Kamala Harris’s election campaign has said it raised $200m (£156m) in the week since she became a presidential candidate. The US vice president‘s deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said 66% of the funds were raised from new donors, while the campaign has signed up 170,000 new volunteers. US President Joe Biden, 81, withdrew from the race last Sunday amid questions about his age and health following a series of gaffes and a faltering debate performance against 78-year-old Donald Trump in late June.

Mr Biden, who has pledged to serve as president until the end of his term, has endorsed Ms Harris for the November election against former president Mr Trump. She has secured support from a majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention, likely ensuring she will become the party’s nominee for president. Mr Flaherty posted on X: “In the week since we got started, @KamalaHarris has raised $200 million dollars. 66% of that is from new donors. We’ve signed up 170,000 new volunteers.

“A people-powered campaign for a people-powered presidency.” Ms Harris, the first black woman and first Asian American to serve as vice president, pulled in her first $100m (£78m) in the 36 hours after Mr Biden’s announcement, her office said.  Her takeover has re-energised the Democrats’ campaign, which had faltered badly amid doubts about Mr Biden’s chances of beating Mr Trump or his ability to continue to govern if he had won. A series of polls indicate that Ms Harris’s entry erased the lead Mr Trump had enjoyed over Mr Biden in a matter of days.

Mitch Landrieu, a campaign co-chair, told MSNBC that Harris “had one of the best weeks that we’ve seen in politics in the last 50 years”. “This is going to be a very close race,” he said. Ms Harris campaigned in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday at a fundraiser that had been organised when Mr Biden was still at the top of the Democratic ticket. It had been expected to raise $400,000 (£311,000) but ended up bringing in about $1.4m (£1.1m), according to the campaign. Ms Harris cast herself as “the underdog” in the race at the event but said her campaign is picking up steam.

Courtesy: Sky News