US vice-president Kamala Harris will campaign in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin on Tuesday for the first time as a presidential candidate after enough Democratic delegates pledged to endorse her, clearing her path to the nomination.
Ms Harris has become the party’s presumed nominee after President Joe Biden withdrew from his re-election campaign on Sunday, following weeks of party acrimony and internal polls showed his support collapsing in a battle against Republican rival Donald Trump.
Less than 36 hours after Mr Biden endorsed Ms Harris, she secured the nomination on Monday night by winning the pledged support of a majority of the party’s delegates who will determine the nomination, the campaign said.
“Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee,” Ms Harris said in a statement late Monday night. “I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.”
An unofficial survey of delegates by the Associated Press showed Ms Harris with more than 2,500 delegates, well over the 1,976 needed to win a vote in the coming weeks. Delegates could still, technically, change their minds but nobody else received any votes in the AP survey; 54 delegates said they were undecided.
Biden is out, but is Kamala Harris ready to win the White House?
The Wisconsin trip offers another opportunity for the former California prosecutor (59) to reset the Democrats’ campaign and make the case that she is best positioned to beat Mr Trump. Ms Harris is scheduled to deliver remarks at a political event in Milwaukee at 1.05pm local time.
She offered a sense of how she plans to attack Mr Trump on Monday, referring to her past of pursuing “predators” and “fraudsters” as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general.
“So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type,” she said of her rival, a convicted felon who was found liable for sexual assault in civil court. Other courts have found fraud was committed in his business, charitable foundation and private university.
Wisconsin is among a trio of Rust-Belt states that include Michigan and Pennsylvania widely considered as must-wins for any candidate, and where Mr Biden was lagging Mr Trump.
“There are independents and young people who did not like their choices, and Harris has a chance to win them,” said Paul Kendrick, executive director of the Democratic group Rust Belt Rising, which does routine polling in the battleground states where voting preferences can swing either way.
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Ms Harris has also been amassing campaign contributions. Her campaign said Monday she had raised $81 million (€74 million) since Mr Biden stepped aside on Sunday, nearly equalling the $95 million that the Biden campaign had in the bank at the end of June.
Hollywood donors ended their “Dembargo” on political donations, as fundraisers and celebrities from rapper Cardi B to Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis and TV producer Shonda Rhimes endorsed Ms Harris.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump and his allies have tried to keep the vice-president tethered to some of Mr Biden’s more unpopular policies, such as immigration
“Kamala Harris’s dismal record is one of complete failure and utter incompetence. Her policies are Biden’s policies, and vice versa,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said.
Whether she can turn around slumping polls in key states remains an open question. In interviews with half-dozen leading Democrats in Wisconsin, they said Ms Harris offers the party the opportunity to push the reset button and animate voters who were unenthused about Mr Biden and Mr Trump.
Replacing Mr Biden atop the ticket has also revved up speculation about who might join Ms Harris as a vice presidential candidate.
The shortlist of people being discussed included Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, US secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, Arizona senator Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, according to people familiar with discussions.
Mr Biden’s Covid “symptoms have almost resolved completely”, according to his physician.
Mr Biden called into the Wilmington, Delaware, headquarters of his former campaign during a visit by Ms Harris, whose bid for the White House has been endorsed by Mr Biden.
The president sought to pep up the staff, urging them to give “every bit” of their “heart and soul” to Ms Harris.
Mr Biden also vowed to be “out on the road” campaigning for his vice president. “If I didn’t have Covid, I’d be standing there with you,” said Mr Biden.
The president was last seen in public late Wednesday after arriving at a US air base in Dover, Delaware, after testing positive for Covid-19 while campaigning in Las Vegas earlier in the day. – Agencies