In an ominous replay of the end of Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, the DNC is reported to have reduced the price for donors to pose for a photo with Harris from $15,000 to $5,000 just a week after the Democratic National Committee postponed a major fundraiser headlined by Kamala Harris because of a failure to sell tickets, according to a report by Puck News.
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Puck news reporter Tara Palmeri reported Tuesday, “DNC is slashing prices for a photo w/ Kamala Harris. Tickets for a photo with the VP at the Women’s Leadership Forum started at $15,000, but it failed to sell enough tickets & is being postponed. VP’s June fundraiser in Cali is charging $5,000 for a photo”
Harris is so unpopular within the Democratic Party that a recent Zogby poll puts her in third place among Democrat voters for the 2024 presidential primary with a dismal 10.5 percent support, behind Michelle Obama at 16.1 percent and Joe Biden at a very weak for an incumbent 41.2 percent. (Results rounded in summary tweet below.)
MSNBC host Joy Reid, who recently interviewed Harris, blamed white men in the media for Harris’ unpopularity in an interview with The Root published Sunday:
“Reid told me that she hopes the Vice President will have more opportunities to take control of the narrative created by the talking heads and show Americans who she really is. “Most of the media is still white and male. And their take on Kamala Harris becomes the take. It becomes conventional wisdom,” she said. “I was able to kick off my heels and talk real. We need more conversations like that.”
Reid also told The Root she blamed Harris’ tough assignments for not allowing her to show her true self.
For starters, Reid says VP Harris is about as real as they come. People just haven’t had a chance to see that side of her. “She’s just a regular sister in the same way people would always say that Michelle Obama is like if your cousin became First Lady. Kamala Harris is like if your cousin became VP of the United States,” she said. “I think she doesn’t get to show that personality often enough, and so people haven’t had a chance to get to know her,” she said.
Add in the fact that her job requires her to tackle some of our country’s biggest issues – issues that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has openly admitted he has no interest in compromising on. “The job she’s had is dead serious, and this time is so serious. Think about her portfolio, voting rights, immigration and the border, and police reform. The things on her plate are the toughest things that the Biden Administration has to deal with outside of inflation and the war in Ukraine,” Reid said.
Kamala Harris was so unpopular she dropped out of the 2020 Democrat presidential primary before a single vote was cast. Her candidacy ended in what is now familiar territory for Harris: Low poll numbers and disastrous fundraising (CNBC excerpt from December 3, 2019):
Sen. Kamala Harris suspended her presidential campaign Tuesday, after falling from the top tier of Democratic candidates and failing to resurrect a doomed fundraising operation.
…Earlier Tuesday, CNBC reported that Harris canceled a fundraising event in New York amid a flood of recent reports describing her campaign as chaotic.
Some of her top bundlers expected her fourth quarter totals to be a “disaster” and noticed that the “events were not going well,” according to a member of her finance committee, who spoke to CNBC on Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.
CNBC reported in October that donors were struggling to persuade their networks to write checks to her campaign. In some cases, many of her supporters have told the campaign that they will not host events for her.
…By the end of November, the RealClearPolitics aggregate of candidate polls showed Harris sliding into the low single digits, while the nearest candidate above her, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, appeared to be surging higher.
In one of the clearest signs that her campaign was on the rocks, Harris canceled a big-money fundraiser set for Tuesday afternoon in New York. The event was canceled due to an unexplained “personal matter,” sources told CNBC.
Tickets started at $500 and went up to $2,800, the maximum a donor can give during a campaign cycle.