Vice President Kamala Harris made campaign fundraising stops at multiple high-profile venues in San Francisco on Monday afternoon, first making a visit to the Fairmont Hotel in Nob Hill and then traveling by motorcade across the city along California Street to a mansion in Pacific Heights.
It's the second visit by the executive branch to the ritzy San Francisco neighborhood this year. In mid-February, President Joe Biden made his way to San Francisco on a fundraising jaunt. During that trip, he visited the home of real estate tycoon couple George and Judy Marcus, with guests that included Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
Harris' visit comes roughly a week after former President Donald Trump made major gains during Super Tuesday, securing a majority of the contest's delegates in multiple states in a bid for the Republican nomination that he's nearly certain to win by now. That sets up a rematch between Trump and Biden, who took aim at his predecessor in his State of the Union speech last week.
On Monday, Harris was introduced at the Fairmont gathering by Sheldon Kimber, founder of Oregon-based clean energy company Intersect Power, as attendees sat in the hotel's basement at four tables, eating fruit tarts and sipping on glasses of white wine.
Harris reiterated the Biden administration's track record on climate change—and contrasted it with what she said was likely Republican candidate Donald Trump's ignorance around the issue.
"I am so excited about the clean energy economy," Harris said. "And the work that is happening right here in the Bay Area and around the country."
The vice president then made the roughly 10-minute trip to the ritzy Pacific Heights neighborhood, where she was joined by her husband, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, at the home of novelist Robert Mailer Anderson and Oracle heiress Nicola Miner.
The event was a who's who of San Francisco politics, featuring guests like theater director Jonathan Moscone and Mayor London Breed. Guests were also serenaded by Carole King—and the price per attendee cost upward of $100,000, according to the Biden Victory Fund's website. (Breed got a nod from Harris during her remarks, with the vice president calling her the "great mayor of San Francisco," which garnered heavy applause at the roughly 50-person gathering.)
The fundraising campaign comes after President Biden's State of the Union speech injected about $10 million into the reelection campaign's coffers in the 24 hours after the address, according to NBC News.
The Biden campaign had about $56 million left in the bank at the end of January, according to the most recent campaign finance filings, while Trump's war chest amounted to about $30 million.
"We are going to win this election," said Harris at the Pacific Heights fundraiser. "Many of us have been a part of these [election] cycles for many, many years now. And we have said each time that this is the one. Guys, this is the one. It is absolutely existential."
Harris' visit was much quieter—and apparently kept a better secret—than the one her boss made in February. Biden faced intense protests last month from pro-Palestinian activists that culminated in hundreds of people gathering near his fundraising dinner in Pacific Heights.