A meme coin inspired by Kamala Harris has surged by nearly 250% since Thursday, amidst mounting pressure on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race following a lackluster debate against Donald Trump.
Kamala Horris (KAMA), a Solana token deliberately spelled incorrectly and featuring a crudely drawn caricature of the Vice President of the United States, has seen its market capitalization rise from $3.5 million to almost $11.9 million post the June 27 debate, according to Dex Screener. However, it has since dipped from its peak market cap of $22.2 million on July 3.
Reports from Reuters on July 3 suggest that Harris is the prime contender to take over from Biden should he decide not to seek reelection, citing input from seven authoritative sources associated with the Biden campaign, the White House, and the Democratic National Committee.
KAMA hit a high price of over 2 cents on July 3 but is presently trading slightly above 1 cent. Concurrently, a similarly misspelled meme coin representing President Biden—Jeo Boden (BODEN)—has plummeted by over 22% in the last 24 hours and by 73.4% over the week, as per CoinGecko data.
The fluctuations in KAMA and BODEN values followed the Biden-Trump debate on June 27, where observers widely critiqued Biden’s subpar performance, characterized by a raspy voice and occasional lapses in coherence. Biden, at 81, the oldest presidential candidate ever, attributed his debate showing to a cold, excessive preparation, and jet lag, despite being in the same time zone in the lead-up to the Atlanta-hosted debate.
Calls for Biden to step aside have escalated as his poll numbers dwindle. Various stakeholders, including voters, media outlets, and Democratic officials, are pressuring him to exit the race due to doubts about his ability to defeat Trump in the November 5 election, with FiveThirtyEight surveys indicating Trump leading by 2.3 percentage points.
A July 3 survey by The New York Times and Siena College also portrays Trump in the lead, with a significant majority of participants expressing concerns about Biden’s age suitability for the presidency, a sentiment that grew by five percentage points post the debate.
Furthermore, a CNN study conducted on July 2 revealed that three-quarters of respondents believe the Democrats would stand a better chance with a different candidate as their frontrunner, with nearly half of Democratic Party voters in a July 1 CBS News poll opining that Biden should not be the party’s nominee.
Predictions on the crypto forecasting platform Polymarket suggest a 64% likelihood of Biden withdrawing from the race, a notable surge from the pre-debate estimate of 19%.
Despite mounting pressure and critical feedback, Biden remains resolute in his decision to stay in the race, affirming his commitment on a Zoom call with campaign personnel on July 3, stating unequivocally that he intends to see the campaign through to its conclusion.