Vice President Kamala Harris had a busy 24 hours after being endorsed as the Democratic presidential candidate by President Joe Biden. She has secured enough delegates to earn the party’s nomination and raised more than $81 million, a record sum for the 2024 political cycle. Harris also spoke Monday at a White House celebration with the NCAA championship teams, her first appearance since President Biden announced he was leaving the race.
Meanwhile, The Secret Service directortestified before a congressional committee and was called on to resign over security failures at a rally where a 20-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
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Here’s the Latest:
Harris: I look forward to accepting the nomination soon
Shortly after securing the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement that she is looking forward to formally accepting the nomination while also making her case against a second Donald Trump presidency.
“Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top,” Harris said.
The 2024 election is about two different visions for America’s future, Harris said.
“Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time before many of us had full freedoms and equal rights,” she said. “I believe in a future that strengthens our democracy, protects reproductive freedom and ensures every person has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead.”
The AP is not calling Harris the new presumptive nominee because the convention delegates are still free to vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention in August or if Democrats hold a virtual roll call ahead of that gathering in Chicago.
Harris has enough support of Democratic delegates to become party’s presidential nominee: AP survey
Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee against Republican Donald Trump, according to an Associated Press survey taken in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his bid for reelection.
Harris, who was endorsed by Biden minutes after he announced he would not accept the Democratic nomination, worked to quickly lock up the support of her party’s donors, elected officials, and other leaders, and has so far received support from at least 2,214.
However, the AP is not calling Harris the new presumptive nominee. That’s because the convention delegates are still free to vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention in August or if Democrats hold a virtual roll call ahead of that gathering in Chicago.
For young voters, Harris is ‘far closer’ in age
Tatum Watkins, a 19-year-old college student from southwest Iowa and a delegate to the DNC, said she appreciates as a young woman that Harris is speaking out on issues like reproductive rights and is “far closer” in age to a whole new generation of voters.
“She is very much leaning into what’s popular right now,” Watkins said. “I’ve seen already her branding is what I can best describe as brat summer.”
Watkins said that has energized and excited her and other young Iowans, making what will be her first experience voting in a presidential election “even better.”
Rep. Dean: ‘I’ve never been more optimistic about America’
The mood among many House Democrats lifted quickly as lawmakers returned to Washington with Biden having handed off the election to Harris.
“I’ve never been more optimistic about America because of his leadership, his selflessness, his putting country first,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania.
“And then Kamala — woo! — I am excited,” she said. “I’m hearing from my constituents and folks they are so fired up.”
She said one way Harris could approach campaigning in a swing state like hers would be to pick Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate for the vice presidential spot.
Biden to return to the White House, Harris will hit the campaign trail
President Biden is set to return to the White House tomorrow after spending six days at his beach home in Delaware convalescing from COVID-19. Biden became ill while campaigning in Las Vegas last week and headed to his vacation home to isolate.
Vice President Harris, meanwhile, will head to the battleground state of Wisconsin as her campaign for the White House kicks into high gear.
The event in Milwaukee will be her first full-fledged campaign event since announcing her candidacy on Sunday.
Kansas DNC delegates vote to support Harris
Kansas delegates for the DNC met virtually Monday evening and agreed to give all 44 of the state’s votes on the presidential nomination to Vice President Harris.
“We are united in our endorsement,” the delegation’s leader, state party Chair Jeanna Repass, said after the meeting. “Time is not our friend. We have got to be united.”
Repass rejected suggestions — some from Republicans — that the Democratic Party is ignoring the will of its primary voters. She said primary voters who backed Biden understood that Harris would be president if something happened to Biden.
She said there is still time for other candidates to come forward if they can get enough delegates to sign onto their efforts.
“This has already been adjudicated through the primary process,” Repass said. “That’s why you’re seeing us come together so quickly. She has been our choice since 2020, and she is still our choice today.”
New ad contrasts Trump and Harris as felon and prosecutor
A Democratic group is targeting Trump and trumpeting Harris’ past as a prosecutor with new ads in the swing states expected to be key to the general election.
American Bridge 21st Century says it is launching a $20 million ad buy in the northern swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin later this week.
The group says the spots feature voters from the trio of states with the goal of contrasting Harris — a former prosecutor — with Trump, recently convicted on 34 felony charges.
The $20 million ad buy is part of a $200 million campaign American Bridge launched in May and is aimed at swing voters in smaller media markets that are less saturated with political advertising. The group hopes to reach people who may be on the fence.
The first round of ads focuses on abortion rights and health care access. One of the new ads shared by American Bridge features a Pennsylvania veteran who says he felt “violated” by the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and called it an “example of Trump spitting on all of us who served.”
Democrats plan to push forward with a virtual roll call
The Democratic Party plans to push forward with a virtual roll call in which delegates to its convention can choose a presidential nominee before they meet in person next month in Chicago, with Vice President Kamala Harris heavily favored now that President Joe Biden has abandoned his reelection bid.
The convention rules committee will meet Wednesday to approve how the virtual roll call will work, but a draft of what they are set to approve was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
It does not list a date for when the roll call will take place, but Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said the process will be completed by Aug. 7. It could contain multiple rounds of voting, but to qualify, candidates will need 300 electronic signatures of support from convention delegates.
The Democratic National Convention opens Aug. 19. State delegations to the gathering began pledging their near-unanimous support for Harris in the hours after President Joe Biden announced he was abandoning his reelection bid on Sunday.
Trump campaign advisers peg Harris as ‘dangerously liberal’
Trump’s campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles have released a memo after Harris’ visit and remarks at Biden’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, calling her “dangerously liberal” and saying she “is as bad, if not worse, than Joe Biden.”
