Harris raises $12 million at San Francisco fundraiser as Pelosi welcomes Vice President home

Vice President Kamala Harris’s return to California’s San Francisco Bay Area proved to be extremely lucrative.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign team said Harris raised more than $12 million at a fundraiser at the famous Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco on Sunday.

Harris has seen a significant increase in fundraising revenue since she replaced President Biden on the 2024 Democratic ticket three weeks ago. Her July haul was more than double that of former President Trump, the Republican presidential candidate.

And Harris saw another surge in fundraising after naming Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday.

WHAT THE LATEST POLLS SHOW IN THREE KEY BATTLEGROUND STATES IN THE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN HARRIS AND TRUMP

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (left) and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, gesture during a campaign rally at the University of Nevada, Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, August 10, 2024. (RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP via Getty Images)

The vice president and Walz quickly hit the campaign trail, touring the crucial swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, drawing large crowds at each stop.

“The energy is undeniable,” Harris told the crowd at the fundraiser, pointing to her campaign momentum. “The crowds are big. But even better is the fact that, like last night in Las Vegas, thousands of attendees are signing up for volunteer shifts.”

Harris and Walz are battling it out with Trump and Vance in the battle of the contested states

However, the vice president acknowledged that “we have a lot of work ahead of us” in the race against Trump and stressed that “we cannot take anything for granted at this critical moment.”

Harris was introduced at the fundraiser by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Congress for nearly four decades.

“This is a good day as we welcome Kamala Harris home to California,” Pelosi said. “She makes us all so proud. She brings us so much joy. She gives us so much hope.”

Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris arrives in Las Vegas to speak at a campaign rally on Saturday, August 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

Comments from Pelosi, who remains a central figure in the Democratic Party, were seen as key in convincing Biden last month to put his re-election campaign on hold and endorse Harris after his disastrous showing in the debate against Trump in late June.

Biden’s rambling and inconsistent answers at the debate fueled questions about whether the 81-year-old president is physically and mentally fit to endure another four years in the White House, and sparked loud calls within his own party for him to withdraw his candidacy for US president in 2024.

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Biden had repeatedly stressed that he would stay in the race. Pelosi’s comments in a widely watched television interview that the president had not yet decided whether to continue running or drop out served as a signal to other Democrats to call on Biden to end his campaign.

Pelosi, a longtime ally and friend of the president, praised Biden’s achievements in the White House but criticized his now-canceled re-election campaign.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admitted in a recent interview that there is no path to victory for President Biden. (Left: (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images), Right: Photographer: Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Harris was born in nearby Oakland, California, and spent the first 12 years of her childhood in the Bay Area. Harris served as a prosecutor in Alameda County and later in San Francisco before winning election as the city’s district attorney in 2002.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a longtime Harris ally who was also one of Biden’s top surrogates before the president withdrew his re-election bid, also appeared at Sunday’s fundraiser.

Ticket prices for the event ranged from $3,300 for admission to $500,000, according to an invitation obtained by Fox News.

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