Kamala Harris will be the only candidate on the Democratic National Committee’s virtual roll call ballot for president, cementing her status as the party’s all-but-certain nominee.
Convention delegates will begin voting on Harris’ nomination on Thursday and finish by Aug. 5, according to a statement released by the DNC Tuesday night. The vice president secured support from 3,923 delegates to appear on the virtual ballot.
Harris’ expected nomination next week marks the end of a dramatic and condensed process that immediately elevated the vice president after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race on July 21. Less than 10 days later, Harris has cleared the field, and her name will be the only one placed in nomination.
Three other candidates filed with the DNC, but they failed to collect 300 delegate signatures necessary to gain access to the virtual ballot.
Harris, Biden’s chosen successor, benefited from the compressed timeline. Within 24 hours of announcing her own run, a cascade of Democratic officials, donors and activists backed her candidacy, and no serious candidates challenged her bid. The DNC’s push for a virtual roll call — aimed at avoiding a Republican-backed legal challenge for ballot access in Ohio — also helped speed up the process.
Automatic delegates — traditionally referred to as superdelegates — will vote on the first ballot, since Harris “has the verified support of a number of pledged delegates equal to or greater than a majority of all pledged and automatic delegates,” the statement said.
“Democratic delegates from across the nation made their voices heard, overwhelmingly backing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee,” DNC chair Jaime Harrison and DNC’s convention chair Minyon Moore said in a joint statement. “Our party has met this unprecedented moment with a transparent, democratic and orderly process to unite behind a nominee with a proven record who will lead us in the fight ahead.”
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