Why VP Harris's campaign is just getting started: Mayor

Vice President Kamala Harris has gained ground in the polls in the early days of her campaign, but can she keep up that momentum?

Mayor of Montgomery, Alabama; African American Mayors Association President Steven L. Reed joins Catalysts to give insight into the Harris campaign and how it can continue to hold momentum, reaching to a wide audience.

"She has the only campaign that has offices across several states that has a volunteer list the size, almost 200,000 now, volunteers are getting up to that level. Those are people who want to knock doors and talk to their neighbors, talk to their coworkers about what's at stake in this election and what it means, again, for their pocketbooks, what it means for their savings accounts, their college savings accounts, what it means for their retirement plans. " says Reed.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts.

This post was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

Vice President Harris's presidential campaign has reported $200 million in contributions since President Biden announced he was stepping down from the top of the ticket with the campaign claiming that two thirds of donations came from first time contributors.

This cycle with base turnout.

Sure to be a key factor in November.

Can the Harris campaign keep up this momentum through the fall?

Montgomery Alabama Mayor Steven L Reed, who's also a Harris 2024 surrogate is here with us, Mr Mayor.

Good to, good to see you here.

Maybe you can help us uh ex understand some enthusiasm around vice President uh Harris's campaign.

I think there's a lot of enthusiasm around her campaign because of the uh ideas she has for the future.

Uh Certainly to strengthen this democracy uh to make sure we protect their freedoms are protected as well.

Uh And also to make sure that Americans have an economic opportunity uh that gets them ahead and she's very sensitive to that.

She understands what we're dealing with on the local level as mayors.

Uh she understands that because of her proximity and being a local elected official.

So she is very sensitive to uh what the average American is going through.

And I think that's been Hallmark of the Biden administration is having an ear to the ground and making sure that not only the policies but some of the steps that they can take, assist Americans economically and financially, there's this idea that she has been in this quote unquote honeymoon phase post announcement that has led to a huge surge in excitement.

What do you think she needs to do to maintain that energy and really put it into the polls come November.

Well, the great thing about this is we know who for President Trump is.

Most Americans don't know who Vice President Harris is.

So, while there's a honeymoon period here, I believe it has, uh, the factor to sustain itself because as more Americans learn her personal story, learn why she went in the public service in the first place and what she has done.

I believe more Americans will be, uh, excited about her candacy to be president.

And, you know, in order to maintain that we're talking about 99 days, uh, she's has the only campaign that has offices across several states that has a volunteer list of size, uh, almost 200,000 now, volunteers, uh, getting up to, to that level.

Those are people who wanna knock doors and talk to their neighbors, talk to their coworkers about what's at stake in this election and what it means again for their pocketbooks.

What it means for their savings accounts, their college savings accounts, what it means for their retirement plans.

These are things that, uh, the vice president and her team clearly understand and I believe that will help the energy that we're seeing right now because of her vision again for the future and what it means for everyday Americans.

We talked to a lot of CEO S of very large public companies here at Y finances and also very large investors.

And they tell us they do not know what the vice president stands for in terms of the economy.

How is she gonna bring down inflation?

Uh How friendly will she be on the regulatory front based on your knowledge of her economic plans?

What does she stand for?

I think she has some things that are similar to President Biden, but I think she also has some priorities of her own.

And uh as her campaign team has dealt with what's happened in the last week, I think they're still uh rolling that out.

So I don't wanna get ahead of, of the team in, in that regard.

But I do know that she has a, a vision for uh everyday Americans.

I know that she has a vision to make sure that there's economic opportunity, not just to uh stay above water, but again, to get ahead economically and they are very sensitive to what's happening with the cost of wages.

They're very sensitive to uh home ownership costs the mortgage loans, uh where the price of housing is going in this country and what that really means.

But also what it means just for bread and butter issues, like the price of groceries and gas.

So those things are very similar, uh, to, again, I think the sensitivity of President Biden and I think Vice President Harris, uh, has some of her ideas that she's gonna be rolling out here in the near future.

And I think the American people are gonna be very satisfied with that.