After wrapping up a multi-day tour of battleground states, Vice President Kamala Harris will appear at a major fundraiser in San Francisco on Sunday to court West Coast donors, some of whom withdrew their support following President Joe Biden’s poor performance in the June debates.
Harris plans to use her deep ties to the Bay Area and the political backing of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represented San Francisco in Congress for nearly four decades, to recruit Bay Area donors, according to a Harris campaign official, who said Pelosi will join Harris at the event on Sunday.
Tickets for the Harris Victory Fund event ranged from $3,300 to $50,000, and campaign officials said the event sold out with nearly 700 RSVPs, raising more than $12 million for the campaign.
The money comes on top of the historic $310 million the Harris-Waltz campaign raised in July, including $36 million raised within 24 hours of Harris announcing that she had chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
Walz will not attend the fundraiser on Sunday with Harris, according to a campaign official, who said the focus of the event would be on Harris and her ties to her home state of California after a week spent touring the country with her.
Harris and Walz’s campaigns told NBC News that Walz will campaign with Harris in Las Vegas on Saturday before flying to Minnesota for the rest of the weekend, adding that he plans to be on the East Coast next week.
Pelosi’s appearance on Sunday would mark the latest step in a major about-face by the president’s longtime ally and friend, who has played a key behind-the-scenes role in a Democratic pressure campaign to gently urge him to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.
During a July 10 appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” one of Biden’s favorite shows, the former House speaker said time is “running out” for Biden to decide on his reelection plans, despite his insistence that he and his campaign will remain in the race.
In a private call a week after the MSNBC appearance, Pelosi warned Biden that his decision to continue the campaign could cost Democrats not only the presidency but also control of both Houses of Congress, sources told NBC News.
Pelosi, who endorsed Harris about 24 hours after Biden dropped out of the race, expanded on her thinking this week in an interview linked to her new book, “The Art of Power.”
She told The New Yorker’s David Remnick on a podcast that the Biden campaign was “not facing up to the reality of what’s going on” and that she had “never been all that impressed with his political activism.”
“My concern is that this is not going to happen and we have to make a decision to make sure this happens. The president has to make a decision to make it happen,” she said.
“It’s not just about the House. After the debate, I thought it was really important for us to make sure that Donald Trump never becomes president. We just have to win the election,” Pelosi said in an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday.
She also said she hasn’t spoken to the president since he left office.
