Biden puts Kamala Harris forward, what next?

This article was last updated on July 22, 2024

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Biden puts Kamala Harris forward, what next?

A day after Joe Biden’s decision not to participate in the American presidential elections, Kamala Harris is the leading candidate to take his place and take on Donald Trump in November. She will only get certainty at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, which starts on August 19. A number of steps need to be taken before then and she already started doing that yesterday.

Biden secured the support of an overwhelming majority of the delegates at the Democratic Convention in the Democratic primaries. These are the party members who are allowed to vote there. Now that Biden is no longer a candidate, they are basically free to choose whoever they want, even now that Biden wants them to vote for Harris.

Campaign officials for Biden and Harris immediately started calling yesterday to attract as many delegates as possible to her camp. Last week, ahead of Biden’s withdrawal, Harris supporters already approached delegates asking them to side with Harris if Biden were to withdraw, writes CNN.

Tough and straightforward Harris sometimes had a difficult time as vice president

The Biden and Harris campaign committee took another important step yesterday. It informed the National Electoral Commission that the name “Biden for President” has been changed to “Harris for President” and that Harris is now the presidential candidate.

As a result, she can claim the campaign money raised under those names if she wins the Democratic candidacy. By the end of June, the Biden-Harris campaign had raised almost 90 million euros. According to Fox News another winner cannot claim this, because this money was raised for Biden and Harris.

According to the same news site, the campaign committee can transfer this money to the Democratic Party, which in turn can use it to support the campaigns of other federal, regional and local candidates. However, there are limitations to this.

In the hours after Harris’ candidacy was announced, another 50 million euros for Harris was raised on a Democratic fundraising platform.

Choose running mate

Harris must now also quickly look for a running mate, the man or woman she wants as vice president if she defeats Donald Trump on November 5 and becomes president. It is not known who she has in mind, perhaps she does not know it yet. But it is not unusual to elect someone with a different profile than the presidential candidate.

Harris is an African-Indian-American woman from progressive California. A white man from a swing state would then be an option. A swing state is a state where the presidential elections are expected to end in a neck-and-neck race between Trump and the Democratic candidate. The preference for a duo with someone from such a swing state can be the deciding factor for voters from that state.

Attractive opposing candidates

In the ideal scenario for Democrats, no appealing rival candidates present themselves. The last thing they want is for divisions to arise within the party. That will cost time, money and energy, which Harris would rather use to campaign against Trump. And, conversely, if the Democratic Party does become divided, Trump will not fail to point this out emphatically.

So far no opposing candidate has emerged. Most of the Democratic politicians mentioned have sided with Harris, such as Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Governor Joe Shapiro of Pennsylvania.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer previously said she would not be a candidate if Biden dropped out of the race. Now that her resignation is a fact, she has not yet spoken out clearly. She is said to have already had telephone contact with Harris, but the outcome is unknown.

Less than 100 days

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which is preparing the convention in Chicago, says the committee will initiate a “transparent and orderly process” in the coming days to ensure the party has a presidential candidate who can defeat Trump.

After the convention, that candidate has less than 100 days to get voters on his or her side.