Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin for the first time as a presidential candidate on Tuesday after securing enough Democratic delegate support to clear a path to the nomination.
Harris quickly emerged as the Democratic candidate after President Joe Biden, 81, abandoned his reelection campaign on Sunday, following weeks of mounting pressure from members of his own party worried about his ability to beat former President Donald Trump or to serve for another four-year term.
Less than 36 hours after Biden endorsed Harris, she secured the nomination on Monday night by winning pledges from a majority of the delegates to next month's party convention who will determine the nomination, the campaign said.
"I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party's nominee," Harris said in a statement. "I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon."
An unofficial survey of delegates by the Associated Press showed Harris with more than 2,500 delegates, well over the 1,976 needed to win a vote in the coming weeks. Delegates could still change their minds, but no one else received any votes in the AP survey; 54 delegates said they were undecided.
Harris' rise dramatically reshapes an election in which many voters were unhappy with their options.
Saddled with concerns including his health and persistent high prices crimping Americans' household finances, Biden had been losing ground against Trump in opinion polls, particularly in the competitive states, known as swing states, that are likely to decide the election, including Wisconsin and the Sun Belt states of Arizona and Nevada.
The Wisconsin event offers another opportunity for Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, to reset the Democrats' campaign. She was due to speak in Milwaukee at 1 p.m. CDT (1800 GMT).
Harris, 59, offered a sense of how she plans to attack 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, who has a felony conviction and was found liable for sexual assault in civil court.
While a wave of senior Democrats have lined up behind Harris, the racial justice group Black Lives Matter on Tuesday challenged the party's swift move.
It called for a national virtual snap primary ahead of the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where the party will formally nominate its candidate.
"We call for the Rules Committee to create a process that allows for public participation in the nomination process, not just a nomination by party delegates," Black Lives Matter said in a statement to Reuters. "This moment calls for decisive action to protect the integrity of our democracy and the voices of Black voters."
RUST BELT PUSH
Biden said on X that he would deliver a speech on Wednesday night from the Oval Office explaining his decision to end his campaign.
His dramatic exit followed Trump's narrow survival of an assassination attempt that raised questions about security failures in the US Secret Service. The agency director, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned on Tuesday, after numerous lawmakers called for her to step down.
Trump and his allies have tried to tether Harris to some of Biden's more unpopular policies, including his administration's handling of the surge of migrants at the southern border with Mexico.
"Kamala Harris' dismal record is one of complete failure and utter incompetence. Her policies are Biden's policies, and vice versa," Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said.
Wisconsin is among a trio of Rust Belt states, along with Michigan and Pennsylvania, that are critical for Democrats' chances of defeating 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.
Harris has been raking in campaign contributions. Her campaign said on Monday she had raised $100 million since Biden stepped aside on Sunday, topping the $95 million that the Biden campaign had in the bank at the end of June.
Actor George Clooney, a major Hollywood fundraiser for Democrats who caused a stir two weeks ago when he called on Biden to drop out, on Tuesday endorsed Harris, CNN reported him as saying.
A half-dozen leading Democrats in Wisconsin said in interviews that Harris offers the party the opportunity to animate voters who were unenthusiastic about Biden and Trump.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, a Democrat, said Harris could also help bring back crucial Black voters.
"Many of them didn't come along because they were distracted by his age, distracted by his appearance," Crowley said.
Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison, in an interview on NBC's "Today" program, said the party had to move quickly to get the ticket on ballots in all 50 states, and that the vice presidential pick needed to be made by Aug. 7.
"This process is going to be fair, transparent, open but it's going to be fast," Harrison said.
Potential running mates include 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 internal policy discussions.
