After President Biden announced his decision not to seek reelection, Vice President Harris has garnered enough support from Democratic delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee to challenge Trump in the race for the White House.
Following Biden’s withdrawal from the race, Democrats quickly rallied around Harris, signaling the party’s attempt to put aside recent divisions and unify in hopes of defeating their Republican opponents with just over one hundred days left until the election.
On Monday, Harris’ campaign team raised a record-breaking $81 million within 24 hours, breaking the fundraising record for a U.S. presidential election.
Monday night, multiple state delegations held meetings to confirm their support for Harris. According to the Associated Press, Harris has secured support from at least 2,579 delegates, exceeding the 1,976 delegates needed to secure the nomination.
California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks stated that 75% to 80% of the state delegation participated in a conference call and unanimously supported Harris.
However, the Associated Press has not yet dubbed Harris as the official presumptive nominee as Democratic delegates still have the freedom to cast their votes for their chosen candidate in the national convention in August or in an earlier virtual vote.
In Wilmington, Delaware, Harris told campaign staff that she acknowledges the “rollercoaster” of changes she has experienced in the past few weeks but expressed confidence in her new campaign team.
She pledged to “unite our Democratic Party, unite our country, and win this election.”
“We are fighting for the future, we are also fighting for freedom,” Harris said. “The baton is in our hands.”
President Biden, who is still recovering from COVID-19, called from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, to express his support for Harris.
Biden plans to deliver a national address later this week discussing why he decided not to seek reelection.
Biden stated, “The name on the ballot has changed, but the mission remains the same.”
He said he is “not going anywhere” and plans to campaign for Harris.
On Tuesday, Harris will head to Wisconsin, one of the key battleground states in this election, for her first official campaign event since announcing her candidacy.
The Associated Press’s statistics are based on interviews with individual party delegates, public statements from state parties, as well as public endorsements from individual delegates.
Harris’s challenging political task ahead is to select a running mate and successfully lead the team left behind by Biden.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to take place in Chicago from August 19 to 22, but the party has announced that a virtual vote will precede the convention to formally confirm the nominee.
The Democratic Party announced on Monday that the Rules Committee of the convention will convene this week with plans for a virtual vote to take place by August 1 and the nomination process to be finalized by August 7.