Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries haven’t endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president — at least not yet.
Neither one of the two top Democratic congressional leaders mentioned Harris in statements issued Sunday that hailed President Biden after he dropped out of the race.
The powerful Brooklyn Democrats did not elaborate Monday on their decisions to withhold immediate endorsement of Harris, who appears to be on a glide path to the nomination.
Mayor Adams Monday threw his weight behind Harris’ presidential after declining to immediately offer his support Sunday.
“I’m looking forward to moving toward the convention and seeing [Vice president Kamala Harris] becoming the nominee,” Adams said on MSNBC. “I think that she’s the voice that the party needs right now.”
The mayor said Democrats have been “hemorrhaging” Black and Hispanic voters and Harris could bring them back into the fold.
Jeffries only mentioned Biden, not Harris, in a Monday tweet about the race to beat former President Trump.
“President Joe Biden has always put our country first,” Jeffries wrote. “Trump’s Project 2025 will put America last.”
Some fellow lawmakers suggested that Schumer and Jeffries could be seeking to avoid the appearance of being involved in a coordinated operation to force Biden from the race and hand the nomination to Harris.
Both Schumer and Jeffries may have wanted to give the members of their Democratic caucuses the chance to weigh in on Harris before they take any official stance.
Or they may have wanted to use their initial statements to focus solely on offering tributes to Biden, who is still the most powerful leader as president and will likely retain significant power as a Democratic elder statesman even after leaving the White House.
Dozens of lawmakers quickly moved to endorse Harris Sunday within hours of Biden’s announcement that he was dropping out of the race and endorsing her to replace him on the ticket.
A handful of lawmakers and Democratic candidates from battleground swing districts stayed quiet about Harris, possibly keeping their powder dry in case she does not quickly wrap up the nomination.
But not everyone got on board quickly.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi likewise kept quiet about Harris at least for the first few hours.
It was the same story with former President Obama, perhaps the party’s most popular figure.
Along with Schumer and Jeffries, both Pelosi and Obama have been credited with (or blamed for) engineering Biden’s departure from the race, reports that raised some hackles in Biden’s inner circle.
All four would likely be sensitive about such reports and might want to wait some period of time before jumping on the fast-growing Harris bandwagon.
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