Washington— US vice-president Kamala Harris won the support of one of America’s longest-serving and best-known Democrats on Monday — Nancy Pelosi — in her bid to succeed President Joe Biden, who on Sunday ended his re-election bid.
Pelosi, who remains influential since stepping down as House speaker in 2022, played a leading role in persuading Biden, 81, to end his campaign amid concerns over his ability to beat Republican rival Donald Trump, or to serve another four years.
“With love and gratitude, I salute President Biden for always believing in the possibilities of America and giving people the opportunity to reach their fulfilment,” Pelosi, 84, said in a statement. “We must unify and charge forward to resoundingly defeat Donald Trump and enthusiastically elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the US.”
Virtually all of the prominent Democrats who had been seen as potential challengers to Harris have lined up behind her, including governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California and Andy Beshear of Kentucky.
Biden’s abrupt departure was the latest shock to a White House race that included the near-assassination of Trump by a gunman during a campaign stop and the nomination of Trump’s fellow hardliner, US senator JD Vance, as his running mate.
Harris lauded Biden’s accomplishments in her first public appearance on Monday since his announcement and endorsement as his successor.
“Joe Biden’s legacy over the last three years is unmatched in modern history,” Harris said at a White House event to honour college athletes. “Every day, our president, Joe Biden, fights for the American people and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation.”
She said in a post on X that she would visit what had been the Biden campaign headquarters in Delaware — now the Harris campaign headquarters — on Monday afternoon. She said Biden, who tested positive for Covid-19 last week, was feeling better.
Campaign officials and allies have already made hundreds of calls on her behalf, urging delegates to next month’s Democratic Party convention to join in nominating her for president in the November 5 election against Republican Donald Trump.
“My intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a statement on Sunday. “I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump.”
Harris, who is black and Asian American, would fashion an entirely new dynamic with Trump, 78, offering a vivid generational and cultural contrast.
The Trump campaign has been preparing for her possible rise for weeks, sources said. It sent out a detailed critique of her record on immigration and other issues on Monday, accusing her of being more liberal than Biden.
The Trump campaign accused Harris of favouring abolishing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and decriminalising border crossings, backing the so-called Green New Deal, supporting the administration’s electric vehicle mandates and encouraging efforts to “defund the police”.
Some of those were positions Harris adopted as an unsuccessful presidential candidate in the 2020 election when she was running on a more liberal agenda than Biden, but were not ones that the administration assumed, particularly with regard to border security and law enforcement issues.
Biden, at 81 the oldest person ever to have occupied the Oval Office, said he would remain in the presidency until his term ends on January 20 2025.
His shaky June 27 debate performance against Trump led senior Democrats to urge him to end his run, but senior Republicans have demanded he resign from office, arguing that if he is not fit to campaign, he is not fit to govern.
Harris is expected to stick largely to Biden’s foreign policy on such issues as China, Iran and Ukraine, but could strike a tougher tone with Israel over the Gaza war if she tops the Democratic ticket and wins the November election.
She has been outspoken on abortion rights, an issue that resonates with younger voters and more liberal Democrats.
Proponents argue she would energise those voters, consolidate black support and bring sharp debating skills to prosecute the political case against the former president.
But some Democrats were concerned about a Harris candidacy, in part because of the weight of a long history of racial and gender discrimination in the US, which has not elected a woman president in its nearly 250-year history.
‘Prepare for the onslaught’
“We should all prepare for the onslaught of attack that would face any historic candidate,” representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. “Misogyny in our politics is far from over. Racism in our politics — especially confronting Donald Trump as a an opponent — is far, far from over.”
Polling shows that Harris performs no better statistically than Biden had against Trump.
In a head-to-head matchup, Harris and Trump were tied with 44% support each in a July 15-16 Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted immediately after the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump.
Trump led Biden 43% to 41% in that same poll, though the 2 percentage point difference was not meaningful considering the poll's 3-point margin of error.
Biden’s campaign had $95 million on hand at the end of June, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission. Trump’s campaign ended the month with $128m. Campaign finance law experts disagree on how easily that money could be shifted to a Harris-led campaign.
Harris’ campaign had raised $49.6m in less than 24 hours after Biden’s exit, a campaign spokesperson said on Monday.
More than 44,000 black women and allies, including representatives Maxine Waters, Jasmine Crockett and Joyce Beatty, joined a three-hour call on Sunday evening in support of Harris’ bid, raising more than $1.5m for her presidential campaign, organisers said.
Update: July 22 2024
This story has been updated throughout.
Reuters
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