It’s official. Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the majority of yes votes needed in the Democratic delegate vote to be designated as the Democratic candidate for president of the United States, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison announced, without announcing exact figures. The formal nomination of the first black candidate for the White House, however, will not come until Monday, when the voting will conclude.
The announcement is not, in itself, a surprise. Harris was the only candidate on the ballot: no one had seriously tried to challenge her for the position for which all the heavyweights of the party have expressed their support, starting with President Joe Biden himself, who proposed her as a candidate when he refused to run for re-election. But, three days before the end of the voting, the announcement contributes to spreading among her supporters the idea that things are moving quickly. That the candidacy has what in American electoral jargon is described as momentum: the feeling that he has the wind at his back, that he is moving up the rankings. That he has a real chance of winning, after months of trailing the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, in the polls.
“I am honored to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States,” Harris said in comments broadcast online to supporters. “There are 95 days until November 5 (the day of the US election)… it won’t be easy, but we will get there,” she added. “As your future president, I know we will rise to the occasion.”
In a statement, Harrison said Democrats would “unite around Vice President Harris and demonstrate the strength of our party” during the party’s convention, which opens in Chicago on the 19th.
The announcement coincides with the release of the Democratic campaign’s fundraising figures for the past month. In June, Harris’s campaign raised $310 million, an amount they say is the largest amount raised in a single month in this election and which demonstrates the enthusiasm of the party’s donors after President Joe Biden gave up re-election and ceded the nomination to his vice president. Immediately after the announcement on the 21st, the Democratic campaign raised more than $200 million.
The vote on the delegates that will formally declare Harris the Democratic nominee on Monday should traditionally take place at the party’s convention. But local rules in Ohio required the nominee to be formally named by the 7th, which forced the vote to be brought forward and held virtually. The vote will be repeated at the convention in Chicago, although it will then be purely ceremonial.
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The vice president is also expected to announce on Monday who her electoral partner will be, an announcement that could help fuel the momentum ahead of the convention. Two names are in the running: Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania – a state that Democrats need to win to stay in the White House – and Mark Kelly, the senator for Arizona, former astronaut and war veteran.
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