Vice President Kamala Harris officially locked up the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday after receiving the support of a majority of Democratic convention delegates in a virtual roll-call vote.
The expedited roll-call vote, which began Thursday ― more than two weeks before the convention is set to begin in Chicago ― does not conclude until Monday evening. But the Democratic National Committee said on a call with supporters on Friday afternoon that Harris had already crossed the majority threshold needed for the official nomination.
The nomination reflects Democrats’ determination to project unity following President Joe Biden’s historic July 21 decision not to seek a second term. The weeks preceding Biden’s announcement were marked by chaos and intra-party dissension after a disastrous June 27 debate performance raised serious doubts about how Biden’s age and fitness would affect his ability to compete.
Biden endorsed Harris shortly after withdrawing, spurring a wave of relief and excitement among Democrats that fueled a massive fundraising haul for Harris.
Republicans, by contrast, have struggled to find their footing against Harris in the short period since she became the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Former President Donald Trump, who had been counting on facing Biden in November, claimed Wednesday that a few years ago, Harris “happened to turn Black.” Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father and an Indian immigrant mother, has identified as Black for years in the public eye.
Trump has also declined to commit to a debate with Harris, prompting some taunting from Harris, who noted that Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), have had no problem blasting her from afar.
“Well, Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage, because as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face,” she said at a rally in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Harris, who broke barriers as Biden’s second-in-command, nonetheless faces an uphill battle to do that once again now that she’s the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
Harris, 59, was the first Black, Asian American, and female vice president — and would break many of the same barriers as president. But to do so, she will have to overcome a complex set of political and practical challenges.
And she’ll have to do it mindful of the loss eight years ago by the first major party female presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Having Harris at the top of the ticket also brings some benefits, however. For one thing, she has strong support among key Democratic constituencies: Senior Black elected officials, in particular, made it clear as Biden’s candidacy faltered that they would strongly support the selection of Harris as his successor.
Harris, who grew up in Berkeley, California, represented her home state in the U.S. Senate since 2017, before ascending to the vice presidency in 2021.
Over the course of four years in Congress’ upper chamber, she focused on hunger, housing, infrastructure and climate change. She was on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. While on the latter, she participated in the confirmation hearings of two U.S. Supreme Court justices.
Harris came to the Senate after serving as attorney general of California, a high-profile post given the state’s outsized footprint in state-led legal fights. During her tenure, the state won a $20 billion settlement from banks to help Californians avoid having their homes foreclosed on, and a $1.1 billion settlement for attendees of a shuttered for-profit college.
As a prosecutor, Harris developed a reputation as a tough-on-crime moderate that elicited criticism from progressives during her 2019 presidential run. Among other controversial tactics, she advocated for imposing on fines and up to a year of jail time for parents of truant school children, which led some of the state’s counties to jail single mothers dealing with economic hardship. Harris had pioneered the policy as district attorney of San Francisco from 2003 to 2010. She ascended to the post after ousting a more progressive incumbent in a Democratic primary.
As a presidential candidate, Harris disarmed some of her left-wing detractors with an ambitious criminal justice reform plan, which proposed phasing out the death penalty, solitary confinement, and cash bail. Harris also said she regretted that the state truancy law she championed had “criminalized” some low-income parents.
In spite of Harris’ depth of experience as a prosecutor, lawmaker, and vice president, her nomination carries significant risks.
Harris has had little electoral success outside of deep blue California. Her presidential run in 2019 fizzled early, prompting her to drop out of the race well before the Iowa caucuses.
She is now set to be subject to greater scrutiny than ever before. And Republicans have already seized on her work addressing root causes of unauthorized immigration from Central America, incorrectly dubbing her Biden’s “border czar” during a period when unauthorized migrant arrivals surged.
But Harris was also a sought-after campaign surrogate during the Biden campaign, particularly on the issue of abortion rights, which Democrats hope to use against Republicans in November. Harris has spoken forcefully about the fight to protect abortion rights, laying the blame for their erosion, particularly the overturning of Roe v. Wade, squarely on the previous Trump administration.
Following an April court ruling that upheld Arizona’s pre-statehood abortion ban, Harris traveled to the state with a simple message. “We all must understand who all is to blame,” she said. “Former President Donald Trump did this.”
