This is a fast-moving story, so it might literally be out of date the moment we hit publish. Kamala Harris is apparently trying to blitz her way to the nomination by getting delegate pledges.
And this is a job for … Election Wizard!
VP HARRIS WINS HER FIRST DELEGATES - STATE OF TENNESSEE PLEDGES 77: RTRS
— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) July 21, 2024
BREAKING: New Hampshire Democrat Delegates endorse Harris
— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) July 22, 2024
BREAKING: Louisiana's 53 delegates and South Carolina's 55 delegates all pledge for Kamala Harris
— Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) July 22, 2024
We also got additional information from this gentleman:
Biden Delegates from both NC and SC have moved from Biden to Harris.
— Kevin D. Grüssing (pronounced Grew-sing) (@KevDGrussing) July 22, 2024
Unlike Election Wizard, we don’t know this guy’s track record. So, while Wizard verified South Carolina, what about North Carolina? Well, according to this, it is true:
NC Democratic delegates unanimously vote to support Kamala Harris for President https://t.co/qKGLmRz4DP
— ABC11 EyewitnessNews (@ABC11_WTVD) July 22, 2024
Tonight, all 168 delegates of the North Carolina Democratic Party made history. Our delegates voted unanimously decision to endorsed and put our party’s full support behind the nomination of @KamalaHarris to be the President of the United States. I’m proud of our party. LFG! ✊ pic.twitter.com/mDfPpxymMo
— Anderson Clayton☀️ (@abreezeclayton) July 22, 2024
Things also look promising for her in New York:
NY State Dem Chair endorses Harris. Encourages delegates to follow pic.twitter.com/afku4BHbl7
— John Santucci (@Santucci) July 22, 2024
Recommended
At also looks good in Maryland so far:
The 8 @MDSenate Senators serving as Delegates to the DNC stand together: We thank President @JoeBiden for his remarkable service and strongly endorse VP @KamalaHarris for President of the United States! #TeamMD #LetsDoThis pic.twitter.com/61J8M1KQki
— Bill Ferguson (@SenBillFerg) July 21, 2024
Wisconsin:
Wisconsin Election Commission Chair Ann Jacobs, who is also one of Milwaukee’s eight DNC delegates, said that she and the seven other delegates will back Vice President Harris after President Biden said he would withdraw from the race.
— The Hill (@thehill) July 21, 2024
Follow live: https://t.co/jn5TlcSScx pic.twitter.com/KhSt9QZQLE
Oh, and if you think things are moving a bit fast, there is likely to be a virtual convention to decide this whole thing in ten days:
DNC delegates are now being told to expect a vote on August 1, which would "in essence, attempt to put [Kamala] Harris' name formally in the nomination and make her the nominee," @edokeefe reports.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 21, 2024
"Someone who may not like that ideas only has about 10 days to say, 'No, let me… pic.twitter.com/QyquLSAPVO
The cut off text reads:
"Someone who may not like that ideas only has about 10 days to say, 'No, let me challenge her.'"
And, by the way, it is going to be hard for anyone opposing her to even put their names forward:
DNC Rules require 300 delegates to support a candidate in order to have that candidates name placed in nomination for consideration by the whole convention. That will be a major hurdle for the anti-Harris candidates and will likely result in only Kamala Harris being placed in… pic.twitter.com/PaOlP2aLFd
— Brant Frost V (@BrantFrostV) July 21, 2024
The cut off text:
That will be a major hurdle for the anti-Harris candidates and will likely result in only Kamala Harris being placed in nomination.
So, this doesn’t strike us so far as a nomination process so much as a coronation. And it strikes us as being ridiculously undemocratic.
Regular readers will recall that we have been reporting on rumors that Biden was going to drop out of the race since Thursday. While this author remained skeptical, apparently Axios’ reporting was accurate. That means that at the very least they had planned to have Biden withdraw from the race for four days, allowing Harris to get this blitz ready to go. Seriously, how else do you get that many people to agree on anything that quickly? Is this a sign of things to come in the next ten days, Harris locking down one state after another until she reaches the roughly 2,000 delegates needed for the nomination? Or is she trying to start right out of the gate with a large number of wins to give any would-be challengers a false sense that it is futile to challenge her?
We’re not sure, so we will have to see. But we have a hard time believing the entire Democrat Party is going to be okay with everyone just deciding to support Harris in lockstep. First, this author tried to imagine how we would feel if Trump suddenly left the race in 2020. Would we have suddenly declared that Pence was the obvious nominee? We can almost hear people in the comments already screaming ‘No!’ And we like J.D. Vance so far, but imagine if Trump left the race this weekend? Would this author think it absolutely must be Vance? No, we’d want to have some discussion and maybe even some real competition to decide who the nominee is. Are the Democrats less independent minded? It would be ironic if they were, given how much they accuse the other side of being in a mindless cult.
And, the vice-presidential nomination isn’t an award for second place. Indeed, if a presidential nominee has a tough primary, he or she is not likely to pick someone who made things tough. In this particular case, Biden picked a person who was a non-entity in the 2020 campaign and he did so for explicitly demographic reasons. We are sure there are people who like Harris but does she have any constituency beyond ‘generic Democrat who is not Trump?’
We just get a feeling of what we call ‘turnism’ when it comes to Harris. Every now and then parties nominate a candidate not because they particularly think he or she is a great choice but because it is his or her ‘turn.’ We are thinking of Bob Dole in 1996, John Kerry in 2004, John McCain in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Turnism is the road to disaster. But on the other hand, Harris is Biden’s heir apparent and Democrats risk being called racist and sexist if they pass over this black woman. We think the only Democrat with sufficient prominence who could avoid that trap is Michelle Obama and we don’t think she wants a political career at all. So demographics might prevent the party from telling Harris that she won’t get the nomination just because it is ‘her turn.’
Finally, we will leave you with Michael Knowles talking about Harris’ rise and even discussing her with a person who has written a book about her time in the White House … so far:
We found the entire thing very interesting. In any case, stay tuned.
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