Faith E. Pinho, Seema Mehta and Noah Bierman | Los Angeles Times (TNS)
Less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign, a slew of Democratic leaders have thrown their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, including her influential Bay Area colleague, San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Harris won the most votes on Sunday, when Biden endorsed her to succeed him. Later Monday, Nancy Pelosi endorsed Harris, “with immense pride and boundless optimism for the future of our country.”
“Officially, I have seen Kamala Harris’ strength and courage as a champion of working families, including fighting for a woman’s right to choose. Personally, I have known Kamala Harris for decades as being rooted in strong values, faith, and a commitment to public service,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Politically, make no mistake: Kamala Harris, as a politician, is brilliantly astute — and I have every confidence she will lead us to victory in November.”
Harris, however, said her “intention is to win this nomination,” making it clear that this is not a done deal. The vice president spent Sunday calling more than 100 Democrats, including members of Congress, governors, union leaders and civil rights advocates, according to a person familiar with Harris’s activities Sunday.
“In each of these calls, the vice president made it clear that she was extremely grateful for the president’s support, but that she planned to work hard to win the Democratic nomination on her own,” according to the source, who added that Harris is expected to continue making calls Monday.
In her first public appearance since becoming a presidential candidate, Harris spoke on the South Lawn of the White House to a gathering of NCAA championship teams Monday morning. She kept the focus on Biden, saying the president is “feeling much better and recovering quickly” from a bout of COVID-19.
“In one term, he has already surpassed the legacy of most two-term presidents,” she said, in her only nod to the whirlwind events of the weekend.
In a statement on social media, Harris said she would then travel to Wilmington, Delaware, where the Biden campaign is headquartered, “to say ‘hello’ to our staff.”
Donations for Harris have skyrocketed since the announcement, with $49.6 million in grassroots donations as of yesterday afternoon, according to her campaign. Bakari Sellers, a Harris ally, said he believes the nomination could be sealed by Wednesday, adding that he is working the phones to drum up delegate support for Harris.
The Democratic National Convention Rules Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to determine the nominating process. The official convention in Chicago, where delegates will gather to vote, begins Aug. 19.
But in several states, delegates are meeting beforehand — some as early as this week — to discuss support for Harris. An Associated Press survey of Democratic delegates conducted Monday morning found early signs that Harris is solidifying her support for the presidential nomination.
As the nation’s largest state, California has considerable influence over the summer convention. Chairman Rusty Hicks has encouraged the state’s 496 party delegates to support Harris. By Monday morning, all 25 New Hampshire delegates had signed a letter unanimously endorsing Harris for president.
Harris has also received endorsements from many Democratic leaders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, both seen as potential Biden replacements, endorsed Harris Monday morning in a joint statement with Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin. Michigan and Wisconsin are key states Harris will need to win.
“She represents our party’s best chance of defeating Donald Trump in November, and I will do my best to help her do that,” Pritzker said in a statement.
Rebecca Gill, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said she would be surprised if other Democrats stepped forward to challenge Harris for the nomination.
“No one wants to be the one to make this process divisive,” Gill said.
Pelosi’s endorsement ended speculation that the Democratic Party could split over who to nominate to replace Joe Biden. In her first statement after Biden’s announcement Sunday, Pelosi congratulated the president on his decision without mentioning Harris. Former President Barack Obama did the same.
“If they’re going to come out immediately after Joe Biden and say, ‘OK, we’re going to support Harris,’ that could be seen as a way of getting the other guys out of the way,” Gill said. “So they’re letting this situation develop and giving each of these candidates the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to mount a challenge, so it doesn’t look like it’s orchestrated from the top.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign continued its attacks on Harris, which have intensified in recent weeks. In an email to supporters titled “Harris Dishonest Mondays: Harris is Biden 2.0,” the campaign said Harris was “just as complicit as Biden in the destruction of our once great nation, and they all need to be removed from power.” The email also highlighted one of the campaign’s main sticking points with Harris: She allegedly conspired to hide Biden’s decline from the American people.
A recent series of polls pitting Harris against Trump shows the former president leading by a few percentage points.
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