| | | | |  | | By Jessica Piper | | | The presidential race underwent several monumental shifts in July. And former President Donald Trump’s fundraising emails swung with the changes. Trump’s operation typically sends half a dozen fundraising emails per day through one of his joint fundraising committees, Trump National Committee. The emails aren’t written by Trump, but they do imitate his tone. And they show what messages his campaign is leaning into when it comes to reaching some of his most loyal supporters. Over the course of July, the messages went from routine digs on President Joe Biden, to a temporary respite after the assassination attempt on Trump, to a smorgasbord of messages decrying Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a POLITICO analysis of more than 200 emails. The messaging reflects how Trump has tried to adapt to his new opponent, and how he quickly abandoned the softer tone his campaign had touted in response to the Democratic switch.
|  The tone and content of Donald Trump’s fundraising emails shifted quickly after Joe Biden dropped out and endorsed Kamala Harris. | John Bazemore/AP | When Harris was just Biden’s running mate, Trump’s fundraising emails rarely mentioned her. In the weeks after Biden’s disastrous debate performance but before he decided to drop out, Trump’s campaign sent more than 100 fundraising emails. Only a handful referred to Harris at all — and those that did were largely digs at Biden, suggesting she could be tapped to replace him. The composition of the campaign’s appeals changed notably after the assassination attempt against Trump in mid-July. In the weeks prior, at least a dozen messages each week from his campaign included attacks on Biden. After the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, only a handful of Trump’s emails even mentioned the Democratic president. Instead, Trump’s fundraising emails mentioned “unity” more. And he began to use the slogan “fear not,” often in emails featuring images of him with his hand raised, invoking the imagery of the shooting. But the tone and content of Trump’s fundraising emails shifted quickly after Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris. The former president’s campaign quickly pivoted to attacking Harris by name, invoking her in more than two dozen fundraising messages over the past week. Notably, Trump’s fundraising emails still bring up Biden frequently, with his name still mentioned a dozen times in the past week. In many cases, the messages seek to tie Harris to Biden — reflecting how the incumbent president remains a bogeyman for Republicans’ online donor base even when he is no longer running. Trump’s fundraising messages have tried out a range of other attacks on Harris, too, calling her the “border czar” and accusing her of wanting to defund the police. But the most frequent line of messaging has been accusing her of being “dangerously liberal” — with nearly a dozen of his emails in the past week using that exact phrase. And as Trump has attacked Harris more in fundraising appeals, he has also largely abandoned the softer tone that he briefly adopted after getting shot. Two fundraising emails featured the subject line “hell breaks loose” — a warning, the messages said, of what might happen if Harris continues to outraise him. Happy Monday! Madison will be back tomorrow: mfernandez@politico.com and @madfernandez616. Days until the Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington state primaries: 1 Days until the Hawaii primaries: 5 Days until the Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin primaries: 8 Days until the Democratic National Convention: 14 Days until the Alaska, Florida and Wyoming primaries: 15 Days until the 2024 election: 92 Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
| | OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL — The DNC said Friday that Harris had secured enough convention delegates’ votes to become the party’s presidential nominee, POLITICO’s Elena Schneider reported. The virtual roll call voting remains open through this evening. CASH DASH — Harris’ campaign announced her (and previously Biden’s) campaign and affiliated committees raised an astounding $310 million in July, and have a collective $377 million in cash on hand. That far outstripped the $137 million Trump’s operation brought in last month. STAFFING UP — The Harris campaign announced a slate of senior hires, most of whom “had previous roles in Obama’s campaigns or administration,” POLITICO’s Ryan Lizza wrote. The adds include David Plouffe, the former top political adviser to Obama, “policy adviser Brian Nelson, message guru Stephanie Cutter, organizing strategist Mitch Stewart, pollster Terrance Woodbury and communications adviser Jen Palmieri, who will work for first gentleman Doug Emhoff. … The campaign also confirmed POLITICO’s previous reporting that it expects GMMB, the media firm headed by former Obama admaker Jim Margolis, to be added to Harris’s paid media team.” VEEPSTAKES — Harris is expected to campaign with her vice presidential pick in Philadelphia tomorrow after a weekend where she met with several top contenders, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Harris’ camp was quiet over the weekend about the vetting process as others speculated. OVER ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE — Trump went on a tirade against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp during his Atlanta rally on Saturday, calling the popular GOP governor a “bad guy,” a “disloyal guy” and a “very average governor" in social posts. The former president doubled down on stage, troubling Georgia Republicans who like Kemp and expect the Trump campaign to rely on his ground operation to win the state in November.
