Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) took on the frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, at last week's Democratic presidential debates, and a new poll shows that it may have paid off.
During the debate, Harris notably went after Biden for his nostalgia over working with segregationists in the Senate and his past opposition to busing for school integration.
In a new post-debate poll from CNN, Harris saw a 9 percent bump, now polling at 17 percent nationally, while Biden, saw a 10 percent decline, now polling at 22 percent.
Similarly, a post-debate poll from Morning Consult shows Harris gaining to land at 12 percent, which leaves her tied for third with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). In that poll, Biden lost five points, still leaving him in the lead with 33 percent.
"Kamala Harris was the perfect foil for Joe Biden here, because one of the things that she did show is that she is tough and she could handle that," Patrick Murrary, Director of Monmouth University's Polling Center told Cheddar Politics Monday.
Murray says that this decline was expected following Biden's poor performance, despite weeks of solid numbers attributed to his nearly universal name recognition.
"A lot of Democratic voters are just starting to tune into this race," Murray said. "So, they really don't know these candidates, except by reputation. That's part of the reason why Joe Biden's been in the lead."
After the debates wrapped up, Harris' campaign announced the California Senator raised more than $2 million from small donors in the 24 hours following her performance.
Murray said the jump in the polls following her viral takedown of Biden's dicey past wasn't about race, but rather, shows that she has what it takes to rival the incumbent, which could give some Biden supporters pause as they cite his electability.
"Most of Joe Biden's supporters are older, they are more conservative than the rest of the party, they really couldn't care less whether he's woke or not on issues of race," Murray explained. "What they want to know is that he can handle the campaign, and what they're hearing from the media right now is that he didn't handle that well."
While Harris took a big jump forward, candidates like Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke went downhill. O'Rourke actually fell from 4 to 2 percent in the Morning Consult poll.
"Beto O'Rourke, I think, had the worst night out of the two," Murray said of the candidate, adding that he thinks the former Texas Congressman will ultimately "fade."
Despite the drop in the polls, Buttigieg announced Monday that his campaign reeled in nearly $25 million in donations during the second quarter of the campaign, tripling the amount raised in the first quarter.
Though many political junkies remain skeptical of early polling in the race to 2020, Murray said their importance is significantly different than past years because they are driving the narrative.
Other major 2020 polls ー as well as Q2 fundraising numbers ー are expected to drop throughout the week.
After the Chicago teachers union voted to work remotely due to what they say is a lack of safety protocols amid the COVID-19 surge, the school system canceled classes on Wednesday, citing harm that remote learning has done to the city's children. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined Cheddar to discuss the issues surrounding the latest dispute between educators and schools. She said that the return to in-person learning would likely be halted until more COVID tests could be provided for districts. "This is a terrible situation for everybody, and we need the testing, and we need the masks," she said. "It's the omicron surge that has created this disruption, and we are trying to do the best we can. And this is the only school district that has this kind of action right now." The teachers might not be returning to their schools for at least two weeks amid the ongoing tensions.
Illinois State Senator Robert Martwick joins Cheddar News to discuss the new bill he co-sponsored allowing students in the state to take 5 mental health days without a doctor's note.
On Monday, President Biden announced his new plan to take on inflation by taking down the big meat monopolies - turning to the federal government's antitrust authorities to investigate the major meatpackers that control a significant share of the market. The White House plans to devote one billion dollars to aiding independent meat and poultry producers in an effort to undercut the few powerful meat producers that have control of the sector. Austin Frerick, deputy director of Thurman Arnold Project at Yale, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
As the pandemic drags on, so does the widespread great resignation. In November alone, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, marking a new record high, and showing a 9 percent jump from the month prior. On the flip side, the number of people filing tax paperwork to start new businesses is surging, with over 430,000 new businesses launching in November. Rhett Buttle, the founder of Public Private Strategies and national business advisor to the Biden for President campaign, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up a civil investigation into The Trump Organization. The AG's office has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. They have refused to comply with the subpoenas. Bradley Moss, national security attorney, joins Cheddar News to discuss the next steps in this investigation.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has officially reduced the 110-year prison sentence of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to 10 years, calling the initial lengthy sentence “unjust.” Dan Gilleon, constitutional attorney at Gilleon Law Firm APC, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was sworn in as the newest Mayor of New York City. Adams is now expected to work on a number of issues such as crime and coronavirus. Erin Durkin,, reporter at PoliticoNY, joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
California's new composting law will affect what residents do in their kitchens. As of this week, Californians will have to recycle excess food in an effort to reduce emissions caused by food waste. Cities and counties will turn recycled food into compost or use it as a renewable energy source. California's new law is the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the country. Rachel Wagoner, Director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery called the law 'the biggest change to trash' since recycling started in the 1980s. She joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
As the U.S. comes up on the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.,A.C. Thompson, investigative reporter at ProPublica, joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to discuss updates to American Insurrection by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. The documentary investigates the attack on the Capitol touched off by the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump but with new information gleaned since the event including interviews with lawmakers and law enforcement and the evolution of groups like the Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys behind the attack. "In some ways those groups that were kind of the vanguard of January 6 are maybe no longer relevant because their message is everywhere," he said.
