Kamala Harris tries to earn nominations as endorsements pour in

Washington, July 21 U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris showed up to secure the Democratic Party nomination for president, calling lawmakers, party leaders, officials and outside support groups after President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race and endorsing her.

Harris had quickly garnered a number of high-profile endorsements, including from former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senators Chris Coon and Amy Klobuchar, and Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Gavin Newsom of California, who were once mentioned as possible rivals for the nomination.

Harris also has the support of the black and Hispanic factions in the US Congress.

ActBlue, an online fundraising platform for the Democratic Party, reported that it had raised $27.5 million in small donations in the first five hours of Harris’ presidential campaign. Donations, both large and small, had been on hold as the party waited for Biden to withdraw, clearing the way for another candidate. When that happened, the floodgates opened.

But Harris had promised to earn the nomination. In accepting President Biden’s endorsement, Harris said in her first and only public remarks about the day’s historic developments, “my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” not to claim it by virtue of her exalted office as vice president. And that’s what she set out to do, while also preparing to assemble a campaign team.

Democrats will formally nominate their presidential candidate at the party convention on August 9 in Chicago, Illinois. The process is usually a formality to anoint the winner of the Democratic primary, which would have been Biden, who had won nearly 3,000 delegates and secured the support of 14 million Democrats who participated in the party primaries.

It could be a formality if Harris can secure the party’s majority support. But the race will be thrown wide open if challengers emerge for the nomination, in which case the nominee will be determined at an open and contested convention in which delegates are courted by rival candidates. So far, only Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat who left the party to become an independent, has shown interest, reportedly re-registering as a Democrat.

Democrats don’t have the luxury of time to mount a campaign effective enough to stop former President Donald Trump, which was a major reason the party pressured President Biden to take the unprecedented step of dropping out of the race after winning the primaries and before he was anointed the nominee. Harris has two weeks to wrap up the nomination before then. And early voting begins four weeks before the convention in September, further shortening Harris’ window to reach voters outside her party.

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