Less than 24 hours after US President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and nominated his vice president, Kamala Harris, the Democratic politician has more than 500 delegates, of the 1,986 she needs to secure the nomination.
According to a tally compiled by The Hill newspaper, Harris has secured the approval of at least 531 delegates, who have confirmed that they will vote for her at the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Chicago from August 19 to 22.
After a tough few weeks with questions about the suitability of his candidacy due to his advanced age, President Joe Biden decided yesterday Sunday to abandon the race for re-election “in the interest” of the Democratic Party and the United States, and offered his support to Harris ahead of the November 5 elections.
Harris thanked the support and accepted the challenge of starting the campaign to become the Democratic candidate: “I am honored to have the President’s support and my intention is to win this nomination,” she said in a letter.
Figures
Since then, numerous political figures from the party have shown their support. According to a count by the Washington Post, among the 263 Democratic senators and legislators and 23 governors, a total of 179 have supported Harris, compared to 107 who have not done so so far.
Nearly 4,000 delegates will gather at the Convention, to which Biden was expected to arrive with more than 3,800 of them, after the various primary and caucus processes that have been held in recent months.
Under Democratic National Committee rules, a candidate must receive the support of at least 300 delegates to appear on the convention ballot, and once there must achieve 1,986 votes to be the chosen candidate to face Donald Trump (2017-2021).
On Sunday, delegates from several states met online. Tennessee was the first state to commit all of its delegates to Harris, followed by South Carolina, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Florida.
Sunday was a busy day for Harris, who had several phone conversations with the president before his announcement that he would not seek reelection and would instead endorse her.
Calls
According to a source close to the vice president, the Democratic politician spent more than 10 hours making calls to more than 100 party leaders, members of Congress, governors, union leaders and leaders of defense and civil rights organizations.
“In each of those calls, the vice president made it clear that she was extremely grateful for the president’s endorsement, but that she plans to work hard to earn the Democratic nomination in her own right,” the source said.
Harris spent the day dressed in sportswear, with her Howard University sweatshirt, and between all those calls she organized lunch and dinner for the assistants, family members and staff of her residence, a menu that consisted of salad and sandwiches for lunch and pizza and salad for dinner. The vice president’s pizza, revealed the source, had anchovies, her favorite topping.
Washington / EFE
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2024-07-23 15:12:23
