Vice President Harris speaks during the NCAA championship celebration on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday.
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The Democratic National Committee is moving forward with plans to hold a virtual vote in which delegates are expected to nominate Vice President Harris as the party’s new nominee ahead of next month’s convention.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said DNC officials will hold an electronic roll call on August 7. The news comes after the Associated Press reported that Harris had won enough pledged delegates to clinch the nomination.
Harris said in a statement late Monday that she was “proud to have the broad support needed to be our party’s nominee.”
“When I announced my campaign for President, I said I intended to run and win the nomination,” she said. “I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.”
Democrats quickly rallied around Harris after President Biden dropped out of his re-election bid and endorsed her. Harris is now the only serious contender for the nomination.
The votes from the large group of delegates from California gave Harris the support needed to become the Democratic nominee, which will not be officially declared until all delegates vote.
On Monday night, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a point of endorsing her fellow Californian, citing Harris’ experience as a prosecutor. Pelosi also spoke to delegates about the importance of the California Democrat voting for her, according to people in attendance.
The former California senator did not let that go.
“As a Californian, I am proud that my state’s delegation helped take our campaign to the next level,” Harris said.
How virtual voting works
Democratic Party rules require candidates to fill out paperwork and collect at least 300 electronic signatures within a short period of time — possibly this week — to qualify for the ballot. Harris is the only candidate so far to have more than 300 delegates. Self-help author Marianne Williamson, who ran in the primaries earlier this year and in 2020, has indicated she wants to run as well.
The DNC began developing plans for virtual voting in May, concerned that waiting for delegates to vote in person at the convention would put the nominee at risk of missing out on some of the voting deadline in Ohio and other states. The convention begins on August 19.
The DNC’s rules committee will finalize the plan in a meeting viewable on YouTube Wednesday afternoon.
Minyon Moore, the party’s convention chairman, said the online vote ahead of the convention became more important after Biden dropped out this weekend and Republicans threatened legal action.
“We will not allow technical issues or MAGA extremists to impede the election process,” Moore said.
Republicans threaten challenge
On Sunday, hours before Biden announced his decision to drop out of the race, House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN that Democrats could have a “real problem” if they tried to replace him as the nominee.
“I think they’re running into legal hurdles in some of these states and I expect this issue will come up in court there and they’ll have to work it out,” Johnson said.
But after Biden’s announcement, Republicans appeared to abandon that strategy, focusing instead on the idea that Harris could face obstacles in using Biden’s campaign money.
Charlie Spies, a former Republican National Committee general counsel and chairman of the Federal Election Commission, told NPR he expected complaints if Harris continued to use those funds.
“There’s not a lot of precedent here, but I think they have a legal problem with letting Harris use the Biden committee as her campaign committee,” he said.
Other election law experts say that since Biden and Harris are both on the campaign committee, there should be no problem.
Head of FEC told NPR This is a complex and unprecedented situation, and there will likely be many challenges.
Such complaints are unlikely to get a quick response, said Richard Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the UCLA School of Law.
“I can tell you that the Federal Election Commission moves very slowly — we are still working through some issues from the 2016 campaign — and so I don’t expect there to be any quick resolution to these issues before the election,” he said.
KQED’s Molly Solomon contributed to this report.
