New York’s 307 delegates to the Democratic National Convention suddenly find themselves with more power to determine the party’s next presidential nominee, after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid on Sunday.
The state is home to the second-largest number of DNC delegates, and Gov. Kathy Hochul — who is the state party’s de facto leader — is lining up support for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Hochul is set to make the case for Harris in a Zoom call on Monday night, according to three Democratic sources and an invite sent to the delegates.
“We have a lot of clout here,” Hochul told reporters on Monday. “I wanted to make sure that everyone knew where I stood.”
The governor was quick to endorse Harris and suggested that she meant to send a signal to the state delegation. Many other influential Democrats have made similar moves.
But given New York’s large DNC representation — second only to California — Hochul and her allies have dozens of delegates they need to corral ahead of the August convention.
With such a large group, it’s not clear whether all of New York’s delegates, whose ideologies span the Democratic spectrum from ultra-progressive to centrist, will be willing to throw their support behind Harris, even with no other candidate in the nomination race so far.
Major New York Democratic delegates, including former President Bill Clinton, state Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and state Attorney General Letitia James have already thrown their support behind Harris. So have Rep. Pat Ryan of Ulster County, who is running a tight reelection race in a key Hudson Valley swing district, and labor leaders like Stuart Appelbaum, head of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
But some significant holdouts remain.
Neither Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer nor House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had officially endorsed Harris by Monday afternoon, though they issued a joint statement that said she’s “off to a great start.”
“She is rapidly picking up support from grassroots delegates from one end of the country to the other,” they said. “We look forward to meeting in person with Vice President Harris shortly as we collectively work to unify the Democratic Party and the country.”
Schumer and Jeffries, who are both Brooklyn Democrats, are two of the state’s 39 “automatic” delegates, which means they can vote only if a candidate doesn’t receive a majority on the first ballot. So are Hochul and the rest of the state’s congressional delegation.
The remaining 268 delegates — a mix of elected officials, party loyalists, labor leaders and others — can vote on the first ballot. That includes dozens of lesser-known Democrats, many of whom haven’t made their perspective on Harris’ potential nomination known yet.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is also a delegate, drew eyebrows for refraining from endorsing Harris on Sunday, telling WNYC that the party “should sit down and figure out what are the steps to move forward to make a determination on how this is going to be done.” But by Monday, he had changed his tune.
“I think she is the voice that the party needs right now,” he said about Harris during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Adams argued that her campaign could bring back Black and Latino voters he and others have said the Democratic Party has been hemorrhaging.
Asked on Monday by a reporter at The City what made him change his mind about endorsing Harris, the mayor cited conversations with party leaders, including Jacobs, the state Democratic Party chairman.
Jacobs confirmed that he and Adams spoke on Sunday evening.
“We conferred on it and he agreed it was a good idea to endorse Kamala Harris,” Jacobs told Gothamist.
In an interview on Sunday afternoon, Jacobs praised Biden’s decision, saying it would “reinvigorate” the Democratic Party in New York and nationally. He initially called on New York delegates to “just take the next few days” before jumping into the fold.
By the end of the night, Jacobs himself had endorsed Harris and called for his fellow delegates to the same.
“I am urging all of our state’s delegates to the National Convention to join me in uniting behind a proven leader, a partner to one of our most successful presidents, Joe Biden, and someone who represents the ideals, principles and values of the Democratic Party,” Jacobs said.
Attorney General James, who is leading a coalition of Black attorneys general in support of Harris, expressed the same call to action.
“I am appealing to everyone right now,” she told Gothamist. “This is our time to coalesce around Vice President Harris, to march into that convention unified.”
Even as many New York delegates fall in line behind Harris, some remain troubled by the way Biden was pushed out of the race.
Ocasio-Cortez had warned just last week that “enormous peril” could come with replacing Biden. On Sunday night, she pledged her “full support” for Harris in a statement on X.
Rep. Grace Meng, a Queens Democrat who is an automatic delegate, said Biden’s exit from the race left her upset. She decried what she called a “concerted effort” by some donors and members of her party to get Biden to withdraw, which she said deflected attention from “the actual opponent, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.”
“That’s three weeks that we cannot get back in a campaign,” Meng told Gothamist on Monday.
But the president’s stepping aside won’t stop Meng and other like-minded Biden backers from working to support Harris, she said.
“I think that fear and anger is a great motivator,” said Meng. “So for those of us who believe that Biden should have stayed, we’re still going to work just as hard, if not harder.”
Brigid Bergin contributed reporting.