| | DUAL ENDORSEMENT — Trump endorsed two Republican challengers to Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) ahead of the state’s top-two primary this Tuesday. He threw his support behind former gubernatorial candidate Tiffany Smiley and Navy veteran Jerrod Sessler — who he had previously endorsed for the seat. The dual endorsement could benefit Newhouse (who Trump called a “RINO”) by preventing Trump-aligned Republican voters from consolidating in the district’s all-party primary. A CROWDED FIELD — Half a dozen Democrats have already thrown their hats in the ring to replace the late Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee in the blue TX-18, per Houston Public Media. Candidates who have announced so far include former Houston City Council Member Amanda Edwards, who lost a primary to Jackson earlier this year, along with former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston City Council Member Letitia Plummer, State Rep. Jarvis Johnson, former City Council Member Dwight Boykins and State Rep. Christina Morales.
|  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis arrives for an interview at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis. after the first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle on Aug. 23, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | NOT GOING ANYWHERE — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis still has presidential ambitions, POLITICO’s Gary Fineout and Kimberly Leonard write. The elevation of Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as Trump’s running mate could make DeSantis’ path tougher, but the Florida governor is still making moves for 2028. FIRST IN SCORE — FROM ENTHUSIASM TO PERSUASION — Continued Democratic enthusiasm around Harris bolsters Democrats’ House and Senate chances too, but there is more work to be done, argues a new memo from the Democratic-aligned organization MoveOn, first shared with POLITICO. The group said it had the second-largest volunteer phonebank in its history after Harris became the likely nominee, but now seeks to turn from the “reinvigorated” base to targeting irregular and persuadable voters to boost Harris and downballot Democrats.
| | UPDATE FROM THE PROSECUTION — One of the 18 defendants in Arizona’s fake electors case has agreed to flip, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said, per 12 News. Mayes said more information will emerge in the coming week.
| | PRESIDENTIAL — A new CBS/YouGov poll released Sunday finds Harris at 50 percent to Trump’s 49 percent nationally and tied at 50 percent each across battleground states (3,092 likely voters, July 30-Aug. 2, +/- 2.1 percentage point MoE).
| | President: The super PAC Future Forward has an ad highlighting Harris’ prosecutorial background, while Preserve America PAC goes after her on the border. NC-Gov: GOP Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and his wife talk about an abortion she had 30 years ago, and he says he supports the state’s current law, which bans the procedure after 12 weeks of pregnancy. (He said in February the “next goal is to get it down to 6, and then just keep moving from there.”) AZ-Sen: Republican Kari Lake and the NRSC are up with a coordinated ad tying Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego to Harris on immigration. MT-Sen: Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is up with a pair of ads, with one attacking Republican Tim Sheehy on health insurance and another saying Tester will “protect our way of life” as newcomers flock to the state. NM-Sen: Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich has an ad attacking his Republican challenger Nella Domenici, saying she stood “with the Chinese Communist Party” for her work with Bridgewater. Meanwhile, Domenici has an ad attacking Heinrich over inflation. NV-Sen: Win It Back PAC, which is tied to the Club for Growth, attacks Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen for voting with Biden “99 percent” of the time. TX-Sen: Democratic Rep. Colin Allred has an ad attacking GOP Sen. Ted Cruz on the border. MO-01: Mainstream Democrats PAC is attacking Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) for voting against major Biden proposals ahead of Tuesday’s primary. The United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s super PAC, has an ad attacking Bush by saying her ads are false. NY-19: Democrat Josh Riley has an ad highlighting his hometown. WA-03: Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has an ad with a veteran praising her getting VA benefits approved. WI-08: Speak Free or Die PAC, which is backing former GOP state Sen. Roger Roth, is attacking primary opponent Tony Wied as “slick.” CODA: QUOTE OF THE DAY — “I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” former President Jimmy Carter told his son recently, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Carter will turn 100 years old on Oct. 1. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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