 "US First lady Jill Biden, left, and second gentleman Douglass Emhoff, right, watch as US President Joe Biden, center left, raises the hand of Vice President Kamala Harris as they view the Independence Day firework display over the National Mall from the balcony of the White House, July 4, 2024, in Washington. File Image/AP")
Minutes after US President Joe Biden announced that he was stepping out of the 2024 US presidential race, he endorsed his second in command, Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic ticket. Even before Biden’s exit, Kamala has broken several glass ceilings throughout her political career.
She was the first female to be the Vice President of the United States, and the first Indian-origin politician to serve the office in the country. In 2003, she became the first South Asian American woman in California to hold the office of district attorney general.
Hence, Harris is known for many firsts. But this time she managed to shatter yet another glass ceiling even before she got the Democratic ticket. With Biden’s endorsement, Harris became the first running mate since 1968 to have a boss end his re-election bid. She is also the first woman to achieve what some might call a “feat”.
Not the first time but if Kamala wins she will create history
It is pertinent to note that in the last 75 years only two Democratic presidents, Harry S. Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson, decided during an election year not to run again. The announcement surprised the nation as they mentioned that they would only allow fresh candidates to vie for their party’s nomination.
In both cases, the Democratic candidates who became the party nominees — Adlai Stevenson, then the governor of Illinois, and Hubert Humphrey, then the vice president — lost the general election to their Republican counterparts.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsWhile Harris has already created history before even formally entering the presidential race, if she wins the elections, she will be the first American politician to win under such circumstances.
Harris determined to ’earn and win’ the democratic ticket
Harris vowed to “earn and win” the Democratic presidential nomination hours after President Joe Biden exited the race to the White House. On Sunday, Biden left the United States speechless after he announced that he won’t be running for the the re-election to the Oval Office.
Minutes later he issued a separate statement in which he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take on former US President Donald Trump in the 2024 Presidential Elections. In her statement after Biden’s endorsement, the Indian-origin politician thanked the POTUS for his leadership over the year and pledged to “do everything … to unite the Democratic Party” and the nation.
“With this selfless and patriotic act, President Biden is doing what he has done throughout his life of service: putting the American people and our country above everything else,” Harris said in a statement on Sunday.
“I am honoured to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination. Over the past year, I have travelled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” she added.
Harris gets the donors’ support
Interestingly, following Biden’s Sunday announcement, the Democratic money machine came back into business. After Biden announced that he was stepping aside, large and small donors began digging back into their pockets.
ActBlue, the leading Democratic online donation processor, stated that Democratic donors gave a whopping $46.7 million in small-dollar donations through the platform for the day by 9 pm (local time). The figure contributed to ActBlue’s biggest day of 2024 with hours left to go.
Not only this, experts believe that much more is expected to flow in and is already being pledged by large-dollar donors. “The floodgates will open,” Chris Korge, finance chair for the Biden Victory Fund, told NBC News. “There’s been a lot of people holding back contributions that will now contribute because the whole thing — that whole situation was paralyzing our fundraising.”
With inputs from agencies.