PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Vice President Kamala Harris is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday. She is now faced with running the fastest campaign in American history.
Harris took over the campaign with less than four months to spare before Election Day after Biden became the first candidate in U.S. history to decline a major party nomination after having already secured it.
Berwood Yost, the Director of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College, says that in most races, the quick turnaround could hurt a candidate, but that it matters less in a race with as much attention and money involved as the current presidential race.
"If this were a different race, maybe voters wouldn't learn enough about the candidate," Yost said. "But given the amount of media coverage of the race and the amount of financial resources that both parties and both campaigns have, voters are going to know what they need to know."
Harris will soon need to pick a vice presidential nominee, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is among the leading candidates. Yost says selecting Shapiro could boost the Harris campaign in Pennsylvania, given his personal popularity in the Commonwealth.
"Given how popular he is in the state, having him in the state talking about Harris and talking about their policies, maybe Pennsylvanians will give him the benefit of the doubt given his popularity," Yost said. "And that might help. It certainly couldn't hurt."
Franklin and Marshall's next statewide poll will be released on August 15 and will survey the current race of Harris against former president Donald Trump.