US Vice President Kamala Harris will serve as keynote speaker at a fundraiser in Massachusetts, while President Joe Biden continues to face pressure from fellow Democrats and major donors to end his faltering campaign.
Biden and his top advisers pledged on Friday to continue the campaign, even as major donors signaled they would not open their checkbooks unless the 81-year-old president resigned.
The crisis of confidence in Biden's chances of winning has put Harris in the spotlight, with many assuming she will be the most likely successor if he resigns.
Her fundraising events, including the one in Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Saturday, are attracting increasing interest from donors seeking to signal their willingness to support her potential run for the White House, according to three Democratic fundraisers.
The fundraiser will be hosted by celebrity wedding planner Bryan Rafanelli. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will also speak, according to a person familiar with the event.
Thirty-five congressional Democrats, representing more than ten percent of the party's members in Congress, have now publicly called on Biden, who is in quarantine at his home in Delaware because of Covid-19, to withdraw from the candidacy.
This followed Biden's disastrous debate last month with former Republican President Donald Trump, which raised doubts about whether the incumbent can win the November 5 election or remain in office for another four years.
Former Democratic President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton privately supported Biden's decision to stay in the race and actively encouraged donors to remain loyal to him, NBC News reported Saturday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
Separately, on Saturday, U.S. Representative Mark Takano of California became the latest Democratic congressman to call on Biden to withdraw as presidential candidate.
Biden's campaign had hoped to raise about $50 million ($75 million Australian dollars) in major donations for the Biden Victory Fund in July, but less than half that amount had been raised as of Friday, according to two sources familiar with the fundraising efforts.
The campaign called reports of a drop in donations in July exaggerated and noted that it expected a drop in major donations due to holiday travel. It said the campaign still had 10 fundraisers planned this month.
Harris assured major Democratic donors on Friday that the party would win the presidential election, as more lawmakers called for her running mate Biden to step down.
“We are going to win this election,” she said in a hastily arranged phone call to reassure donors, according to a person who participated in the conference call.
“We know which candidate in this election puts the American people first: Our President Joe Biden.”
Harris participated in the call “at the direct request of senior advisers to the president,” one of the people said. That report was confirmed by another person familiar with the matter.