Harris moves fast to lock up her Democratic nomination

Vice President Kamala Harris moved swiftly to lock up Democratic delegates behind her campaign for the White House after President Joe Biden stepped aside amid concerns from within their own party that he would be unable to defeat Donald Trump Bidenrsquos exit on Sunday prompted by Democratic worries over his fitness for office was a seismic shift to the presidential contest that upended both partiesrsquo carefully honed plans for the raceAiming to put weeks of intraparty drama over Bidenrsquos candidacy behind them prominent Democratic elected officials party leaders and political organisations quickly lined up behind Harris in the hours after Biden announced he was dropping his reelection campaign Bidenrsquos departure frees up his delegates to vote for whomever they choose Harris whom Biden backed after ending his candidacy is thus far the only declared candidate and was working to quickly secure endorsements from a majority of delegatesItrsquos only the first item on a staggering political todo list for her after Bidenrsquos decision to exit the race which she learned of on a Sunday morning call with the president If shersquos successful at locking up the nomination she must also pick a running mate and pivot a massive political operation to boost her candidacy instead of Bidenrsquos with just over 100 days until Election DayWill Harris be most likely pickNow that Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the nominee it will ultimately be up to Democratic National Convention delegates to formally select a new nominee for their party This will mark the first time in over 50 years that a major party nominee was selected outside of the democratic process of primaries and caucusesKamala Harris with Joe Biden PicAFPMany Democrats had already begun discussing how to replace Biden They worried that having the convention delegates the majority of whom were pledged at first to Biden select the nominee would appear undemocratic and illegitimate President Biden had already won 3896 pledged delegates during Democratic primary contests That is much more than the amount needed to secure his partyrsquos nominationThose delegates voted for a BidenHarris ticket previously but it will ultimately be up to them to decide which candidate they are backing as the Democratic nominee during the partyrsquos convention next month While Mr Bidenrsquos endorsement makes Ms Harris the most likely pick for the nominee it is not fully certain what will happen after he releases his delegates The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to begin on 19 AugustThe convention systemThe tradition of picking a nominee through primaries and caucusesmdashand not through the ldquoconvention systemrdquomdashis recent In 1968 after President Lyndon B Johnson announced he would not run for reelection his vice president Hubert Humphrey was able to secure the Democratic nomination despite not entering any primaries or caucuses Humphrey won because he had the backing of party leaders who controlled majority of delegates Many Democrats saw this process as fundamentally undemocratic so the party instituted a series of reforms that opened up the process by requiring delegates to be selected in primaries or caucuses that gave ordinary party members the chance to make that choice Since 1972 Democrats and Republicans nominate candidates in this wayRamaswamyrsquos prediction comes trueVivek Ramaswamy the IndianAmerican who then was the Republican presidential candidate in the primaries with Donald Trump said two candidates mdashKamala Harris and Michelle Obamamdashwere possibly to be picked by the Democrats ldquoLetrsquos give credit where due For a year one man has been saying ldquoBiden wonrsquot be the Democratic nomineerdquo and predicting a lastminute blindsideThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever