WASHINGTON — has secured enough Democratic delegates to become the party’s nominee against Republican , according to an , as top Democrats rallied around her after withdrew from the race.
The swift support for Harris represents an attempt by the party to move past the internal conflicts over Biden’s political future and unite behind defeating Trump with only 100 days left until Election Day. Prominent Democratic elected officials, party leaders, and political organizations quickly in the day after Biden’s exit from the race, and Harris’s campaign set a new 24-hour record for presidential donations on Monday.
Several state delegations met late Monday to confirm their support for Harris, including Texas and her home state of California. By Monday night, Harris had the support of well over the 1,976 delegates needed to win on a first ballot, according to the AP tally. No other candidate was mentioned by a delegate contacted by the AP.
California state Democratic Chairman Rusty Hicks stated that 75% to 80% of the state’s delegation participated in a call Tuesday and unanimously supported Harris.
“I’ve not heard anyone mentioning or calling for any other candidate,” Hicks said. “Tonight’s vote was a momentous one.”
However, the AP is not yet declaring Harris the new presumptive nominee. This is because the convention delegates remain free to vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention in August or during a potential virtual roll call ahead of the 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.”
Concerns over Biden’s fitness for office have been replaced by signs of unity following a major shift in the presidential contest that disrupted both major political parties’ carefully planned strategies for the 2024 race.
Addressing campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris acknowledged the “rollercoaster” of the past 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 swiftly focused on themes that will be prominent in her campaign against Trump over the next 100 days, highlighting her experience as a prosecutor in contrast to Trump’s felony convictions—“I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said—and positioning 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 joined the meeting from his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he is recovering from COVID-19, to express his support for Harris. He plans to discuss 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, pledging that he was “not going anywhere” and plans to campaign on Harris’ behalf.
Biden said of his decision, “It was the right thing to do.”
As he handed over the mantle of leadership to Harris, Biden added: “I’m watching you kid. I love you.”
Harris was scheduled to travel to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday as her campaign for the White House intensifies. 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 in large numbers), and public statements and endorsements from individual delegates.
Securing the nomination was merely the first task on Harris’s extensive political agenda after learning of Biden’s decision to leave the race on Sunday morning during a call with the president. She must also choose a running mate and adapt a massive political operation built to reelect Biden to support her candidacy instead.
On Sunday afternoon, Biden’s campaign was formally renamed Harris for President, reflecting the transfer of his political organization with over 1,000 staffers and a war chest that stood at nearly $96 million at the end of June. She added $81 million to that total in the first 24 hours after Biden’s endorsement, her campaign reported—a presidential fundraising record—with contributions from over 888,000 donors.
The campaign also saw a surge in 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, highlighting the enthusiasm behind Harris.
High-profile endorsements of Harris on Monday, including from Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, and Andy Beshear of Kentucky, left a dwindling list of potential rivals.
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’s effort to lead the party.
Harris, if elected, would be the first woman and first person of South Asian descent to be president.
is scheduled to be held Aug. 19-22 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 finalize its nomination process with a virtual vote as soon as Aug. 1, the party announced on Monday, with the process completed by Aug. 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 stated that the virtual roll call would include 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.
—AP writers Seung Min Kim and Will Weissert in Washington and Chris Megerian in Wilmington, Delaware, contributed.