US Vice President Kamala Harris effectively secured the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination on Monday, confirming her remarkable rise as the party’s standard-bearer in the November showdown with Republican Donald Trump following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal.
Harris, 59, was the only candidate on the ballot in a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 delegates to the party’s convention. She is the first Black and South Asian woman to win a major party’s nomination, and will be officially crowned at a convention in Chicago later this month.
Harris said she was “honored” to have gathered the necessary support on the second day of the marathon virtual vote: “We are going to win this election,” she said. “And it is going to cost all of us… We are going to talk to people about the fact that we are all in this together, and we are in it together,” Harris said.
Authoritarians don’t like this.
The practice of professional and critical journalism is a fundamental pillar of democracy. That is why it bothers those who believe they are the owners of the truth.
“And so we are going to let people know that our campaign is about the future. And it is about expanding rights and freedoms, and giving everyone the opportunity to get ahead.”
In the two weeks since Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, Harris has seized complete control of the party, shattering fundraising records, filling stadiums and erasing the lead Trump had built in polls over the president.
“I couldn’t be more proud,” Biden posted on X after his nomination.
The nomination milestone came as Harris prepares to hit the campaign trail next week in seven crucial election states alongside her yet-to-be-named running mate.
The vote — held earlier than usual and online because of changing state registration rules — marks the official start of the 2024 convention, whose traditional festivities will begin when party faithful descend on Chicago on Aug. 19.
Momentum surge. Trump’s White House bid took a turn for the worse on July 21, when Biden, 81, faced with growing concerns about his age and falling poll numbers, withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Harris.
Energetic and two decades younger than the 78-year-old Trump, the vice president is off to a fast start, raising $310 million in July, according to her campaign, more than double Trump’s.
She and her running mate are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state where Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is on the short list of candidates to join Harris’ ticket.
Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020 by about 80,000 votes and it is considered the biggest prize in the tight battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system. The state is part of the so-called blue wall that carried Biden to victory in 2020, along with Michigan and Wisconsin, two states where Harris plans to draw crowds on Wednesday. She will also tour the more racially diverse states in the Sun Belt and the South, including Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, in her attempt to shore up the Black and Hispanic vote that had been moving away from Democrats.
In a sign that Harris’s campaign is thinking big, US media reported that a number of senior advisers from Barack Obama’s historic 2008 and 2012 campaigns have taken senior roles with her.
While Biden has made high-minded appeals to restore civility and preserve democracy, Harris has focused on the future, making the hard-fought “freedom” of voters the cornerstone of her campaign.
She and her allies have also been more aggressive than the Biden camp, mocking Trump for reneging on his commitment to hold a debate in September and calling him a convicted felon, among other epithets.
Meanwhile, Trump and his Republicans have struggled to adjust to their new adversary or hone their attacks on Harris, initially saying she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime before moving on to falsely accuse her of pretending to be black for political purposes, earning a harsh backlash from leading figures in the black community.
2024-08-03 04:24:00