United States Senator Kamala Harris on Tuesday called off her bid to run for president, citing her struggle to raise enough funds for the campaign. She expressed “deep regret” to her supporters for the decision.
“My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue,” the Democratic Party senator from California wrote in a Medium post. “I’m not a billionaire. 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.”
However, the 55-year-old said that she would still “do everything in my power to defeat [President] Donald Trump and fight for the future of our country and the best of who we are”. She said, “I will keep fighting every day for what this campaign has been about. Justice for the People. All the people.”
Born to Indian and Jamaican immigrant parents, Harris had announced her decision to contest the 2020 presidential elections in January. The United States has had no woman president ever and only one black person in the post – Barack Obama.
Support for Harris among Democrats and independents declined from 10% in a poll in the last week of June to 2% in a poll in mid-November, Reuters reported. She dropped from being the third most popular candidate to the sixth in the period.
President Trump responded to the decision on Twitter: “Too bad. We will miss you Kamala!” To this, Harris wrote: “Don’t worry, Mr. President. I’ll see you at your trial.”
An impeachment hearing against Trump is going on in the US Congress. The inquiry focuses on a July 25 phone conversation between the US president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump had asked Zelensky to investigate another Democratic Party presidential contender, Joe Biden.
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