2024 Election Latest: Harris vows to ‘earn and win’ party nomination after Biden drops out
President Joe Biden stopped with the 2024 race in front of the White House on Sunday, ending his re-election bid after a disastrous debate with Donald Trump which raised doubts about his suitability for office just four months before the elections.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris is put in the most critical spotlightsuddenly the leading candidate to succeed Biden as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and her the party’s main hope to defeat Trump.
Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest news:
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, endorsed Harris, calling her “an unwavering champion for families, workers and fairness.”
Gillibrand, who ran against Harris in the 2020 Democratic primary, said in a statement Monday that the vice president is “incredibly well-qualified, with experience as a prosecutor, as a legislator, and as a leader on the world stage.”
“Now is the time to unite,” the senator said. “VP Harris has the courage and the toughness to defeat Donald Trump, and I am eager to join her in this fight.”
ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform, has announced that it $46.7 million raised starting at 9:00 p.m. ET from small donations to Vice President Harris’ campaign.
The Biden campaign and affiliated groups previously had about $96 million in cash on hand. By contrast, the Republican National Convention reported a campaign fund of $102 million in June.
Donald Trump’s campaign has spent the past year and a half fiercely attacking Joe Biden, ridiculing his policies, mocking his blunders, and enjoying a revenge match that they felt they had won.
But it has also spent weeks preparing for the possibility that he might drop out of the race, preparing a series of attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, which it unleashed as soon as Biden made his shock announcement on Sunday that he would resign.
Biden soon after endorsed Harris, who quickly gained support from Democrats to become the party’s nominee.
The reorganization less than four months before Election Day presents new challenges for Trump’s team, which until recently has been focused on comparing the former president’s vitality and mental acuity to Biden’s.
read more about the turn the Trump campaign made toward Harris.
The Democratic delegations of several states have decided to support Vice President Kamala Harris for the party’s nomination at the national party convention next month.
“Tonight, all 168 North Carolina Democratic Party delegates made history,” North Carolina Party Chairman Anderson Clayton said in a post on the social media platform X.
In South Carolina, party chairwoman Christale Spain said in an emailed statement Sunday night that the state’s delegation was meeting virtually. The vice president “has been fully vetted and has earned our unwavering support,” Spain said.
Harris received her first delegates from Tennessee earlier in the day, when the state party posted an X that her delegation had voted in her favor during a meeting.
Another state where the change occurred was New Hampshire, where the 25 delegates voted unanimously to back Harris on Sunday night.
The country’s six Black state attorneys general endorsed Vice President Harris. In a statement about X, they explained her qualifications, saying she “defended our freedom to choose and upheld our most sacred right to vote. There is no one better qualified to lead and uphold the values of our great nation.”
The following individuals were named in the statement: Letitia James, New York; Kwame Raoul, Illinois; Anthony Brown, Maryland; Andrea Campbell, Massachusetts; Keith Ellison, Minnesota; and Aaron Ford, Nevada.
Shortly after President Joe Biden announced that he would abandon his re-election campaignDemocratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison had a message: There would be no automatic coronation of his successor.
“In the coming days, the party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward,” Harrison said in a statement. “This process will be governed by established party rules and procedures. Our representatives are prepared to take seriously their responsibility to quickly deliver a nominee to the American people.”
The comment reflected the reality that while vice president Kamala Harris emerges as the undisputed favorite to be nominated — already backed by Biden and many Democrats — it’s not that simple. And for now, the party isn’t offering many details about what happens next.
read more about the process to replace Biden on the Democratic ticket.