Ahead of the November 2024 U.S. election, Vice President Kamala Harris has emerged as the sole White House hopeful qualified to contend for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a statement from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Tuesday.
Although no prominent Democratic politicians have expressed a desire to challenge Harris, the DNC’s announcement officially clears the way for her to pursue the nomination without opposition. This decision comes just nine days after President Joe Biden exited the race.
According to an Associated Press survey, convention delegates view Harris as a likely candidate to succeed Biden as the party’s standard-bearer and potentially challenge former President Donald Trump.
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The DNC also revealed that 3,923 delegates had submitted petitions to nominate Harris.
Furthermore, the announcement clarified that automatic delegates (superdelegates) will be allowed to vote on the first ballot because rank-and-file delegates have strongly supported Harris. These automatic delegates include Democratic members of Congress and party leaders who were not pledged to any candidate before Biden’s withdrawal.
Despite this early voting process, delegates will still gather at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in late August.
At the convention, Democrats will hold a ceremonial state-by-state roll call vote, followed by acceptance speeches from Kamala Harris and her future running mate.
Harris will now face a vote by the party’s national convention delegates, who will officially confirm the nomination using a new online voting procedure adopted by the party last week.
