President Biden is facing mounting pressure from within his party to drop his reelection bid, with questions aplenty as to who would replace him at the top of the ticket. But at a Provincetown fund-raiser headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday, the atmosphere did not reflect the uncertainty plaguing the broader Democratic Party.
The sold-out event, held at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum, featured a star-studded roster of national politicians and celebrities. There, Harris reaffirmed her support for Biden and took shots at former president Donald Trump’s newly announced running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance.
“I will start by sharing with you something that I strongly believe, something I hope that you will take from this event, and share with your friends: We are going to win this election,” she said, to raucous cheers from the crowd waving fans that said “VEEP TOWN.”
It was almost word for word what she reportedly told about 300 donors on a call on Friday, according to the New York Times, during which she also attempted to assuage donor concerns about Biden’s ability to defeat Trump this fall. In Provincetown on Saturday, she acknowledged that path to reelection “would not be easy.”
Biden has faced public and private calls from an increasing number of elected Democrats to drop out of the race, after a catastrophic debate performance last month. A Suffolk University/Globe poll published Friday found that even in deep-blue Massachusetts, hardly a swing state, nearly two-thirds of Democrats and liberal-leaning voters were dissatisfied with Biden as their nominee.
The situation has put Harris in a precarious political position: As vice president, Harris has been floated as a likely successor, even as she continues to back her running mate. On Friday, four more US House Democrats joined the chorus of those urging Biden to exit the race, writing in an open letter to Biden that Democrats have “a deep and talented bench of younger leaders, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, who you have lifted up, empowered, and prepared for this moment.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who did not attend the fund-raiser, seemed to join those signaling support for Harris during an interview with MSNBC on Saturday — though she stopped short of calling for Biden to drop out.
“What gives me a lot of hope right now is that if President Biden decides to step back, we have Vice President Kamala Harris who is ready to step up, to unite the party, to take on Donald Trump, and to win in November,” Warren said during the interview.
Harris, meanwhile, appeared to carefully push back against concerns about the president again in speaking to Biden’s performance in office.
“I’m testifying as a first-hand witness that with every decision he makes in the Oval Office, I tell you, he thinks about how it will impact everyday folks,” she said, calling him “one of the most consequential presidents in American history.”
Standing in front of a large banner that said “VPTOWN,” she acknowledged Provincetown’s status as a prominent hub for LGBTQ culture, during an event following the town’s widely anticipated Bear Week. In doing so, she courted a reliable base of support for Democrats. At times, she referenced Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in her home state of California, and said of Trump that “if you claim to stand for unity, then you need to know it’s more than just a word.”
And as Vance, Trump’s running mate, criticized her at a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., Harris took some shots of her own. She pointed to his past comments that were critical of LGBTQ rights, saying that he would “undoubtedly be a rubber stamp for Trump’s extremist, anti-LGBTQ agenda.”
“Go get them, Kamala,” someone in the crowd shouted.
Yet concerns about the future of the party had taken hold even among the friendly audience on Saturday, where some who attended said that they were worried about the Democratic infighting impacting Biden’s ability to defeat Trump this fall.
“The last few weeks have been tough politically,” said Tamara Pitts, a 60-year-old Boston resident who attended the event. “We have an election in a few months, and I don’t know what the plan is — there’s some things that have to be responded to.”
“We can’t unsee what we saw at the debate,” she added.
Amy Pitter, a 69-year-old from Truro, said that while she believed Biden’s time in office has “been nothing short of phenomenal,” she saw Harris as a stronger option.
“If he doesn’t step down, then he’s been very damaged, which would be a disaster,” Pitter said. “Despite the polls and everything else, I think the reality is that she would bring out the young people and the people of color who might stay home.”
The star-studded roster of attendees included Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and actors Jennifer Coolidge, Adrienne Warren, and Billy Porter. It also drew appearances from a number of local leaders, including Governor Maura Healey, Senator Ed Markey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who backed Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign.
The event raised more than $2 million on behalf of the Biden Victory Fund, according to Bryan Rafanelli, a celebrity event planner and one of the fund-raiser’s hosts. About $1 million of that total, which was the event’s original goal, was amassed prior to the debate.
Rafanelli and his partner Mark Walsh also held a dinner at their home after the event attended by Healey, Buttigieg, and several other fund-raiser headliners.
“I believe very strongly that Joe Biden is our nominee, and he is the person that can beat Donald Trump,” Rafanelli said in an interview before the fund-raiser.
That optimistic message from Rafanelli and the vice president was echoed by some Massachusetts Democrats. The state party’s chair, Steve Kerrigan, cited the large sum as evidence that the Biden-Harris ticket continues to receive support from Massachusetts residents, and dismissed the concerns being voiced about the top of the ticket.
“Everybody can have an opinion, everybody’s voice can be heard, but in the end, the president’s our presumptive nominee,” he said. “I’m not going to worry about a lot of people’s thoughts on the issue — I’m going to focus on the role that I have, which is to organize and not to agonize around this election.”
Harris is expected to return to Massachusetts at the end of the month in the Berkshires, illustrating the state’s role as a Democratic fund-raising powerhouse. Biden and Harris have visited the state several times this cycle; the president last attended two Boston-area fund-raisers in May, when he also drew protests from some upset over his stance on the war in Gaza.
A couple of hours before the fund-raiser began Saturday afternoon, a lone protester — Myra Slotnick, a writer from Provincetown — stood near the venue with a sign reading “Stop Funding Genocide,” which drew honks of support from some drivers passing by. By the end of the event, a handful more had gathered to chant from behind a banner that read “Ceasefire Now.”
Slotnick said she came to protest the Biden administration’s support of Israel in its ongoing war in Gaza, and that she would not vote for Biden in November if he remained at the top of the ticket.
But, she added, “If Biden steps down, which I think is going to happen, I will vote for whoever his replacement is.”
Anjali Huynh can be reached at anjali.huynh@globe.com.
