Kamala Harris has secured enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination, solidifying her position as a challenger to President Donald Trump in November’s presidential election.
The U.S. vice president met the approval rating threshold on her first full day since President Joe Biden gave up on reelection and endorsed her as the Democratic presidential nominee, sending ripples through the 2024 race for the White House.
As of early Tuesday morning, Harris had 2,668 endorsements, well above the 1,976 delegates she needs for next month’s Democratic National Convention, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
“Tonight, I am proud to have garnered the support I need to be my party’s nominee,” Harris said on X, noting that delegates in her home state of California “made our campaign the best it could be.”
She had earlier secured the support of dozens of lawmakers and top Democrats in Washington, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Ms. Harris was also encouraged by a surge in fundraising, with her campaign raising a record $81 million in contributions in the first 24 hours after the president’s withdrawal — more than Mr. Biden raised in the first two months of his own campaign.
“In the days and weeks ahead, I will work with you to unite the Democratic Party, to unite our country and to do everything in our power to win this election,” Harris said in her first campaign address at Biden’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.
Trump responded angrily on his Truth Social network, saying the change in the Democratic nominee leadership “has misled the Republican Party and wasted a lot of time and money.”
He argued that Harris’s “far-right activism is completely egregious,” adding that he expected there would be plenty of debates in the remainder of the campaign. [sic] “There is a majority of people who are opposed to a fine and intelligent young man named Donald J. Trump.”
Harris told a crowd in Delaware that while she was a prosecutor in California before being elected to high office, she encountered “all kinds of perpetrators” — “predators,” “scammers” and “cheaters” who abused women. “I know what Donald Trump is like,” she said.
She accused the Republican candidate of trying to take the United States “back to a time before most Americans had full freedoms and rights.”
“What kind of country do we want to live in?” she asked. “A country of freedom, compassion and the rule of law? Or a country of chaos, fear and hatred?”
Prior to Harris’ remarks, Biden, who is currently in quarantine at his Delaware home after contracting COVID-19, called him. “The name at the top of my list has changed, but the mission hasn’t,” the president said. He told Harris, “I see you. I love you.”
Many Democratic donors welcomed Biden’s decision to step aside, saying his age was a major obstacle that could have derailed his White House campaign as well as unseating many other Democrats in Congress.
Harris’ campaign said more than 888,000 people donated in one day since receiving Biden’s endorsement, including 60 percent who had not donated during this election cycle.
The money raised in one day was more than Biden raised in the first 66 days of his campaign last year, more than a Hollywood fundraiser hosted by George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and more than the three presidents combined – Biden, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama – raised at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.
It also surpassed all the money Harris raised during her ill-fated 2020 presidential campaign and the massive haul the Trump campaign reported the day after Trump became the first former president to be convicted.
Harris said in a speech in Wilmington that she had asked Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, to run her presidential campaign, adding that Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, would remain in her role.
Harris will hope that her entry into the race can energize women, young people, black and Hispanic voters, as well as garner support from independents and swing voters turned off by Trump, giving a boost to her prospects of retaking the White House.
The Republican candidate has built a solid lead in the polls since surviving Biden’s disastrous performance in a televised debate last month and an assassination attempt.
Trump campaign advisers Suzie Wiles and Chris LaCivita released a memo Monday saying Biden’s decision didn’t change anything.
“The liberal elite and the deep state have sensed the American people’s disgust with their legal warfare and are now plotting a desperate Hail Mary to replace the sitting president with the sitting vice president in an attempt to swing the election,” they wrote.
They added: “The problem for the left and media elites? Kamala Harris is just as bad as Joe Biden, maybe even worse.”
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