Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination Monday night, as delegates in California and other states backed her White House bid and party leaders and donors coalesced around her candidacy.
The Democratic Party said it aimed to wrap up votes for a nominee by Aug. 7 through a virtual roll call of delegates. However, delegations from several states — including California — pledged their support for Harris, all but guaranteeing she would be named the party’s nominee for president.
“It is my great honor to have Joe’s endorsement in this race, and it is my intention to go out and earn this nomination and to win,” Harris told supporters at the campaign’s headquarters in Wilmington, Del., on Monday afternoon, referring to President Biden.
In the 24 hours after Biden ended his reelection bid and backed her to be his successor, Harris raked in $81 million, setting a new record for the most money raised in such a time period by any candidate in presidential history. A slew of Democratic leaders also threw their support behind Harris — including her highly influential Bay Area colleague Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.
“Officially, I have seen Kamala Harris’ strength and courage as a champion for working families, notably fighting for a woman’s right to choose. Personally, I have known Kamala Harris for decades as rooted in strong values, faith and a commitment to public service,” Pelosi said in a statement Monday. “Politically, make no mistake: Kamala Harris as a woman in politics is brilliantly astute — and I have full confidence that she will lead us to victory in November.”
The California delegation, the largest in the Democratic National Committee, unanimously voted to back Harris during a Zoom meeting Monday evening. Pelosi put forward the motion to back Harris, according to two people who took part in the online gathering.
It’s the first full day of our campaign, so I’m heading up to Wilmington, DE later to say “hello” to our staff in HQ.
One day down. 105 to go. Together, we’re going to win this.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 22, 2024
Harris has the support of enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee for president, according to an Associated Press survey conducted the day after Biden decided to drop out of his race for reelection.
Democratic support for Harris poured in Monday as multiple state delegations pledged their votes to the vice president, and party leaders across the country offered their endorsements.
Delegates are still free to vote for the candidate of their choice when Democrats hold a virtual roll call ahead of the August convention in Chicago, but no other Democratic candidate for president has stepped forward to garner support. According to the AP tally Monday night, Harris has the support of 2,214 delegates — enough to win on a first ballot.
As the largest state in the nation, California has outsized influence on the summer convention. State Party Chairman Rusty Hicks encouraged the state party’s 496 delegates to endorse Harris.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined a growing chorus of Democrats to endorse Harris on Sunday. Speaking at a news conference Monday morning, Padilla, who filled the Senate vacancy left by Harris when she became vice president, emphasized her qualifications as “someone who has led on issues of climate and fundamental rights.”
Harris also picked up the endorsements of many Democratic leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — both considered possible replacements for Biden — endorsed Harris on Monday morning, in a joint statement with Govs. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Tony Evers of Wisconsin. Michigan and Wisconsin are key swing states that Harris will need to win.
“She represents our Party’s best chance to defeat Donald Trump in November, and I will work my heart out to help her do that,” Pritzker said in a statement.
Rebecca Gill, a professor of political science at University of Nevada Las Vegas, said she’d be surprised if any other Democrats jumped in to challenge Harris for the nomination.
“Nobody wants to be the one who makes this process divisive,” Gill said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) stopped short of giving Harris his endorsement, but added that he expected to meet with her Monday afternoon, along with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“Vice President Kamala Harris has excited the community,” Jeffries said. “She’s excited the House Democratic caucus. And she’s exciting the country.”
Pelosi’s endorsement quelled some speculation that the Democratic Party might split over whom to nominate as Biden’s replacement. In her first statement after Biden’s announcement Sunday, Pelosi lauded the president for his decision without mentioning Harris. Former President Obama did the same.
“If they came out immediately after Joe Biden and said, ‘OK, we’re going to endorse Harris,’ that could be seen as essentially pushing the others out of the way,” Gill said. “So they’re kind of allowing this to develop, and allowing each of these people the space to decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to mount a challenge so this doesn’t look kind of orchestrated from above.”
Trump campaign
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign continued its attacks on Harris, criticism that has escalated in recent weeks. In an email to supporters titled “Harris Dishonest Mondays: Harris is Biden 2.0,” the campaign said Harris is “just as complicit as Biden is in the destruction of our once-great Nation, and they must all be thrown out of office.” The email also emphasized one of the campaign’s main sticking points with Harris: that she conspired to hide Biden’s decline from Americans.
A recent spate of polling taken before Biden dropped out, pitting Harris against Trump, shows the former president leading by a few percentage points.
Speaking at his first rally as the Republicans’ vice presidential candidate Monday in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, J.D. Vance quickly blamed Harris — as well as other Democrats and the media — for hiding that Biden “wasn’t capable of doing the job.”
He repeated what has coalesced as a main Republican talking point about Harris in the last 24 hours: that it is wrong to nominate a new candidate after voters already cast their ballots for Biden in primary elections.
“What is going on in this country is absolutely disgraceful,” Vance said. “If you want to run for president, you’ve got to make your case to voters. … The idea of selecting the Democrat Party’s nominee because George Soros and Barack Obama and a couple of elite Democrats got in a smoke-filled room and decided to throw Joe Biden overboard — that is not how it works.”
The Associated Press and Times staff writer Tony Briscoe contributed to this report.