WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris has taken the lead as the Democratic Party promises a “transparent and orderly process” to replace President Joe Biden, who stepped down Sunday amid concerns over his age and capacity to defeat Republican Donald Trump in November.
The announcement has triggered a scramble to confirm a new candidate at the Democratic convention in Chicago on August 19, or possibly sooner. Democratic lawmakers and party elders, including a third of U.S. senators, key governors, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, have rallied behind Harris, who has also received Biden’s swift endorsement.
However, prominent figures such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and former President Barack Obama have initially held back.
“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead,” Obama said in a statement. “But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”
Harris, who is Black and South Asian, and the only woman vice president in U.S. history, appears to have no immediate rivals. Potential convention delegates are being told to expect a vote on August 1 to formally put Harris’s name atop the ticket, CBS reported.
Calls for an open convention in Chicago have been muted so far, with potential challengers such as popular California Governor Gavin Newsom backing Harris. “Yes, there’s a process to go through and, yes, she must earn it. But she earned it in many ways when Joe Biden selected her to be his vice president,” former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill said on MSNBC.
The Democratic ticket has been in disarray since Biden’s poor debate performance in June, with Republicans uniting around Trump after an assassination attempt on him at a rally in Pennsylvania eight days ago. Biden resisted calls to step down for over three weeks but dropped his bombshell as he recovered from Covid at his Delaware beach house.
The veteran Democrat said it had been the “greatest honor of my life” to be president and promised to address the nation later this week, offering his “full support and endorsement” for Harris. Biden’s exit makes him the first president in 56 years not to seek a second term and the first in U.S. history to quit so late in the calendar.
Donna Patterson, a political analyst and professor at Delaware State University, said his exit had injected “new energy” into the campaign. “In the hours since the announcement, and with Biden’s endorsement, a Kamala Harris presidential candidacy seems most likely,” she added.
Biden’s move also makes Trump, 78, the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history. He reacted to the news with a series of posts on Truth Social, slamming Biden as “not fit to run” and “certainly not fit to serve.” He also called for the next presidential debate, set for September, to be moved from ABC News to Trump-friendly Fox News.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance underlined that Harris had been “every step of the way” with Biden, “the worst president in my lifetime.” Harris, who struggled to make an impact in her first years in the White House, performed strongly on the campaign trail on key issues such as abortion.
“Anyone the Democrats nominate – and I’m pretty sure it will be Harris – will have challenges,” said Donald Nieman, a political analyst and professor at Binghamton University in New York state. “But the announcement shifts the focus away from Biden’s physical and intellectual limitations, where it has been for the past three weeks.”
