to take place July 26, according to a White House statement.
It will mark the first major public appearance for Jill Biden, who been supporting her husband, President Joe Biden, since his decision to drop his reelection bid.
Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Harris, will helm a delegation attending the close of the games on Aug. 11.
Two other presidential delegations due to attend the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympic Games will be announced at a later time.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Vice President Harris’ newly launched presidential campaign will lead to a closer race against Republican candidate and former President Trump, according to Aaron Anderson, member of Fisher Investments’ Investment Policy Committee.
“I think the knee-jerk reaction or interpretation of the wild political scene that we’ve seen here in the U.S. is that the race just got a little bit closer, maybe the potential for one party sweeping heavily in one direction or another has probably diminished a bit, and so it’s kind of back to business as usual,” he told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Tuesday, stressing that this has translated into big growth stocks performing well this year to date.
“It does look increasingly likely that [Harris] will be the [Democratic] candidate, but that’s certainly not a sure thing as this point,” Anderson added. “But what I would say is, this is a pretty modest change from what the ticket looked like previously.”
He emphasized that both Harris and Trump are known quantities to investors, as each politician spent four years in top White House leadership positions.
“Here you’ve got two politicians that are well known by the marketplace, I think [it’s] hard to get a surprise out of the election, should that happen,” Anderson noted.
— Ruxandra Iordache
S&P 500 futures eased 0.14% at 8:52 a.m. London time in the Tuesday premarket session as investors shifted focus toward anticipated earnings reports, including giants such as General Motors, Coca-Cola, Alphabet and Tesla.
Traders have been keeping an eye on the U.S. political background after President Biden relinquished his reelection bid and endorsed Vice President Harris, whose rapidly launched campaign rallied key Democratic pledges and grassroot donations. The S&P 500 on Monday posted its best day since June 5 on a rebound in tech shares.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit the White House this week to meet U.S. President Joe Biden, amid pressure to end the war that has devastated the Gaza Strip since October.
Israel, which maintains it does not target civilians and only pursues Palestinian militant group Hamas, has faced international criticism over the proportionality of its military response in the Gaza enclave and harm to the Palestinian people.
The U.S. has staunchly supported Israel throughout the conflict, but has increasingly also urged Netanyahu’s administration to minimize civilian casualties. Both sides simultaneously pursue the release of dozens of hostages that remain in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, which include American nationals. The visit could ease the path to an elusive ceasefire deal with Hamas, which the U.S., Qatar and Egypt have been mediating.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu is set to meet with Biden, whose career he praised profusely following the president’s decision to drop his reelection bid. Vice President Harris will be unable to preside over Netanyahu’s scheduled Wednesday address before a joint Congress session because of a trip to Indianapolis, her aide said, according to Reuters.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Trump criticized Harris’ record on immigration, once more labeling her as a “Border Czar” in an update on his Truth Social platform.
Trump claimed that Harris “never visited the Border,” in a likely reference to the U.S.-Mexico perimeter, which has seen record levels of illegal crossings over the past year.
Republican rivals are likely to lash Harris with further criticism on immigration — a key concern for U.S. voters — with Trump alleging that the vice president’s performance “gave us the WORST and MOST DANGEROUS Border anywhere in the World.”
Back in 2021, Harris was tasked with helming the diplomatic mission to address the “root causes of migration in Central America” — but not to oversee or enforce immigration policy, or the border itself.
— Ruxandra Iordache
After a flurry of key Democratic endorsements in the first full day since her rapid campaign launch, Vice President Harris said in a statement that she looks forward to accepting her party’s formal nomination.
“When I announced my campaign for President, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination. Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top. I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon,” she said.
Harris also made her case against the rival candidacy of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has once more gained the Republican nomination.
“This election will present a clear choice between two different visions. Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time before many of us had full freedoms and equal rights. I believe in a future that strengthens our democracy, protects reproductive freedom and ensures every person has not just the opportunity to get by, but to go ahead,” she said.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Harris has secured written or spoken endorsements from a simple majority of the Democratic party’s pledged convention delegates, NBC News estimates.
The threshold number of delegates is 1,976. NBC estimates that Harris has received statements of support from groups representing 1,992 delegates, as of 10:30 p.m. ET.
The exact dates and process for the Democratic party’s nominating roll call vote will be finalized at a meeting Wednesday afternoon of the Rules Committee.
— Christina Wilkie
Read CNBC’s blog updates covering Kamala Harris’ campaign on July 22 here.
