Vice President Kamala Harris is picking up where President Joe Biden left off in the race to the White House, and polls show she’s gaining ground ahead of the November election. Even so, Democrats are still worried about the impact independent candidates will have on the vote.
Polls show Harris gave a shot of adrenaline to Democratic voters who were less than enthused about the prospects of voting for an 81-year-old Biden for another term. She is performing better than the president in several key states and among demographics that her party relies on for electoral wins.
While Harris is boosting her party, some surveys show the race is still tight.
About 49% of voters in Pennsylvania support the former president, compared to 48% who say the same of Harris, according to a recent Emerson College poll. Harris greatly increases her chances of defeating Trump if she wins the Keystone State. The poll shows Trump’s lead diminishing when third-party candidates are on the ballot.
As the election nears, Democrats are getting serious about grinding down independent candidates.
The most recent example is the Democratic National Committee filing a complaint seeking to remove the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, from the ballot in Wisconsin.
State law requires those who nominate electors for the Green Party convention to be state officers, legislature members and judges, among others. Candidates for state congress can also participate. The complaint notes that, because the party does not have anyone who qualifies as a nominator, the Green Party cannot legally name a slate of electors.
Whatever happens with the complaint could alter the election’s outcome. Four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by between 5,700 votes and 23,000 votes in Wisconsin. Stein is expected to be officially named her party’s nominee at their national convention.
Democrats filed a similar complaint in Nevada, but a state judge ruled earlier this week that the Green Party candidate can appear on the ballot. The ruling sets up the possibility for the third party to siphon votes from Harris in the Sagebrush State, another state considered critical for a Democratic victory in November.
As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. works to gain access to ballots in all 50 states, the Democratic Party is not making it easy on him. The longshot candidate is facing legal challenges in five states — Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Delaware and New Jersey.
His opponents believe Kennedy will throw the election in Trump’s favor, so they are filing complaints across the board.
“RFK Jr. was recruited to run by MAGA Republicans; is being propped up by Trump’s largest donor; and his own campaign staff has said their goal is to hurt President Biden,” Matt Corridoni, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, told CBS News.
Recent polling shows Kennedy losing some footing in the race as Harris scoops up support.
Kennedy has also reached out to the Harris campaign through intermediaries about endorsing the vice president in exchange for a role in her administration, but he was given the cold shoulder, The Washington Post reported earlier this week. He called that decision a bad strategic mistake, telling reporters the White House race is going to be “very close.”
In an interview this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he had a similar experience during his presidential bid in 2020. Running as a Democrat, Sanders said he was urged to drop his campaign.
“We won the first three primaries, and then the establishment got very, very nervous … and they said, ‘Hey, it would be a good idea if you dropped out,'” Sanders said.
He claimed the party convinced other candidates in the race to drop out and toss their support behind then-presidential candidate Biden, thus drying up his support.
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