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Another person looking to his political future is South Carolina. Jaime Harrison. Immediately after his unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Senator Lindsey Graham, is launching a political action committee, using its recent status as a fundraising powerhouse to try to provide sustained momentum to other Democrats who it hopes can help turn more areas from red to blue.

The Dirt Road PAC will focus on long-term investments in Democratic parties and candidates at the state level, such as intensive voter registration efforts in areas that Democrats have deemed more difficult to win, Harrison told Meg Kinnard at the Associated Press ahead of the official launch. .

“The days when we just show up every few years and run a candidate, without a grassroots infrastructure and thinking we’re going to win, that’s just not working,” Harrison said. “I’m going to focus on investing and doing it in a much deeper way, and going to areas where people have just been forgotten or abandoned.”




Democratic Senate candidate Jaime Harrison thanks his supporters at an election observation party in Columbia after losing the South Carolina Senate race to incumbent Lindsey Graham.

Democratic Senate candidate Jaime Harrison thanks supporters at an election observation party in Columbia, after losing the South Carolina Senate race to incumbent Lindsey Graham. Photograph: Jeff Blake / AP

First, Harrison said, is the fundraiser for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Georgia Democrats running in the pair of U.S. Senate elections that could shift the balance of the House, and for those who have already raised directly almost half a million dollars. After that, Harrison said he will focus on Virginia’s 2021 election, before moving on to the 2022 midterm election.

“Rome was not built overnight,” Harrison said. “You must have a long-term, sustainable investment in order for it to pay dividends.”

The committee’s name comes from a viral campaign video in which Harrison described an encounter with a South Carolina voter living on a dirt road who told the candidate that he would stay out of politics altogether “until that a Democrat or a Republican paves my way “, something Harrison said was symbolic of” the difficulties that many of us are experiencing in this state. “

Harrison, 44, raised a staggering $ 130 million in his campaign against Graham, becoming the first US Senate candidate in the country to cross the $ 100 million threshold. Throughout the career, Harrison repeatedly broke records in a year in which several Senate races across the country reached into the hundreds of millions. In that effort, Harrison developed a national profile, amassing a robust list of cell phone numbers and email addresses that he used repeatedly to compile small dollar donations.

Despite his loss, theories abound about Harrison’s next steps, including a possible run for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, a post through which he would officially lead the party’s efforts until the 2022 midterm elections, as well. like the presidential cycle of 2024.

Harrison, an associate chairman of the DNC and a former lobbyist who once led the Democratic Party of South Carolina, sought the top job earlier, eventually retiring to support incumbent President Tom Perez. Party leaders technically meet to elect the next president, though that process could be sped up if[resident-electJoeBidenstepsinwithhiselection[resident-electJoeBidenweighsinwithhispick[elresidenteelectoJoeBidenintervieneconsuelección[resident-electJoeBidenweighsinwithhispick

Saying his immediate concern is to push other Democrats through his political action committee, Harrison also argued that his resume uniquely qualifies him to officially lead the national party, highlighting the party’s experience at the state and national level, the work on Capitol Hill and as a candidate, as well as existing relationships with both Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

“I don’t think there are many people that I can find who have probably done all those things and can enter the DNC with so many hats, and who understand the route that we must take to rebuild our party.” Harrison told the AP. “If the president-elect asked me, I would be happy to serve, to rebuild better.”

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