Kamala Harris makes history as the first woman of color to lead a major-party ticket

Vice President Kamala Harris became the official Democratic nominee for president Monday evening, marking the first time in American history a woman of color is leading a major-party ticket after results from the party’s virtual roll call were released. 

The overwhelming majority, 99% of the pledged and automatic delegates, threw their support for Harris, according to Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison and convention chairwoman Minyon Moore.

“Vice President Harris has historic momentum at her back as we embark on the final steps in officially certifying her as our Party’s nominee,” the pair said in a joint statement sent late Monday night.

Following the official results, convention secretary Jason Rae will certify the roll call, and then Harris and her running mate will accept the nomination, which Moore will certify.

Harris achieved the feat in roughly two weeks, quickly seizing on the momentum of President Joe Biden’s decision to suspend his campaign last month and galvanizing Democrats to donate in historic sums to her burgeoning campaign. Her campaign raised $310 million in July, more than double the nearly $139 million that former President Donald Trump’s campaign raised in the same time period.

No other Democrat challenged Harris for the nomination after Biden and the rest of the party leaders coalesced around her 2024 bid, deftly avoiding the unwanted brokered convention. 

On Friday, Harris secured the necessary delegates to become the party’s presumptive nominee after earning the majority of the convention delegates. The virtual roll call began Thursday at 9 a.m. ET but at 1:16 p.m. ET the next day the vice president had won 2,350 votes, cementing her status as the party’s next leader. 

Once a former San Francisco district attorney, Harris rose to become the state’s attorney general before becoming the junior senator from California and then joining Biden’s 2020 campaign as his running mate, making her the nation’s highest-ranking woman politician when the pair were inaugurated in January 2021. 

Harris, who is black and Indian, became the second woman to lead a major-party ticket after Hillary Clinton accomplished the feat in 2016 before losing the election to Trump. She is also the second black person to lead a major-party ticket after former President Barack Obama became the nominee in 2008 and then again in 2012. Harris cinched the nomination 52 years after Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination, launched her campaign. 

Normally, Harris would have secured the nomination during the Democratic National Convention scheduled to start Aug. 19 and go through Aug. 22 in Chicago.

But fearing complications from state ballot deadline certifications, Democrats continued with the virtual roll call before the convention commences. There is an expected ceremonial roll call that will take place in Chicago. Biden, once expected to be the crown jewel at the DNC, is scheduled to give the opening remarks on the first night of the convention.

The vice president is also weighing announcing her running mate, who will join her on a seven-state battleground tour beginning on Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

She spent the weekend interviewing candidates on the shortlist, including Govs. Andy Beshear (D-KY), J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), Josh Shapiro (D-PA), and Tim Walz (D-MN), as well as Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Since Harris has consolidated the Democratic Party to support her campaign, some national polls have moved the race to either a toss-up or shown Harris erasing the narrow lead Trump once had over Biden. The sunbelt battleground states including Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia are now in play for Democrats.