(AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants who rose through the California political and law enforcement ranks to become the first female vice president in U.S. history, formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday — making her becoming the first black woman to lead a major party ticket.
More than four years after the failure of her first attempt at the presidency, Harris’ coronation as her party’s standard-bearer ends a tumultuous and frenetic period for Democrats, driven by President Joe BidenJune’s disastrous performance in the June debate, which shook his own supporters’ confidence in his reelection prospects and spurred an extraordinary intraparty war over whether he should remain in the race.
Once Biden abruptly ended his candidacy, Harris and her team worked quickly to secure the support of the 1,976 party delegates needed to secure the nomination in a formal roll call vote.
She reached that milestone at warp speed, with an Associated Press poll of delegates across the country showing she secured the necessary commitments just 32 hours after Biden’s announcement.
Harris’ nomination became official after a five-day round of online voting by Democratic National Convention delegates ended Monday night, with the party saying in a statement released shortly before midnight that 99% of Delegates who voted did so for Harris.
The party had long contemplated early virtual voting to ensure Biden appeared on the ballot in every state. He said he would then formally certify the vote before holding a roll call vote at the party convention later this month in Chicago.
Read: After a quiet start to the campaign, Kamala Harris faces a crucial week ahead
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted after Biden’s withdrawal found that 46% of Americans have a favorable view of Harris, while a nearly identical share have an unfavorable view of her.
But more Democrats say they are pleased with her candidacy compared with Biden’s, energizing a party that has long resigned to the 81-year-old Biden being their candidate against former President Donald Trump, a Republican they see as an existential threat.
Harris has already stated that she does not plan to deviate much from the themes and policies that framed Biden’s candidacy, such as democracy, the prevention of armed violence and the right to abortion.
Read: What the polls show about Kamala Harris’s top vice presidential candidates
But her statement could be much fiercer, especially when she invokes her past as a prosecutor to criticize Trump and his 34 convictions for falsifying business records as part of a money-hiding scheme.
“Given the unique voice of a new generation, a prosecutor and a woman when fundamental rights, especially reproductive rights, are at stake, it is almost as if the stars have aligned for her at this moment in history,” said the Democratic senator. Alex Padilla of California, who was chosen to succeed Harris in the Senate when she became vice president.
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