U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday gained the support of a majority of Democratic delegates to become their party's standard-bearer in the race for the White House, while also setting a record single-day fundraising total.
A day after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection bid, endorsing Harris to become his successor, she has already secured the backing of far more than the 1,976 delegates to the party's national convention required to win the nomination in the first round of balloting, according to an Associated Press survey.
Harris picked up an endorsement from former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the most influential Democratic leaders, with numerous other elected Democrats swiftly rallying around the vice president to be their nominee for the November election.
In her first campaign remarks since becoming a presidential candidate, Harris, a 59-year-old former senator and attorney general from California, attacked her Republican rival Donald Trump, saying the election is a choice between "a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law or a country of chaos, fear and hate."
The Democratic Party is due to begin its four-day national convention in Chicago on Aug. 19, at which it will formally nominate its presidential candidate.
The party plans to select its presidential nominee by Aug. 7 through an online vote.
Biden exited the race amid intensifying pressure from Democrats following his shaky performance during a television debate with former President Trump in late June.
Biden's poor performance raised concerns in his party about the 81-year-old incumbent's fitness to run an effective campaign and serve another four-year term.
No sitting American president has ever withdrawn from a presidential election race this late.
On Monday, Biden, who has been isolating at his Delaware beach house since being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week, phoned a campaign event attended by Harris and told campaign staff that exiting from the race was "the right thing to do."
Biden asked them to strongly support Harris to save American democracy as "Trump is still a danger to this nation."
While it remains unclear whom Harris will choose as her running mate, her campaign said that she had raised $81 million in the 24 hours after Biden's withdrawal announcement, a sign her candidacy has been welcomed by Democratic supporters.
Her campaign said the amount of money raised was the largest single-day sum in U.S. presidential race history, adding the donations were made by more than 888,000 grassroots supporters, with 60 percent of them giving for the first time in the 2024 campaign cycle.
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