The top two Democrats in Congress endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Tuesday, as enough delegates backed the former California Senator to make her the presumptive Democratic nominee.
After President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race Sunday afternoon, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in a press conference Tuesday that Harris should be the party’s nominee in November.
“We are here to throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris,” Schumer said, calling it a “grassroots-up” result.
Support from Democrats in Congress quickly coalesced around Harris after Biden released a letter saying he would drop out at the start of the week. The two highest-ranking Democrats on Capitol Hill had danced around an endorsement of the vice president but refused to make one publicly.
But on Tuesday, Schumer implied this silence was strategic and decided behind the scenes, telling reporters Harris had told him she “wanted the opportunity to win the nomination on her own and to do so from the grassroots up, not top-down.”
“We deeply respected that, Hakeem and I did,” Schumer said. “She said she would work to earn the support of our party, and boy has she done so in quick order.”
Jeffries praised Biden for making “the selfless decision to pass the torch” to Harris and said her candidacy has “excited and energized” Democrats led by Jeffries in the House.
Harris is now the presumptive Democratic nominee after enough delegates pledged their support ahead of the August national convention. Fewer than 36 hours since Biden dropped from the ticket, Harris easily passed the 1,976-delegate threshold Monday night by securing 2,668 delegates, according to a survey of Democratic delegates by the Associated Press. As of Tuesday afternoon, nearly every Democratic member of Congress had endorsed the Harris, save 21 members who have yet to speak on the matter.
Party leaders — from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) to California governor Gavin Newsom and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton — quickly threw their support behind the vice president, preventing what could have been a messy and drawn-out process to bestow the party’s nomination on a new candidate. Money has also poured into the vice president’s campaign coffers, as she raised more than $100 million between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening.
Biden endorsed Harris for president minutes after his initial announcement and plans to speak to the nation Wednesday evening.