WASHINGTON — Enough Democratic delegates had chosen Kamala Harris by Friday to make her the party’s presidential nominee, during ongoing virtual voting that began less than two weeks after President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign ended.
The vote, which won’t officially end until Monday evening, came ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month, intended to allay concerns about state registration deadlines that begin in August.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) began working on the virtual nomination months before Biden announced his decision to step down.
Harris said on call On Friday, she informed her supporters that she was pleased to have passed the threshold required to obtain the nomination.
“Of course, I will formally accept your nomination next week once the virtual voting period concludes, but I am already pleased that we have enough delegates to secure the nomination,” Harris said.
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison encouraged DNC delegates to continue sending in their votes during the Zoom call, but said the support for Harris so far has been overwhelming.
“I am proud to confirm that Vice President Harris won more than a majority of the delegate votes at the convention and will be the Democratic Party’s nominee when voting concludes on Monday,” he said.
“The overwhelming support we saw for the vice president was unprecedented,” Harrison added. “We knew your votes would come back quickly. But the fact that we can say today, just one day after voting opened, that the vice president has crossed the majority threshold and will officially be our nominee next week — people, it’s just incredible.”
Virtual roll-call voting began Thursday at 9 a.m. ET and will end Monday at 6 p.m. ET. Harris was the only candidate to qualify.
The DNC plans to release final results later, broken down by state.
Kamala Harris to Campaign in Philadelphia Next Week with Still Unknown Vice Presidential Candidate
One of Harris’ first official actions will be to select his replacement from among list which includes several governors as well as at least one senator. Her decision will set the tone for the sprint to the polls.
Harris and her vice presidential candidate are expected to hold rallies in key battleground states next week, including Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday, North Carolina on Thursday, Georgia and Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday.
