President Joe Biden’s decision to step down as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president opens the door for other contenders to become the Democratic nominee in November. The president has thrown his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, and other prominent Democrats moved quickly to rally around her candidacy, but it’s unclear just how smooth her path to the party’s nomination is. Here are some of the leading contenders for a spot on the Democratic ticket:
Kamala Harris
Born in Oakland, California, Vice President Kamala Harris calls Thurgood Marshall an inspiration and talks often about growing up with parents deeply involved in the civil rights movement.
Her economist father and cancer specialist mother met as graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, where Harris recalled they spent ample time “marching and shouting about this thing called justice.”
In choosing Harris as his running mate in 2020, Biden called her a “fearless fighter for the little guy.” She has not wavered as his vice-presidential nominee and has become more visible campaigning for the Biden-Harris ticket in recent weeks.
Harris, who is Black and also of South Asian descent, is the nation’s first female vice president and the first person of color to hold that office. A graduate of Howard University, she also is the first person from a historically Black college or university to hold the office of either president or vice president.
Harris won her seat in the U.S. Senate in 2016 after twice being elected California attorney general. As a Senate candidate, she stressed her fights with big banks during the mortgage crisis, for-profit colleges that were financially exploiting students and environmental wrongdoers.
She’s talked for years about recidivism and criminal justice reform, and pushed for a different approach to non-violent crimes that emphasizes rehabilitation instead of severe, one-size-fits-all punishment. She calls it smart on crime.
As vice president, Harris has been asked by Biden to take on some of the most challenging tasks his administration has faced, including securing the nation’s borders. As the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate, she has cast a record number of tie-breaking votes on legislation promoted by Democrats, who are defending a razor-thin majority in both houses of Congress in this year’s elections.
Harris, 59, is married to Los Angeles lawyer Douglas Emhoff.
— By Christopher Weber
J.B. Pritzker
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the richest politician holding office in the U.S., is an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, a former private equity investor and philanthropist. His net worth of $3.4 billion puts him at No. 250 on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.
The 59-year-old Pritzker won the nomination for governor in 2018, besting a crowded Democratic field. He beat one-term incumbent Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and inherited mountains of state debt, unpaid bills and ratings by Wall Street credit houses just above junk status because of Rauner’s two-year feud with legislative Democrats that resulted in the state going without a budget plan.
Working with Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate, Pritzker has boasted balanced budgets and paid down billions of dollars in debt, prompting multiple credit upgrades. He also has overseen increased education funding, the centralization of early childhood services, and new laws to make health insurance more comprehensive, accessible and affordable.
After receiving generally high marks for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he defeated a Trump-endorsed MAGA Republican with 55% of the vote, becoming the first Illinois governor to be elected to a second term in 16 years. He then promptly delivered a victory speech that sounded like it came from a national candidate, denouncing Trump and asking, “Are you ready to fight?”
Even before his reelection, when there was speculation Biden might not seek a second term, Pritzker was criticized for saying he was happy being governor while traveling to the early primary state of New Hampshire and campaigning for or funding Democratic candidates nationally. And he’s continued to boost his coast-to-coast profile by bankrolling a political organization called “Think Big America” that aims to protect abortion rights and has supported state constitutional amendments to strengthen those protections in Ohio, Arizona and Nevada.
— By John O’Connor
…
