Harris Holds First Fund-Raiser as Democrats Rally: ‘We Are the Underdogs’

Vice President Kamala Harris warned a crowd of supporters on Saturday that former President Donald J. Trump held the advantage in their contest for the White House given the short window until Election Day.

“We got a fight ahead of us, and we are the underdogs in this race, OK?” Ms. Harris said in Pittsfield, Mass., at her first fund-raiser since President Biden dropped his re-election bid six days ago. “Level set, we’re the underdogs in this race. But this is a people-powered campaign, and we have momentum.”

Polls have shown the vice president catching up to Mr. Trump — welcome news for Democrats after Mr. Biden had fallen significantly behind. The Harris campaign has also shown new strength in fund-raising and in the number of new volunteers, with the election roughly three months away.

Since announcing her candidacy for the Democratic nomination and receiving Mr. Biden’s endorsement, Ms. Harris has deployed a sharpened message against Mr. Trump. On Saturday, she suggested he would restrict Americans’ “most fundamental rights,” including reproductive freedoms, and called him a “bully.” She also leaned into a new Democratic attack on the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, saying that some of the swipes the men had taken against her were “just plain weird.”

The event, at a historic theater in the Berkshires, a popular vacation destination in western Massachusetts, raised over $1.4 million, significantly more than the $400,000 organizers had hoped to bring in, according to the Harris campaign. Roughly 800 people attended, taking in performances by the singer James Taylor, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the pianist Emanuel Ax.

Ms. Harris’s ascent to the top of the ticket has galvanized Democratic