New York’s 268 delegates—the country’s second-largest collective of Democratic delegates—agreed unanimously to endorse Harris in an emergency virtual call with Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York State Democratic Committee Chair Jay Jacobs this week.
In the handful of days since President Joe Biden decided to back Vice President Kamala Harris as the new presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for 2024, she’s already secured dozens of state endorsements and raised $81 million in contributions.
“I ask you to join me in pledging your support to Vice President Kamala Harris, a proven leader and the future first woman president of the United States,” Hochul wrote in a letter to her state judicial delegates dated July 22, calling Harris “a champion of justice who will fight every single day for a woman’s right to choose, middle-class families, and for the integrity of our democracy.”
Presidential candidates need at least 300 electronic signatures from delegates at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) convention to be considered the nominee. Nearly 4,000 pledged delegates can vote on the first ballot at the convention, PBS reported.
Dems are planning an electronic roll call vote sometime in the first week of August, but rules for that procedure have to be finalized by July 26. The first candidate to win a majority of delegates will be the nominee. Should other candidates come to the forefront alongside Harris, her campaign will be allotted time to convince delegates to give her their vote.
The DNC conference will be held in Chicago from August 19 to 22.
Harris garnered overwhelming support out the gate following Sunday’s ground-shaking development, particularly from Black women voters, organizers, sororities, and elected officials both locally and nationally.
“If anybody get in our way, up and down the ballot, we’ll remember people who left us because we’ve never left them,” Dr. Hazel N. Dukes, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) New York State Conference, told the AmNews. Dukes was one of the first delegates to endorse Congressmember Shirley Chisholm in 1972 for a historic presidential run. She is poised and excited to pledge her vote as a delegate for Harris in the virtual DNC vote, she said.
Brooklyn Assemblymember Stefani Zinerman, who joined more than 44,000 others on a #WinWithBlackWomen fundraising call that raised $1.5 million for Harris, said she was already committed to the Biden/Harris ticket, so the mission for her remains the same.
“I officially endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States of America. Her experience as a prosecutor, Attorney General, U.S. Senator, and Vice President makes her the most qualified candidate in the presidential race,” Zinerman said in a statement. “Her unwavering advocacy for reproductive rights, historic vote for the American Rescue Plan, and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and on the world stage are just some of the reasons for pledging my support. ”
Ny Whitaker, a former White House senior advisor, founder of the New York for Biden+Harris presidential campaign group, and founder and chief strategist at PROJECT NYNE PRODUCTIONS, said she’s excited to add her voice to the growing chorus of those in support of Harris.
“As a Black woman, [I’m] ready to go into gladiator mode,” Whitaker said. Her campaign group has been supporting Biden since 2019, she said, pivoting during COVID-19–related lockdowns to digital advocacy. They taught volunteers how to use virtual meetings, textbanking, and phone banking to get the vote out instead of more traditional in-person methods. Once Biden was in office in 2020, they continued working to support candidates like Councilmember Yusef Salaam in Harlem and U.S. Senator Rev Raphael Warnock in Georgia.
While the national Democratic Party had a conniption over Biden’s debate performance and called for him to drop out of the race for a month, some historically Black-led New York City Dem clubs, as well as Whitaker’s organization, were determined to ride it out with him all the way to November.
“We’re a diverse group, so yes, there were probably people in our group that were concerned, but it wasn’t something at the top of people’s minds,” Whitaker said. “What was at the top was preventing Project 2025. We were more looking at what’s at stake. We love Uncle Joe and this has been a tremendous show of selflessness, but prior to the last 24 hours, we were all in for him and really felt that the country needed that as a statement.”
A quick rebrand to New York for Harris has hit the ground running with all the energy they had for Biden, Whitaker said. They have planned rolling weekly phone and text banks, forums about abortion access and women candidates, fun fundraising events like “cocktails and calls,” virtual e-banks, and pop-up educational series about voting rights and Project 2025. They also will host local debate watch parties to mobilize voters for Harris.
In an effort to also show up and show out for Black women, a #WinWithBlackMen live zoom discussion hosted by media personality Roland Martin saw more than 50,000 Black organizers, fraternities, and elected officials gather virtually for Harris. They raised $1.3 million in four hours.
“I hope we can match what our Black sisters have done,” said founder and CEO of the Strategies for Change Group Khalil Thompson on the July 22 call. He outlined ways to get involved: “Sign up for a shift, go out and knock on a door, talk to your brother when you’re at the shop getting your haircut and getting lined up. Make sure you talk to someone about voting.”
Some Black state delegates were concerned that people’s eagerness to support Harris would be criticized as undemocratic—a fear of an uphill legal battle from Republicans or within the party, should that be the case.
Mayor Eric Adams spoke highly about Biden when he announced he would not seek reelection, but didn’t immediately endorse Harris. Adams is a delegate and will be attending this year’s DNC. In an interview with CNN on July 21, Adams initially said he didn’t want to do anything that would interfere with the DNC voting process and looked forward to conferring with “other delegates and the leaders of the party to determine our next steps.” On its surface, Adams’s answer was perceived as similar to former President Barack Obama’s lack of endorsement for Harris.
“This is moving very quickly because time is not on our side, but I do agree that this shouldn’t be a coronation,” Whitaker said. “It should be a process where those who are elected or appointed to represent us actually exercise the will of the people and officially nominate her. We don’t want anyone to categorize this as a DEI hire. We want this to be the will of the people and make sure everyone is invested in this journey together.”
A scheduled meeting with the media on July 23 fell after Hochul’s delegate Zoom call, by which time Adams had changed his tune: “When it comes down to the VP, my endorsement of her, it was extremely fresh that the president has decided not to run,” he said. “I have a great deal of respect for President Biden, not only for his role as president, but a person who has overcome just a series of tragedies. As someone who has experienced their own tragedies, there was a moment to let the president go through his moment of leaving the race. I reached out to the leaders in the city, and I reached out to Jay Jacobs, who’s head of the party. We had a good conversation. I hope it’s not lost on anyone that when the VP ran for president in the primary, I endorsed her. I hope that’s not lost on you. I was with her in 2020 when everyone was in the race.”
For a minority of Black voters in the city, Biden’s announcement to leave the race was upsetting. Nick E. Smith, former first deputy public advocate under Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, said that Biden was “forced out” and that the “Democratic Party made one of the dumbest political moves.” He said that even with limitations and his age, Biden could still have won.
“This is not about the vice president—a great leader in her own right—but about the party,” Smith clarified in a statement. “Our kids’ lives are on the chopping block, and the party better do what it can to make Vice President Harris the next leader of the free world.”