The Ohio Democratic Party likewise announced that Ohio delegates to the Democratic National Convention met virtually Monday and voted “overwhelmingly” to pledge their votes to Harris.
Local Biden delegate Desiree Tims, who is president of Innovation Ohio and running unopposed for an Ohio House seat, said she expects the Harris nomination to energize the party.
“I believe that Joe Biden has done the most patriotic thing and selfless thing to step aside after a historic presidency,” Tims said. “That said, Kamala Harris’ nomination is energizing. It’s exciting. The energy is palpable, almost akin to Obama 2008.”
Lynne Donahue, a Biden delegate from Beavercreek, expressed a similar sentiment.
“I’m sad that (Biden) dropped out but I’m thrilled that he endorsed Kamala Harris. And the Ohio delegates are actually on board with that,” Donahue said.
Donahue, a volunteer with the Greene County Democratic Party, said the day after Biden endorsed Harris to replace him on the ballot, “we had seven people volunteer … and say, ‘OK, sign me up, how can we get her elected?’”
“That’s a lot in one day for us,” she said.
Austin Smith, a Biden delegate and chairman of the Clark County Democratic Party, would not comment for this story but pointed to a post on the county party website that says: “Chairman Austin Smith was proud as the only Delegate from Clark County to cast a vote pledging support of Ohio’s Delegation to Vice President Kamala Harris for President!”
U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Cincinnati, is a delegate to the DNC because he is a member of Congress.
“I am convinced that she doesn’t just have the energy to get people excited, and you’re already seeing that, but as a former prosecutor, she will be able to make the case against Trump and Trumpism,” said Landsman, whose district includes Warren County.
Not all area delegates could be reached for comment on whether they support Harris replacing Biden on the ballot.
The national math
Other state delegations also met late Monday to confirm their support for Harris, including Texas and her home state of California. By Monday night, Harris had the support of well more than the 1,976 delegates she’ll need to win on a first ballot, according to the AP tally. No other candidate was named by a delegate contacted by the AP.
Still, 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 go through with a virtual roll call ahead of that gathering in Chicago.
This news organization follows AP methodology.
Harris, in a statement, responded to the AP tally, saying she is “grateful to President Biden and everyone in the Democratic Party who has already put their faith in me, and I look forward to taking our case directly to the American people.”
Worries over Biden’s fitness for office were replaced by fresh signs of unity after a seismic shift to the presidential contest that upended both major political parties’ carefully honed plans for the 2024 race.
Speaking to campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris acknowledged the “rollercoaster” of the last several weeks, but expressed confidence in her new campaign team.
“It is my intention to go out and earn this nomination and to win,” she said. She promised to “unite our Democratic Party, to unite our nation, and to win this election.”
The AP tally is based on interviews with individual delegates, public statements from state parties, many of which have announced that their delegations are supporting Harris en masse, and public statements and endorsements from individual delegates.
Locking up the nomination was only the first item on the staggering political to-do list for Harris after learning of Biden’s plans to leave the race Sunday morning on a call with the president. She must also pick a running mate and pivot a massive political operation that had been built to reelect Biden to boost her candidacy instead.
On Sunday afternoon, Biden’s campaign formally changed its name to Harris for President, reflecting that she is inheriting his political operation of more than 1,000 staffers and war chest that stood at nearly $96 million at the end of June. She added $81 million to that total in the first 24 hours after Biden’s endorsement, her campaign said — a presidential fundraising record — with contributions from more than 888,000 donors.
The campaign also saw a surge of interest after Harris took over, with more than 28,000 new volunteers registered since the announcement — a rate more than 100 times an average day from the previous Biden reelection campaign, underscoring the enthusiasm behind Harris.
Harris, if elected, would be the first woman and first person of South Asian descent to be president.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, but the party had announced before Biden dropped out that it would hold a virtual roll call to formally nominate Biden before in-person proceedings begin. The convention’s rules committee is scheduled to meet this week to finalize its nomination process with a virtual vote as soon as Aug. 1, the party announced on Monday, with the process completed by Aug. 7.
“We can and will be both fast and fair as we execute this nomination,” Jaime Harrison, the Democratic National Committee’s chair, said on a conference call with reporters.
The party said the virtual roll call would feature multiple rounds of voting on nominees if multiple candidates meet the qualification threshold. To qualify, candidates must have the electronic signatures of 300 convention delegates.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
About the Author
