Vice President Kamala Harris won the Democratic nomination for president without a single primary vote and just 15 days after entering the race, a historic political feat that has Republicans scrambling to reset their bid to win in November.
Ms. Harris secured the Democratic presidential nomination Friday after thousands of party delegates took part in an unusual online vote that allowed them to lock her in at the top of their ticket weeks before the party’s national convention begins later this month.
“I am so proud to confirm that Vice President Harris has earned more than a majority of votes from all convention delegates and will be the nominee of the Democratic Party following the close of voting on Monday,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said Friday.
Ms. Harris, 59, was the only candidate on the ballot, known as a pledge form, and she became the nominee without participating in any candidate debates, winning any state primaries or caucuses and after a run for the nomination that will have lasted about two weeks by the time delegate voting ends.
She replaces Mr. Biden, 81, who dropped out of the race on July 21 due to concerns about his age, mental fitness, and declining poll numbers.
With voting completed, Ms. Harris has become the first Black female presidential nominee for a major political party.
SEE ALSO: Harris backed using ‘lists’ of gun owners to send police door-to-door to seize firearms
Her win is historic for other reasons.
Ms. Harris’s nomination set aside 14 million votes cast for Mr. Biden in the state-by-state Democratic presidential primary in which he secured 3,905 of the nation’s 3,945 state Democratic delegates.
Delegates began voting on her nomination on Aug. 1.
The online secured the nomination for Ms. Harris weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that opens Aug. 19.
In a recent DNC meeting, party officials said they would hold a “celebratory roll call,” at the convention for Ms. Harris and her running mate.
The rapid Harris nomination was an unprecedented move by the party, and one that has quickly turned the presidential race upside down.
Thanks to Mr. Biden’s late decision to leave the race, the choice of Ms. Harris was left up to Democratic party officials, not a messy and potentially turbulent primary. They moved quickly to squelch party infighting and line up behind Ms. Harris.
Ms. Harris’s sudden elevation and Mr. Biden’s exit energized the Democratic base, bolstering fundraising and greatly improving poll numbers, particularly in battleground states.
Ms. Harris, who ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2020 race, is proving to be far more popular than Mr. Biden in battleground states and a more formidable opponent for former President Donald Trump.
In some polls, she has eliminated Mr. Trump’s swing-state lead.
A series of national polls show Ms. Harris slightly ahead of Mr. Trump, ending his weeks-long advantage.
Since declaring her candidacy, Ms. Harris has not held a press conference or participated in media interviews as she makes gains in the polls.
The ticket switch resets the battleground state fight and opens more pathways for Ms. Harris to win, particularly if she’s able to pick up more support in Georgia, where Mr. Biden was less popular.
It forced Mr. Trump and his campaign to engage with an entirely new candidate after he spent the past year mostly attacking Mr. Biden on his record and mental fitness. Critics say some of Mr. Trump’s attacks on Ms. Harris so far have backfired. He questioned her racial identity last week at the National Association of Black Journalists, causing an uproar, for example.
Mr. Trump has not yet committed to a Sept. 10 debate now that Ms. Harris, not Mr. Biden, would be meeting him on the stage.
He told Fox News last week, “I’ll probably end up debating.”
Ms. Harris plans a campaign swing through battleground states the week of August 5 with her running mate, who she’s expected to announce before August 7.
Democrats set up the pre-convention, virtual vote earlier this year, when it appeared they would miss Ohio’s deadline to appear on the presidential ballot. The Ohio date, August 7, was later extended to Sept. 1, well past the Democratic convention.
Democrats decided to stick to the online vote nonetheless, arguing the GOP-led state might try to legally challenge the later filing date and threaten their nominee’s place on the November presidential ballot.
The party stuck to the plan after Mr. Biden suddenly dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed Ms. Harris.
Ms. Harris needed 1,976 delegate votes to win and announced more than a week ago that she secured far more than the required number.
Delegates also include a bloc of former elected leaders and other party officials who would have voted on second and subsequent rounds of balloting if Ms. Harris did not win in the first round.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.