Dem
51
GOP
49
The stars aligned quickly for Kamala Harris. Very quickly, indeed.
On Sunday, Govs. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Josh Shapiro (D-PA) got the jump on everyone and endorsed Harris. Yesterday, a whole bunch of prominent Democrats joined that pair in bestowing their support: Govs. Wes Moore (D-MD), J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), Andy Beshear (D-KY) and Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), along with a gaggle of Senators and a gross of members of the House. The list of endorsers includes virtually everyone who might have mounted a challenge to Harris; their endorsement of her thus also means "I'm out."
Ok, Sen. Joe Manchin (I?-WV) hasn't endorsed Harris yet. However, he is also "out." Yesterday, he ended his presidential campaign in about 0.8 Scaramuccis. That's probably the shortest presidential campaign ever. Manchin didn't endorse anyone after dropping out, but he did say he wouldn't be willing to be Harris' running mate, not that there was one chance in 100 gazillion that it would be offered to him.
The four heaviest hitters in the Democratic Party have also been slow to endorse Harris. That would be Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). You should not read their lack of endorsement as a lack of enthusiasm for Harris. They are all nervous about what happened in 2016, and don't want the selection of Harris to look like it came from above. This is especially important given that Harris clearly isn't going to face any competition for the nomination.
Late yesterday, Harris' status as nominee-in-waiting became official, as over 2,000 DNC delegates have now pledged to support her. It takes 1,976 to be nominated, so there is not going to be a brokered convention. Things can happen, as Joe Biden just showed us this week. But she's as much a sure thing as is possible.
Not long after Harris' nomination became de facto official, Pelosi formally endorsed her. Schumer and Jeffries told people in their orbit that they were just waiting for Pelosi to give the go-ahead. We cannot find any indication they've actually taken the plunge, but all of these developments came late yesterday, so we imagine a formal endorsement will be the first item of business for that duo today. Obama's endorsement probably won't wait long, either.
There is also more news on the Harris front. She is quickly building an A-team. Whitmer already signed up to be co-chair of Harris' campaign. She held the same role in Biden's campaign. As governor of a key swing state, her focus is sure to be winning the Upper Midwest. She emphasized that she is not interested in the #2 slot on the ticket. But Harris is not relying entirely on Biden's team. She is also calling in people she knows well from her 2020 run, such as Illinois state Rep. Kam Buckner (D). Harris is also trying to recruit some of Barack Obama's top hands, especially David Plouffe, who managed Obama's 2008 run. He has connections with leaders and donors all over Silicon Valley, and would be a tremendous catch if he is interested. In short, Harris has hit the ground running and is putting together a top team very quickly.
If you find it remarkable that all of these things happened so rapidly, you're not alone. In a span of a bit more than 24 hours, Biden dropped out and Harris managed to lock up a pile of endorsements (including all of her serious would-be rivals), to capture the support of multiple thousands of Democratic delegates, and to start building a campaign infrastructure. Oh, and Biden's announcement came just after the RNC ended and just after the Sunday news shows wrapped for the week, meaning that Donald Trump & Co. wasted a whole lot of ammunition on someone who is not even a candidate.
Maybe Biden just so happened to reach his decision when he did. And maybe the floodgates were already under such pressure, things poured forth with lightning speed when they finally opened. But it's not hard to suspect that the ball got rolling much earlier than currently known, and that the events of the last 24 hours were basically kabuki theater staged for everyone's benefit.
One other thing we might as well point out. This is not the first time the Democrats have pulled off this same basic maneuver in hopes of defeating Donald Trump. In 2020, after Biden won the South Carolina primary, most of his main rivals—Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bloomberg, and Elizabeth Warren—dropped out within the week and endorsed Biden. Some of them still had money in the bank AND had some possibility of contesting the nomination, but they decided to fall on their swords for the good of Team Blue. Bernie Sanders didn't drop out at that time, but he did withdraw several weeks later, which was much, much earlier than in 2016.
The point here is that the bitter feelings from the 2016 Hillary vs. Bernie election suggested to many people, from humble bloggers like us, all the way up to Nancy Pelosi, that there really had to be some sort of a contest for the nomination, and not just a coronation of Kamala Harris. But there was basically a coronation of Joe Biden in 2020 (a kindness he has now paid forward), and Democratic voters accepted it, because of their fear/dislike of Donald Trump. It certainly could work out again for the Democrats. (V & Z)