Morning Report — Harris, Walz kick off campaign sprint

Can Vice President Harris keep the momentum going into November?

Her presidential campaign, two weeks in the making, has ignited Democrats, opening fundraising coffers and resulting in a bump in the polling against former President Trump. The vice president’s Tuesday announcement of her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, further energized the party, with Harris’s campaign reporting it raised $36 million in the 24 hours following.

Campaign officials touted the haul as one of their best fundraising days of the cycle and a reflection of enthusiasm among Democrats about the vice president’s choice of Walz as her running mate. It builds on the $81 million her team said it had raised in the first 24 hours after Harris herself entered the race.

Now, the two are embarking on a barnstorming tour of crucial battleground states, stopping in Wisconsin and Michigan Wednesday as they continue the 88-day sprint to the voting booths.

“We are running a campaign on behalf of all Americans,” Harris said in Wisconsin Wednesday. “We will govern on behalf of all Americans. Because Coach Walz and I know, unlike the other side, we work for you.”

RATINGS SHIFT: Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a leading election handicapper, shifted its ratings of three states in the presidential race in favor of Democrats Wednesday, as Harris surges in the polls against Trump. The indicator moved its rating of Minnesota and New Hampshire from “Leans Democratic” to “Likely Democratic” and Georgia from “Leans Republican” to “Toss-up,” noting Harris “has ‘reset’ the electoral map to some degree, as she has polled better than President Biden was performing before he ended his campaign.”

New polling from The Economist/YouGov shows Harris leading Trump by 2 points nationally for the second week in a row.

It’s too early to say how much Walz will shake up the race, in which Harris and Trump are still polling closely in battleground states. The former president sought to portray Walz as “a very, very liberal man” and “a shocking pick” on a Wednesday Fox News appearance — echoing arguments that other Republicans have embraced in trying to discredit Harris’s selection.

Trump and his allies, including running mate Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), have struggled to define Harris — and now Walz — since President Biden dropped out and endorsed her. Vance approached Air Force Two “to check out” the plane after both he and Harris landed at the same airport in Wisconsin Wednesday. When he told gathered press what he was doing, Vance also attacked Harris for not answering questions from the media.

“I figured that I would come by and get a good look at the plane because hopefully it’s going to be my plane in a few months,” Vance said in front of Air Force Two. “I also thought you guys may get lonely, because the VP doesn’t answer questions from reporters.” Harris’s campaign responded to Vance approaching Air Force Two by calling it “weird.” 

The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes that while Republicans are seizing on the more progressive elements in Walz’s record to portray him as outside the mainstream, a look back over his career suggests a more complicated reality. Representing a rural House district for a dozen years, Walz was ranked as one of the 15 most conservative House Democrats by GovTrack. His most progressive moves have come recently.

Among them: Walz is stoking optimism in critics of the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza, without alienating pro-Israel supporters. Walz is supported by a number of pro-Israel groups, but has also raised hopes from groups demanding the U.S. take a harder line toward Israel to end the war. And he’s spoken favorably about the movement of Democrats voicing their opposition to Biden’s policies by voting “uncommitted” in the primaries.

Despite all the chatter about Walz, vice-presidential candidates rarely fundamentally alter the race, but for now, Democrats see at least an intangible benefit to the fresh enthusiasm — or “joy in politics,” as Walz has dubbed it.

“Fun campaigns are winning campaigns,” Democratic operative Caitlin Legacki said on the social platform X. “And this is a very, very fun campaign.”

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LEADING THE DAY

CAMPAIGN POLITICS

In Montana, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) is locked in a tight race as Trump boasts a wide lead over Harris in the state. A new Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey puts Trump-backed Republican Tim Sheehy 2 points ahead of Tester, 48 percent to 46 percent support. Tester, one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate who has yet to endorse Harris, this week launched a “Republicans for Tester” group to rally support from across the aisle as he braces for a competitive November contest. 

In Missouri, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) vowed revenge on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) after she lost her Tuesday primary. The group boosted her opponent, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, in a tightly contested race, knocking off a second member of the progressive “squad” this cycle. AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, was a top funder of Bell, who ran his campaign on standard Democratic issues: criminal justice reform, protecting voting rights and abortion access, among others. His views are not dissimilar from Bush’s positions, though the race became defined by each candidate’s stance toward Israel.

Bush has called the ongoing Gaza war “Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign,” and earlier this year introduced the Ceasefire Now Resolution. Some of her rhetoric has been met with backlash from other congressional members, but also constituents in her own district.

In a Wednesday interview with “CBS Sunday Morning,” Biden said he’s not at all confident there would be a peaceful transition of power if Trump loses the election in November.

“He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All this stuff about ‘if we lose, it’ll be a bloodbath,’” Biden continued, referencing comments the former president made in March that he and his allies insisted were about the economy. Biden also argued Republicans were putting officials in place in local jurisdictions to oversee the vote count, suggesting it was setting the table for a contentious election.

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ZOOM IN

STATE WATCH

🌧️ DEBBY DOWNER: Tropical Storm Debby is heading off the coast of South Carolina toward the Northeast as heavy rain and flooding continue to inundate the East Coast. The storm is expected to make a second landfall on the coast of South Carolina, after making a turn toward the north-northwest Wednesday. The storm could strengthen before reaching the coast, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), but is expected to weaken today once its center heads inland. Debby is expected to speed up as it heads north across the Carolinas and the U.S. mid-Atlantic region today and Friday (The Hill).

❄️ GLACIER MELT: A melting Alaska glacier keeps inundating Juneau. The torrent of frigid meltwater that has burst from the glacier and flooded at least 100 homes has become a summertime scourge for the residents who live in its path — and one with no easy solutions (The Washington Post).

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ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

SEVERAL ARAB COUNTRIES are encouraging Iran to exercise restraint in its response to the Tehran assassination of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, as fears of an unpredictable regional war expand. The diplomatic push, led by U.S. allies, comes as the Biden administration is trying to lower tensions in the Middle East and renew efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli officials increasingly believe it will be Hezbollah, rather than Iran, that will be first to launch a major attack on Israel in the coming days (The New York Times and The Times of Israel).

THOUSANDS OF COUNTER-PROTESTERS took to the streets across the U.K. on Wednesday after reports police were anticipating far-right demonstrations in more than 100 locations. Over the last week, the country has been rocked by the worst unrest in more than a decade as anti-immigration protests turned violent (Politico).

Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González did not appear before the country’s high court Wednesday for a hearing related to an election audit requested by President Nicolás Maduro. The hearings follow days of global criticism of Maduro over the election results. Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner but have yet to produce voting tallies. Meanwhile, the opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80 percent of the 30,000 electronic voting machines nationwide showing he lost (ABC News).

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THE CLOSER

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