WASHINGTON D.C. — Just hours after President Joe Biden announced that he was aside in the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris said Sunday she intended to “earn and win” the Democratic nomination for President.
Harris still must win the nomination for the Democratic party but received Biden’s endorsement in a social media post.
>>RELATED: President Joe Biden announces that he is dropping re-election bid
She is the first woman, Black person, or person of South Asian descent to serve as Vice President of the United States, according to the Associated Press.
If she becomes the Democratic nominee and beats Republican candidate former President Donald Trump in November, she would be the first woman to serve as President of the United States.
Biden said Sunday that choosing Harris as his running mate was “the best decision I’ve made” and endorsed her as his successor.
“Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump,” he wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Let’s do this.”
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best… pic.twitter.com/x8DnvuImJV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
>>RELATED: Biden endorses VP Kamala Harris to become the party’s nominee for president
Harris described Biden’s decision to step aside as a “selfless and patriotic act,” saying he was “putting the American people and our country above country above everything else.”
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said on social media. “Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election.”
On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 21, 2024
I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.
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Harris is a former prosecutor and U.S. Senator from California. Her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination ended before a single primary vote was cast. She became Biden’s running mate, but struggled to find her footing after taking officer as Vice President, the AP reported.
As Vice President, she was assigned to work on issues involving migration from Central America but was blamed by Republicans for problems with illegal border crossings.
Harris became an outspoken advocate for abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
She will seek to avoid the same of Hubert Humphrey, who was vice president and won the Democratic nomination in 1968 after President Lyndon Johnson declined to run for reelection amid national dissatisfaction over the Vietnam War, the AP said. He lost that year to Richard Nixon.
The Democratic National Convention will be held August 19-22 in Chicago.
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