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Jimmy Williams
Vice President Kamala Harris is now the only candidate seeking the Democratic presidential nomination after a key deadline passed on Tuesday evening with no other contenders qualifying.
According to the Democratic National Committee (DNC), 99% of delegates signed Harris’ nominating petition.
With no internal competition, the Democratic Party will avoid the infighting that some officials feared when President Joe Biden stepped aside from the race less than two weeks ago.
“Our Party has met this unprecedented moment with a transparent, democratic, and orderly process to unite behind a nominee with a proven record who will lead us in the fight ahead,” DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison stated on Tuesday night.
Delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago will begin voting virtually on Thursday to formalize Harris’ nomination, sticking to the party’s plan to finalize its nominee before the August 7 ballot access deadline in Ohio. Harris’ campaign has indicated she will select her vice presidential running mate before then.
Democrats quickly revised their nominating rules after Biden exited the race nine days ago, creating a fast-paced nomination process that was open to all but clearly favored Harris. Any candidate who wanted to seek the nomination had until 6 p.m. ET Tuesday to secure the support of at least 300 delegates; Harris was the only candidate to do so, according to the DNC.
With nearly the entire party united behind her, the only challengers were a few unknown figures with no significant support or funding. Marianne Williamson, the self-help author who ran a long-shot Democratic presidential campaign in 2020, considered vying for the nomination at the Chicago convention but ultimately decided against it, suspending her campaign on Monday night.
“We did everything possible to stand for a blitz primary, an open convention and so forth. Yet the way the rules were made there truly was no way, Kamala’s momentum was in full swing, and all we could have done is create noise,” Williamson wrote to supporters. “I was in the race to create fundamental change, yes — but not as a chaos agent or metaphorical bomb thrower.”
Convention delegates will participate in an unusual pre-convention virtual roll call vote to ratify Harris as their top candidate. Voting will begin on Thursday and continue for several days, with a ceremonial in-person roll call planned for the convention.
Although Democrats stripped so-called super delegates of much of their power a few years ago, the DNC stated that they will be able to vote virtually for Harris, given that she has already secured overwhelming majority support, eliminating any chance of super delegates altering the outcome.
Democrats had planned to nominate Biden virtually since May, anticipating an issue with Ohio’s early deadline for all parties to submit their candidate names before the Democratic National Convention. Despite arguments from Ohio election officials that drastic measures like a pre-convention virtual roll call were unnecessary, conservative groups have signaled their intention to sue if Democrats miss the state’s August 7 deadline. Democrats argue that the party cannot risk litigation that could result in losing their place on Ohio’s ballot this fall.
