Trisha Ghosh, Pune
Kamala Harris officially secured her presidential nomination for the USA presidential elections on 2nd August, as per a statement by Jaime Harrison, Democratic National Committee Chair. She will now directly compete against Republican Party nominee Donald Trump in November. Having secured an adequate number of votes of the Democratic Party delegate, she will be the first woman of colour (Black and South Asian descent) to secure the nomination of an important party.
Harris has obtained votes from the majority of the delegates of the party and of a convention of almost 4000 members. The threshold to secure nomination was 2350 votes. Voting began via email and will officially remain open till the evening of Monday. Harris is yet to choose a running mate and is expected to interview a few candidates this weekend.
Members of the Democratic Party have voted in large numbers for Harris particularly after President Joe Biden’s announcement of the withdrawal of his candidature from the elections.
As Biden strongly endorsed Harris as a candidate, her popularity and support for her have surged rapidly over the past few weeks. In addition, she is the sole choice for her party delegates, under rules wherein support for the candidate must be pledged by a minimum of 300 members, and there must be a maximum of 50 signatures from a single delegation. If a delegate wishes to vote for someone apart from Harris, they will be labelled as ‘present’.
The Democrats have planned a roll call going state by state in the upcoming weeks, although this will simply be the carry-forward of a tradition of choosing nominees, as voting is now online.
On social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Harris posted a tweet (link: https://x.com/KamalaHarris/status/1819426800264474793 ) expressing her elation at being nominated for the elections. On 19th August, a convention will be held in Chicago, where she will officially be crowned and this first milestone in her advancement toward possible presidency will be celebrated.
Harris’ campaign will span across seven major states, including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, which have played a crucial role in Biden’s victory in 2020; she also plans to extend her campaigns to the southern states of North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. Her aim is to secure more votes from the Black and Hispanic demographics, which have previously evaded the Democrats. She is expected to make her first appearance with her running mate on Tuesday in Philadelphia.
Currently, she has broken fundraising records and even surpassed Trump’s leads in polls, thus indicating potential for strong competition for the Republican candidate.