DNC chairman argues Republican strongholds are in play with Harris on ballot

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison is convinced red strongholds like Florida or North Carolina are in play for Democrats to flip in the 2024 election thanks to the jolt of enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris‘s campaign.

“I have never seen this type of energy, this type of organizing, grassroots organizing, in all my years of being involved in politics,” Harrison said in an interview with MSNBC’s The Weekend on Sunday. “We have over 1100 staff across the country in our battleground states, that’s not counting in our non-battleground states. We have over 200 offices across the battleground states.”

“We are supporting also through our red state program states that are not battlegrounds, but we believe we can be competitive and so that’s happening right now,” Harrison added. “This is an energy on the ground I have not seen since Barack Obama in 2008. And I’m telling folks, don’t sleep on Florida, don’t sleep on North Carolina, because we are going to have the boots on the ground to win those tight, close elections.”

Within the week since President Joe Biden dropped out of the election and quickly endorsed Harris, the vice president’s campaign has raised over $200 million since Sunday and signed up over 170,000 volunteers. Several voting blocs have held Zoom calls that brought thousands of attendees together to raise money for Harris, including “white women for Harris” and black women and men for Harris, as well.

Biden’s polling numbers had shown the president trailing far behind former President Donald Trump in red states like Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. Now, recent polling with Harris as the presumptive nominee has shown she is gaining ground on Trump, according to the Hill.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) also told MSNBC on Sunday that he thinks Harris has a strong chance to perform well in the South and possibly win Georgia.

“She’s rapidly united the Democratic Party behind her candidacy, sees the momentum in this head-to-head race against former President Trump, and she’s electrifying volunteers and grassroots Democrats across the country,” Ossoff said. “She’s put Georgia in play.”

Democrats are particularly eager about Harris’s candidacy given that polling shows she draws in more support from young voters, black voters, and minority voters — all key demographics that could turn the tide in swing states like Georgia, which Biden and Harris narrowly won by less than one percentage point in 2020 but Trump won by 5 percentage points in 2016.

Harris’s overall favorability is increasing, as well. A new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday morning found that Harris’s favorability rating jumped to 43% with an unfavorability rating of 42%. A poll released a week ago found the vice president had a 35% favorability rating and 46% unfavorability rating.

On the other side, Trump’s favorability dropped slightly from 40% to 36%. His favorability rating among independents dropped as well, from 35% in last week’s poll to 27% in Sunday’s poll.