Washington, 3 August 2024 (TDI): US Vice-President Kamala Harris has passed the threshold to secure the Democratic presidential nomination in a vote of party delegates.
Harris said she was “honoured to be the presumptive nominee” as the virtual roll call continues ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago later this month.
She is the first black woman and first South Asian woman to become the White House standard-bearer for a major US political party.
If Harris defeats Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in November she would be America’s first female president.
She ran unopposed in the virtual roll call after President Joe Biden stepped aside in July and quickly endorsed her. Several potential rivals followed his lead.
On Friday afternoon, Harris formally became the nominee after securing the support of 2,350 delegates, the threshold necessary to earn the nomination.
In total, Democrats have said 3,923 delegates – or 99 percent of the participants – intend to support her.
The roll call started on Thursday and ends on Monday.
Harris, 59, was born in Oakland, California, and is the first Democratic nominee in the party’s nearly wo hundred-year history to hail from a western state.
She rose through the ranks of state politics from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general and then senator.
Before dropping out of the race, Joe Biden had easily won the Democratic primary. He did not face any tough challenge despite voter concerns about his age and had won support from 99% of pledged DNC delegates.
But the 81-year-old faced escalating pressure from within the party to withdraw after a poor performance in June debate against Trump.
The decision to arrange a virtual nominating process ahead of the 19-22 August convention was made while Joe Biden was still the presumptive candidate.
It came in response to rules for ballot access in the state of Ohio, which needed that candidates for the November ballot be formally selected 90 days before the election – or by 7 August.
