Kamala Harris ends presidential bid

Kamala+Harris+speaking+at+a+town+hall+at+Iowa+State+on+Oct.+6.%C2%A0

Caitlin Yamada/ Iowa State Daily

Kamala Harris speaking at a town hall at Iowa State on Oct. 6. 

Jake Webster

Sen. Kamala Harris dropped out of the presidential race Tuesday.

The junior California senator entered the contest for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination on a high, met by a crowd of at least 20,000 for her kickoff speech in Oakland, Calif. and momentarily jumped into top-contention for both winning the nomination and Iowa’s caucuses following a strong performance in the June presidential debate.

Harris’ campaign has since been strife-riven. The campaign laid-off nearly all of her New Hampshire staff in late October, Politico reported. She has faced fundraising struggles, coming in fifth among Democratic candidates in third-quarter fundraising, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

The senator’s poll numbers have declined rapidly since her summer high of 15.2 percent, then-second to only former Vice President Joe Biden. The senator currently stands at 3.4 percent support in the RealClearPolitics national polling average of likely Democratic primary voters, in sixth place.

Harris adjusted her campaign strategy to go “all-in” on Iowa in an attempt to raise her lagging poll numbers with a strong finish in the Hawkeye state, holding 30 events in the state across October and November, according to the Des Moines Register’s caucus candidate tracker.

The senator penned a Medium post announcing her “campaign for president simply [didn’t] have the financial resources [it needed] to continue.”

“I’m not a billionaire,” Harris said in the post. “I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete. In good faith, I can’t tell you, my supporters and volunteers, that I have a path forward if I don’t believe I do.”

The senator offered “deep gratitude” alongside “regret” to her supporters in an email identical to the Medium post and said she is still “in this fight.”

“And I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about,” Harris said in the post. “Justice for The People. All the people.”