A former Democratic Party fundraiser says internal polling conducted before President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race showed Vice President Kamala Harris was the weakest of several potential replacements to face Donald Trump — but that the results were shelved because they clashed with the party’s preferred narrative.
Lindy Li, who once raised money for both Biden and Harris and has since left the Democratic Party, made the claim in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital tied to her new book, “Unburdened,” which recounts the months leading up to Biden’s withdrawal.
According to Li, the internal poll compared Harris against other figures floated as possible replacements for Biden, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
“Kamala Harris came in dead last. It wasn’t even close. Pete Buttigieg, who hilariously received 0% support from the Black vote, did better than she did. And yet the party is so straitjacketed by DEI that they had no choice but to appoint her,” Li said.
Li said the polling was tightly restricted but known within a small circle of top party operatives and fundraisers.
“I’m part of the National Finance Committee. The list of membership is guarded like the papal conclave. But people talk. It’s a very small group of people. That poll was commissioned internally,” Li said.
She added that she generally distrusts campaign-commissioned polling as “funded propaganda,” but described this survey differently, saying party officials wanted “an objective overview of who could actually mount the most formidable opposition to Trump.”
Li argued that Democratic leaders ultimately bypassed the numbers out of political fear — both of alienating Black women, whom she called “the bedrock of the party,” and of backlash from Harris’s most vocal online supporters, sometimes referred to as the “K-Hive.”
“They knew that skipping over Kamala Harris would be a slap in the face to the bedrock of the party, which is Black women in particular, and they just wouldn’t have it,” Li said.
“People were terrified of the online mob. The K-Hive isn’t that numerous, but they’re very, very toxic and they’re very coordinated. No one wants to be labeled as a racist,” Li said.
Li said she believes Harris used her proximity to Biden’s donor network and the political risk of passing her over to make herself the only viable choice once Biden stepped aside, despite what internal data reportedly showed about her electoral strength.
“Oscar-worthy. Honestly, truly Oscar-worthy,” Li said of Harris’s positioning.
Representatives for Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
