Kamala Harris “Proud” To Secure Enough Pledged Delegates To Win Democratic Nomination On First Ballot – Update

Dominic Patten and Ted Johnson
·4 min read
8

(Updated 8:21 PM PT with VP statement) In record time, the current Vice President of the United States has a gathered a strong enough majority of pledged Democratic delegates to win the nomination for President on the first ballot next month.

Kamala Harris‘ home state of California and the Golden State’s more than 300 delegates at DNC ’24 in Chicago put her securely over the top earlier this evening. The VP now has another historical first in her sights. That new political reality comes on a very busy Day 1 of the Harris for President campaign and just over 36 hours after Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the 2024 White House race.

More from Deadline

“When I announced my campaign for President, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination,” Vice President Harris said Monday near midnight on the East Coast. “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” (Read the VP’s full statement below).

“It is clear that Kamala Harris is going to have this nomination,” a clearly joyous DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said a bit earlier tonight on the very well attended “Black Men for Harris” call, as millions more were being raised for the candidate.

Frustration over the 81-year-old POTUS’ halting and stumbling June 27 debate performance and his seeming inability to see a path to victory against Donald Trump was a dead-end has dissipated almost instantly. Instead, after Biden said Sunday he was throwing his support behind his loyal VP, over $231 million has pored into the Dems’ efforts as formerly pens-down donors started writing checks again, and small donors flooded the campaign.

At the same time, state delegates began gathering Sunday to offer their backing to the VP. Monday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the vote from the California delegation on a virtual meeting. The verbal response was unanimous.

If Harris’ current 2, 579 pledged delegates turn their promises into votes at the August 19 starting DNC, the Vice President will be the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to gain the nomination of a major American political party. In fact, the already history-making first female VP and first Veep of color will be making history a little earlier as the Democrats’ delegates will be voting in an already scheduled virtual roll call set to conclude on August 7.

That virtual call will seal who the party’s nominee is and, with potential rivals lining up one after another over the past 24 hour to make Madame Vice President into Madame President, that nominee is almost certain to be the former Senator from California Kamala Harris.

A candidate requires 1,976 of the total 3,936 DNC 2024 delegates to clinch the party’s nomination in the first round of voting. This does not include the 739 so-called superdelegates, made up of party elders, top elected officials and more, because they don’t vote on the first ballot.

Right now, the New York delegation has just finished voting, following the likes of Texas Democrats, as well as those from New Jersey and Nevada to got for Harris earlier Monday night.

One day into her 2024 campaign and with just over 100 days until the election, Vice President Harris has not yet revealed who her own VP pick is. However, as the VP heads out to some top Hollywood donors tells us that the likes of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina are being mentioned the most in deep-pocket circles.

Read Vice President Harris’ full statement on securing a pledged majority of delegates to win the Democratic nomination on the first ballot:

When I announced my campaign for President, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination. 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. I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon. I am 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.

This election will present a clear choice between two different visions. Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time before many of us had full freedoms and equal rights. 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.

Over the next few months, I will be traveling across the country talking to Americans about everything that is on the line. I fully intend to unite our party, unite our nation, and defeat Donald Trump in November.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next