Within hours after Joe Biden stepped out of the 2024 race, vice president Kamala Harris was working the phones to clear a path to winning the Democratic nomination for president.
Harris quickly secured crucial endorsements from several influential congressional caucuses and Democratic lawmakers, as well as from party officials in key battleground states that Democrats can’t afford to lose to Donald Trump in November. Meanwhile, some Democratic National Committee delegates are already committing their support to Harris, who is expected to enter the party’s convention in August with a sizeable number of pledges.
The president endorsed Harris for the presidency as he announced he was ending his re-election campaign on July 21. The chair of the Democratic National Committee issued a statement shortly thereafter promising a “transparent” process to select the nominee.
By that afternoon, Harris’s just-launched campaign and her allies were calling prominent members of Congress and DNC delegates in an effort to secure her nomination before the convention in August.
Among her first calls was to Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal, who said she is “1000% in for her to be our President.” Harris also secured endorsements from the Congressional Black Caucus and the chairs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
A group of current and former DNC members also began circulating a letter that by press time had collected more than 60 signatures urging members and voters to support Harris.
By Sunday night, state Democratic Party chairs had “overwhelmingly” endorsed Harris, according to Association of State Democratic Committees president Ken Martin.
“These state party leaders are on the front lines of winning elections at every level and know that the stakes of this election could not be higher. With our democracy on the ballot, there is no one more qualified than Vice President Harris to prosecute the case against Donald Trump.”
During an afternoon conference call, Tennessee’s 77 DNC delegates voted unanimously to endorse Harris as the party’s nominee, becoming the first DNC delegates of any state to do so.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young, expected among Tennessee’s delegates at the convention, said that Biden’s decision to leave the race “shows that he is willing to continue to do what is in our best interest as a nation, and that is to allow a path for Kamala Harris to become the next president of the United States.”
Wisconsin Election Commission chair Ann Jacobs, who is one of Milwaukee’s eight DNC delegates from the key swing state, also announced she is joining all of those delegates to back Harris.
More than a dozen delegates from Michigan, another major electoral battleground, have also announced their support for Harris. And Georgia’s Democratic Party chair Nikema Williams said the state “stands firmly behind Vice President Harris.”
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, widely speculated as a potential running mate, also quickly offered his support to Harris’s campaign: “I will do everything I can to help elect Kamala Harris as the 47th president of the United States.”
“She has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country thoughtfully and with integrity,” said North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, another speculated pick for Harris’s running mate. “I look forward to campaigning for her as we work to win NC up and down the ticket.”
Harris also nabbed a key endorsement from the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teacher’s union, within hours of her candidacy. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT+ civil rights group, also has endorsed her campaign.
Abortion rights groups including Emily’s List and Reproductive Freedom for All have also reportedly been reaching out to delegates to back Harris, as Harris’s campaign looks to shift significant focus towards Republican threats to abortion access in the wake of Roe v Wade’s collapse.
Biden’s campaign — now “Harris for President” — and the team and campaign infrastructure are moving forward around Harris, campaign co-chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez told staff on Sunday.
Harris will need support from at least 1,969 of the 3,936 Democratic delegates during the August convention to secure her nomination.
But other party leaders, including Barack Obama and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, have not yet endorsed a nominee in the wake of Biden’s departure, an apparent attempt to allow the nomination process to play out and allow candidates to duke it out to earn the party’s nomination rather than a coronation-like event with Harris as a foregone conclusion.