Following his announcement that he would not seek re-election, Joe Biden announced his support for Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the presidency of the United States for the November 5 elections.
“Today I want to offer my full support and backing to Kamala to be the candidate of our party this year. Democrats: It’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do it,” Biden said Sunday, minutes after announcing his withdrawal from the race.
Harris responded to Biden’s remarks by confirming her candidacy for the presidency.
“It is an honor for me to have the support of the president and My intention is to deserve and win this nomination.“Harris said in a statement.
“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and our nation – to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
If she is confirmed as the party’s chosen candidate, she would be the first woman president, something that the also Democrat was unable to achieve in 2016. Hillary Clintondefeated precisely by Trump.
Kamala Harris made history in the 2020 presidential election by becoming the first woman to serve as vice president of the United States.
She was also the first African-American or Asian-American woman to hold that position in the White House.
This is his story.
Harris’s path to politics
Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California.
Harris’s parents – her Indian mother and Jamaican father – divorced when she was 5, at which time her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harrisa cancer researcher and civil rights activist, takes charge of raising her daughters.
Harris says her mother dipped her and her little sister, Maya, in the Oakland’s black community.
“My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters,” she wrote in her autobiography. The Truths We Hold.
“She knew her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as Black girls and she was determined to make sure we grew into confident, proud Black women.”
Harris studied at the Howard University -one of the nation’s leading historically African-American universities- where he became involved in political issues such as the apartheid in south africa and the race relations in the united states.
Harris took her first steps at the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office in Oakland.
Already a lawyer from the University of California, she became district attorney of San Francisco – the highest position in that area – in 2003, before becoming the first woman to reach the position of California Attorney General in 2010.
In 2016, She was elected senator for California. After his victory, he promised to protect immigrants from the policies of then-President-elect Donald Trump and to that end he remained in office as attorney general until the end of 2016.
Already in 2020, he campaigned to be Democratic presidential candidate, but dropped out of the race early on. Ultimately, Joe Biden chose her to be his running mate.
“Kamala is smart, tough, experienced, a proven fighter”Biden said of Harris.
The role of vice president
Harris, as vice president, is also the president of the Senate, which gives her the right to vote in the upper chamber when discussions on bills are tied.
In Congress, Harris has set a record by using that power 32 times.more than any other vice president in American history.
“Kamala will be the last voice in the room, challenging assumptions and asking the tough questions,” Biden said of the vice president.
In 2022, she gained popularity after touring the country in defense of reproductive rights, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion in the United States.
Against him is the difficult task Biden gave him of finding solutions to the root causes of the immigration problem at the border, something that the Republicans will surely use against him now.
Harris’s approval ratings as vice president have not been the best. Fifty-one percent of Americans disapprove of her performance and only 37% approve, according to polling averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight.
BBC US special correspondent Katty Kay says this may be because the main task President Biden gave her as vice president was reduce immigration across the southern border of the United Statessomething that has not been able to be achieved.
The road to the presidency
Following President Biden’s poor performance in the presidential debate with Donald Trump, numerous congressmen and Democratic leaders publicly called on the 81-year-old president to abandon re-election.
Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan has nominated Harris to replace him as the head of the ticket.
“I firmly believe that our best path forward is Kamala Harris,” he said, expressing an idea that was backed by Biden himself on Sunday when he withdrew.
California Rep. Adam Schiff backed Harris, saying she would be a “phenomenal president” and that could beat Trump “overwhelmingly”.
Recent polls suggest Harris could outperform Biden against Trump, although she would face a tough electoral fight.
A CNN poll released on July 2 indicates that 43% of voters would prefer Biden to be president, while 49% favor Trump. If Harris were to run for president, 45% would support the vice president while 47% would vote for Trump.
Possible candidates to replace Joe Biden also include the governor of California, Gavin Newsomthe governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmerand the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg.
With Biden’s withdrawal from the race, Harris has climbed to a position she had long sought: the top of the Democratic Party ticket; if she finally achieves that, she will seek to become the first female president of the United States.
With reporting by Rachel Looker and Holly Honderich of BBC News.
Click here to read more stories from BBC News Mundo.
You can also follow us on Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook and in our new WhatsApp channelwhere you’ll find breaking news and our best content.
And remember that you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate them.
- Joe Biden withdraws his re-election bid and endorses Kamala Harris for the US presidential election in November
- “It is in the best interest of my party and the country that I withdraw”: the letter with which Joe Biden withdraws his campaign for reelection (and gives his support to Vice President Kamala Harris)