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Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have secured enough delegates to become the Democratic Party’s nominee to take on Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
In her first full day in the presidential race, after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and swiftly endorsed his vice president on Sunday, Harris received the backing of key Democratic officials, hauled in record sums of campaign donations, and appeared to clinch a majority of delegates she will need to win the party’s nomination.
By Monday night, a little over 24 hours after she entered the race, Harris surpassed the 1,976 delegates needed for the nomination in a first round of voting among Democratic delegates, according to an Associated Press survey.
“When I announced my campaign for President, I said I intended to go out and earn this nomination. Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top,” she said in a statement.
“I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon,” she added.
Party delegates will formally cast their votes at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.
Harris visited the now-former Biden campaign headquarters in Delaware on Monday afternoon to greet campaign staff and supporters and outline her vision for the next few months of campaigning, largely pulling from the Biden campaign’s agenda and building from the work of the Biden-Harris administration.
Within 24 hours of its launch, her campaign had pulled in more than $81m in donations – marking the biggest single-day raise in presidential history – leaving Biden’s running mate-turned-preferred nominee standing to inherit the president’s massive campaign war chest.
More than 28,000 people have also signed up to volunteer for the first time after Biden left the race and endorsed Harris, according to the campaign.
“I am grateful to President Biden and everyone in the Democratic Party who has already put their faith in me, and I look forward to taking our case directly to the American people,” Harris said in her statement.
“This election will present a clear choice between two different visions,” she added. “Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time before many of us had full freedoms and equal rights. I believe in a future that strengthens our democracy, protects reproductive freedom and ensures every person has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead.”
Harris said she now plans to travel “across the country talking to Americans about everything that is on the line” and fully intends “to unite our party, unite our nation, and defeat Donald Trump in November.”
