US Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee against Republican Donald Trump, according to an Associated Press survey, as top Democrats rallied to her in the aftermath of Joe Biden’s decision to drop his bid for re-election.
The quick coalescing behind Harris marked an attempt by the party to put weeks of internecine drama over Biden’s political future behind them and to unify behind the task of defeating Trump with just over 100 days until Election Day.
Prominent Democratic elected officials, party leaders and political organisations quickly lined up behind Harris in the day after Biden's exit from the race and her campaign set a new 24-hour record for presidential donations on Monday.
READ MORE: Biden breaks silence after unprecedented exit from the presidential race
Several state delegations met late on Monday (US time; Tuesday morning AEST) to confirm their support for Harris, including Texas and her home state of California.
By Monday night, Harris had the support of well more than the 1976 delegates she’ll need to win on a first ballot, according to the AP tally. No other candidate was named by a delegate contacted by the AP.
California state Democratic Chairman Rusty Hicks said 75 to 80 per cent of the state’s delegation were on a call on Tuesday and they unanimously supported Harris.
“I’ve not heard anyone mentioning or calling for any other candidate,” Hicks said.
“Tonight’s vote was a momentous one.”
Still, the AP is not calling Harris the new presumptive nominee.
That’s because the convention delegates are still free to vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention in August or if Democrats go through with a virtual roll call ahead of that gathering in Chicago.
Harris, in a statement, responded to the AP tally, saying she is “grateful to President Biden and everyone in the Democratic Party who has already put their faith in me, and I look forward to taking our case directly to the American people".
READ MORE: The Democrats who could be Kamala Harris' vice-presidential pick
Worries over Biden’s fitness for office were replaced by fresh signs of unity after a seismic shift to the presidential contest that upended both major political parties’ carefully honed plans for the 2024 race.
Speaking to campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris acknowledged the “rollercoaster” of the last several weeks, but expressed confidence in her new campaign team.
“It is my intention to go out and earn this nomination and to win,” she said.
She promised to “unite our Democratic Party, to unite our nation, and to win this election".
She quickly leaned into the themes that will be prominent in her campaign against Trump over the coming 100 days, contrasting her time as a prosecutor with Trump’s felony convictions — “I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said — and casting herself as a defender of economic opportunity and abortion access.
“Our fight for the future is also a fight for freedoms,” she said. “The baton is in our hands.”
The president called into the meeting from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he is recovering from COVID-19, to lend his support to Harris. He planned to talk about his decision to step aside in an address to the nation later this week.
“The name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn’t changed at all,” Biden said in his first public remarks since announcing his decision to step aside, promising he was “not going anywhere” and plans to campaign on Harris’ behalf.
READ MORE: Harris wins key endorsement, pays tribute to Biden's 'unmatched' legacy
Biden said of his decision, “It was the right thing to do.”
As he handed off the mantle of leadership to Harris, Biden added: “I’m watching you kid. I love you.”
Harris was headed to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday as her campaign for the White House kicks into high gear. The event in Milwaukee will be her first full-fledged campaign event since announcing her candidacy.
The AP tally is based on interviews with individual delegates, public statements from state parties, many of which have announced that their delegations are supporting Harris en masse, and public statements and endorsements from individual delegates.
Locking up the nomination was only the first item on the staggering political to-do list for Harris after learning of Biden’s plans to leave the race Sunday morning on a call with the president.
She must also pick a running mate and pivot a massive political operation that had been built to reelect Biden to boost her candidacy instead.
On Sunday afternoon, Biden’s campaign formally changed its name to Harris for President, reflecting that she is inheriting his political operation of more than 1000 staffers and war chest that stood at nearly $US96 million (about $145 million) at the end of June.
She added $US81 million to that total in the first 24 hours after Biden’s endorsement, her campaign said — a presidential fundraising record — with contributions from more than 888,000 donors.
The campaign also saw a surge of interest after Harris took over, with more than 28,000 new volunteers registered since the announcement — a rate more than 100 times an average day from the previous Biden reelection campaign, underscoring the enthusiasm behind Harris.
Big-name Harris endorsements on Monday, including from Governors Wes Moore of Maryland, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Andy Beshear of Kentucky, left a vanishing list of potential rivals.
READ MORE: 'In the best interest of the country': Biden's full letter
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who had been one of the notable holdouts, initially encouraging a primary to strengthen the eventual nominee, said she was lending her “enthusiastic support” to Harris’ effort to lead the party.
Harris, if elected, would be the first woman and first person of South Asian descent to be president.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be held on August 19 to 22 in Chicago, but the party had announced before Biden dropped out that it would hold a virtual roll call to formally nominate Biden before in-person proceedings begin.
The convention’s rules committee is scheduled to meet this week to finalise its nomination process with a virtual vote as soon as August 1, the party announced on Monday, with the process completed by August 7.
“We can and will be both fast and fair as we execute this nomination,” Jaime Harrison, the Democratic National Committee’s chair, said on a conference call with reporters.
The party said the virtual roll call would feature multiple rounds of voting on nominees if multiple candidates meet the qualification threshold. To qualify, candidates must have the electronic signatures of 300 convention delegates.
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