Vice President Kamala Harris announced her intention to seek the Democratic nomination after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and endorsed her. This has set up a potential historic bid for the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead a major political party ticket.
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a statement shared on X. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Harris continued.
Biden’s historic endorsement — and Harris’s pledge to unite the party behind her — came Sunday afternoon after he announced that he is dropping his reelection bid following weeks of mounting calls for him to step aside. The president’s bad debate performance called into question his ability to win a second term and govern for another four years.
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today, I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee,” Biden said.
Following Biden’s announcement, Harris received an overwhelming show of support from Black women across the nation. In a historic display of unity and solidarity, more than 44,000 Black women joined a Zoom call Sunday organized by the Win With Black Women collective to support Harris’ campaign. They raised 1.5 million dollars in just three hours. According to the campaign, Harris raised a record $50 million in a single day via grassroots donations.
Still, despite the president’s backing and the massive fundraising effort, it remains unclear if Harris will become the nominee or what process the Democratic Party will take to select an alternative. It will now be up to the delegates at the party’s national convention to choose their candidate. While Harris’ allies have sought to secure her path to the nomination, some Democrats have stopped short of backing her or explicitly called for an open nomination process.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement that in the coming days, the party will “undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
On Sunday, the Biden-Harris campaign formally amended filings with the Federal Election Commission to rename its principal committee “Harris for President,” saying that the committee name is “different than previously reported,” NBC News reports.
The committee also filed a letter with the commission stating, “Vice President Harris is now a candidate for United States President in the 2024 election and will henceforth be conducting campaign activities only in pursuit of that office.”
However, control of the campaign war chest – totaling $95.9 million at the end of June – depends on whether Harris remains on the Democrats’ 2024 ticket. Recent polling has also shown her performing better against former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, than Biden and other potential Democratic contenders.
Should there be efforts to pass over Harris in favor of Democrats seen as likely to run in 2028, there may be backlash from the vice president’s supporters and prominent Black Democrats. But Harris has also experienced a renaissance within her party, as Democrats showered her with praise in the days following the debate.