Kamala Harris Formally Chosen as Democratic Nominee
US Vice-President Kamala Harris has crossed the necessary threshold to secure the Democratic presidential nomination after a vote by party delegates. Speaking via telephone, Harris expressed her profound honor at the prospect of being the presumptive nominee as the virtual roll call continues in the lead-up to the Democratic National Convention(DNC), scheduled to take place in Chicago later this month.
Harris Makes History
Harris’s achievement marks a series of firsts in the country’s political history: she is the first black woman and the first South Asian woman to become the standard-bearer for a major US political party. If she manages to defeat Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in November, she will also become the first woman to serve as President of the United States.
The vice president ran unopposed in the virtual roll call after President Joe Biden made the decision to step down last month, throwing his support behind his second in command. Subsequently, several potential rivals followed his lead. On Friday afternoon, Harris officially became the party’s nominee after securing the support of 2,350 delegates, the number needed to clinch the nomination.
American Promise
“We believe in the promise of America and that’s what this campaign is about,” Harris said in a brief address via phone upon reaching the delegate mark. “We are in this, we are on the road and it’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to get this done.”
The Roll Call Continues
As the rollcall drags on with an expected end date on Monday, Democrats have announced that 3,923 delegates – or 99% of the participants – plan to vote in favor of Harris.
Presidential and vice-presidential nominees are usually selected during their party conventions, but the relatively late date of the 2024 DNC could interfere with state ballot access laws.
Harris, born in Oakland, California, is the first Democratic nominee in the party’s nearly 200-year history to be from a western state. She worked her way up through the ranks of state politics from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general and then US senator.
The Controversy Surrounding Presidential Succession
The decision to replace Biden with Harris has elicited criticism from the Trump campaign and some Republicans who argue that Harris is the first major party candidate to secure the nomination without holding a press conference or a sit-down interview. Some critics have even referred to the switch as a “coup”. Harris has, however, since hit the campaign trail hard, rallying against Trump in multiple campaign events and fundraisers across critical states.
