Kamala Harris wins enough support to clinch Democratic nomination

Washington: Kamala Harris has attracted the support of enough delegates to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for President, US media outlets reported on Tuesday, as the vice president received a wave of endorsements from potential rivals, lawmakers, governors and influential advocacy groups.

Harris, who is of Indian and African heritage, has received the backing from more than the 1,976 pledged delegates needed to win the Democratic Party’s nomination on the first ballot, CNN reported on the first full day of her campaign.

“I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon,” Harris, 59, said in a statement late Monday, a day after US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the race for the White House on November 5 and endorsed Harris.

As party officials were preparing to finalise the process for formally nominating a candidate ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago from August 19-22, it was already clear that the biggest remaining question about the 2024 Democratic ticket is who Harris will choose as her running mate, media reports said.

Harris, who will hold a campaign event in Milwaukee on Tuesday, staked her claim to the party’s standard-bearer role with an electric speech Monday evening, as she visited the campaign’s headquarters in Delaware.

“We have 106 days until Election Day and in that time, we have some hard work to do,” she told them and assured them that those who had been working for the Biden-led campaign would remain on board.

The vice president also laid out her case against her 78-year-old Republican rival Donald Trump, invoking a host of the former president’s scandals and legal woes.

She pointed to her time as a district attorney and California attorney general, saying that she “took on perpetrators of all kinds.”

“Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own game,” Harris said.

“So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”

She also noted President Biden’s accomplishments, saying her time serving as his vice president was “one of the greatest honours of my life”.

Harris noted the “roller coaster” of “mixed emotions” they’ve all been on because “I love Joe Biden, and I know we all do”.

She promised she’d work hard to earn the nomination for president and unite both Democrats and the country as a whole.

Meanwhile, in her first

day as a candidate, Harris raised USD 81 million, the campaign announced Monday, saying it was the largest 24-hour raise by any candidate ever.

The huge haul emphasised grassroots enthusiasm for a shake-up to the Democratic 2024 ticket after 81-year-old Biden quit the race.