Democratic holdouts hesitate on Harris endorsement over border, energy, labor issues

Vice President Kamala Harris has already surpassed the 1,976 delegates needed to make her the likely presumptive Democratic presidential nominee when the party gathers at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.

However, there are still some prominent and vulnerable Democratic holdouts who have not rushed to endorse Harris’s campaign after President Joe Biden exited the race in a surprise announcement on Sunday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a former 2016 and 2020 presidential candidate, remains one of the most high-profile progressives to have not backed Harris yet. He told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Friday that while he will work to help Harris, “we want to make sure that the vice president is listening to the working class of this country, to the progressives as well.”

Sanders also listed left-leaning policies he wanted Harris to support, including expanding Medicare to pay for dental and vision insurance along with canceling all student debt as part of her campaign. The Vermont senator has spoken with Harris but still stopped short of an endorsement. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that Donald Trump — the most dangerous president in American history — is not elected,” Sanders said in an interview with WMUR Friday. “I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure that Kamala Harris is elected. But in my view, it’s gonna be a tough race.”

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is perhaps the most vulnerable incumbent Democrat in the upper chamber and remains a strong Harris holdout. Tester claims he is in favor of an “open nomination process,” but with no other current challengers, it appears Harris has the nomination locked down.

Alaska’s at-large Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) wouldn’t tell Alaska reporters if she was voting for Harris or former President Donald Trump and instead claimed her vote was dependent on a candidate’s energy stance.

“While I really appreciate her stance on women’s reproductive rights, Social Security, voting rights, and a host of other things, as the representative for Alaska, my number one job is looking at our economy and our energy situation and which, you know, which of the two candidates will be better in terms of our energy portfolio,” Peltola said. “That is an honest answer. I am not being coy.”

Peltola was one of the six Democrats who voted with the GOP this week to condemn Harris over her role as the “border czar.” Harris was tasked with focusing on the root cause of the migration problem, which led to her being branded with the moniker border czar. Reps. Jared Goldman (D-ME), Yadira Caraveo (D-CO), Don Davis (D-NC), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), and Henry Cuellar (D-TX) were the other five Democrats who joined Republicans in a 220-196 vote.

Caraveo, however, has said that she is “eager” to support Harris’s quest to win the White House.

Texas Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez told NOTUS he wants to hear more from Harris about the border. “I want to hear how we’re going to address it and what we’re going to do to improve conditions on the border,” said Gonzalez, who also said her team hadn’t contacted him.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) also told NOTUS she was withholding an endorsement until a viable vice presidential option emerged. She is hoping for a nominee that comes from the “battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio or Wisconsin” which can appeal to Midwest voters. “We were neglected for too long. I’m not going to sell out for just any candidate,” she said.

In a statement to the Intercept, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the sole Palestinian-American congressional leader, said her constituents want a permanent ceasefire in the battle between Israel and Hamas. She also called for a “transparent democratic process” at the convention but did not endorse Harris.

Harris has received the backing of most Democratic leaders, including former President Barack Obama, Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

Other vulnerable leaders such as Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Emilia Sykes (D-OH), and Angie Craig (D-MN) have also thrown their support in for Harris, though some have cautioned that she has roughly 100 days to make her case to the American public.