“It’s a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to defeat not just one Democrat nominee for president, but two — in the same year!”
The advisers have called this “a ploy to try and shake up the race” and said Harris is just as responsible for Biden’s policies at the U.S.-Mexico border, which saw illegal crossing arrests reach record highs at the end of 2023.
Harris leans into her prosecutor background and draws contrast with Trump
Vice President Harris is honing the political message she plans to use to seek the White House in November.
Rallying staffers at Biden’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, now hers to inherit, Harris emphasized her professional background as a prosecutor. She contrasted that with Trump, who has been convicted on 34 felony counts in a hush money case in New York.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said, adding, “I know Donald Trump’s type.”
She also announced that Jen O’Malley Dillon, who had chaired Biden’s reelection campaign, will run her bid.
Biden calls into Harris’ appearance with campaign staff
President Biden called into a campaign staff meeting while Vice President Harris was visiting, pledging, “If I didn’t have COVID, I’d be standing there with you.”
Harris traveled to Wilmington, Delaware, today to rally campaign staffers a day after Biden withdrew his presidential candidacy and endorsed Harris to replace him atop the Democratic ticket.
The crowd at first gasped, then cheered as Biden promised, “I’m going to be on the road” and campaigning for Harris.
“I want people to remember, what we have done has been incredible,” Biden said. He added, “I want to say to the team, embrace her, she’s the best.”
Harris devoted much of her brief remarks to praising Biden, saying, “I love Joe Biden. I know we all do.”
Interest in the Harris campaign surges
More than 28,000 new volunteers have registered to join Harris’ campaign since Biden chose to withdraw his candidacy and bestow his campaign infrastructure to his VP. It’s a rate more than 100 times an average day from the previous Biden reelection campaign, underscoring the enthusiasm behind Harris.
Ohio state Senator regrets suggesting ‘civil war’ would follow a Trump lose
A Republican state senator from Ohio who spoke at Vance’s first solo rally has apologized for saying on stage that it would “take a civil war” to save the country if Trump loses.
The apology from George Lang, the state lawmaker, came after Harris’ team highlighted his remarks in a post on X.
“I regret the divisive remarks in the excitement of the moment on stage,” he said on the same social network. “Especially in light of the assassination attempt on President Trump last week, we should all be mindful of what is said at political events, myself included.”
Voter Voice: ‘Nothing’s been handed to him in life’
Trump supporter Christina Chrisley, who lives in Virginia’s New River Valley, said she knew very little about JD Vance before he was announced as the Republican vice presidential nominee. She had hoped Glenn Youngkin would be selected.
But after doing more research, she said she’s excited by Vance. She has respect for Vance’s background and service as a marine and thinks he’ll do everything he can to “help Donald Trump win the election and do everything he possibly can for blue-collar workers.”
“Nothing’s been handed to him in life,” she said, sitting in a lawn chair looking out at the New River in a hot pink Trump shirt before the rally’s start.
She also said she was impressed by Vance’s speech at the RNC, calling him “eloquent and very well-spoken.”
DNC Delegate: ‘There is incredible excitement’
Ron Meehan, who works at an Anchorage food bank and, at 25, is the youngest member of Alaska’s Democratic delegates, said Harris is creating a buzz in the party.
“I think that there is incredible excitement among Democrats right now, and particularly the young Democrats that had maybe been tuned out of the process,” he said Monday. “We’re on the verge of making history, the first woman president.”
Meehan is the western regional adviser to the Democratic National Committee’s Climate and Environmental Crisis Council.
“Climate issues in particular are ones that I think young people across the country, including myself, are watching very closely,” he said. Meehan credited the Biden-Harris administration for protecting southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, both the nation’s largest national forest and the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest, reinstating restrictions on road-building and logging there.
“I think that she has the policy and track record, the temperament and the skill set to run a very strong campaign and to be a strong president,” he said.
Harris raises $81 million in 24 hours, setting new presidential donation record
Vice President Harris’ team has raised more than $81 million in the 24-hour period since President Biden announced his decision to step aside.
The massive fundraising haul represents the largest 24-hour fundraising sum by either party in the 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump reported raising more than $50 million in the 24-hour period after his felony conviction in the New York hush money trial. Biden reported $38 million in the four days after his disastrous debate performance.
Harris’ new total features donations from hundreds of thousands of first-time donors, the campaign said.
Top California Democrat urges delegates to support Harris
- 1. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said, “She’s tough, she’s smart and she’s ready to unite the country.”
- 2. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said, “Americans are looking for a new generation of leadership that will move past the divisiveness and unite us around our shared American values.”
- 3. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said, “Harris has always done what’s best for American families,” citing her record on abortion rights and helping to “safeguard democracy.”
- 4. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy called Harris “a proven leader who has delivered for the American people again and again.”
AP survey finds Harris now backed by more than half of delegates needed to win nomination vote
An AP survey finds that Vice President Harris has the support of more than half of the delegates she’ll need to take President Biden’s place at the top of the Democratic ticket.
Over 1,000 pledged delegates told The Associated Press or announced that they plan to support Harris in a forthcoming vote to pick a new White House nominee.
Democratic National Committee rules most recently set 1,976 pledged delegates as the benchmark to win the nomination. Of the about 1,070 delegates who have spoken to the AP or announced their plans, fewer than 60 either declined to answer or said they were undecided. And Harris is the only Democrat to receive support from delegates so far.
Pat Chesbro, an Alaska delegate and former U.S. Senate candidate, said she could think of no better option than Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket. “People are doing their best to find the best candidate in this situation, which is pretty unusual,” she said. “I look forward to the convention and to seeing whatever the next phase is,”
