WASHINGTON (AP) — As Democrats churn over whether President Joe Biden should stay in the 2024 race, the party turmoil is deepening over whether his Vice President Kamala Harris is next in line for the job or if a “mini primary” should be quickly launched to choose a new nominee before the party’s August convention.
Harris hit the campaign fundraising circuit Saturday in breezy Provincetown, Massachusetts, and picked up a nod from the state’s prominent Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said before the visit that if Biden were to step aside, his vice president is “ready to step up.”
At the event, which organizers said raised $2 million and was attended by 1,000 guests, Harris did not mention the calls for Biden to leave the race or for her to replace him, instead repeating one of her regular campaign lines: “We’re going to win this election,” she said.
“Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in equality? Do we believe in the promise of America? Then are we ready to fight for it?” she called to a cheering crowd. “When we fight, we win.”
But installing Harris to the top of the ticket, which would be a history-making moment for the party elevating the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent as its presidential nominee, is not at all certain. Officials from the highest ranks, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, prefer an open process, some believing it would strengthen any Democratic nominee to confront Republican Donald Trump.
“If you think that there is consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave…. that they will support Kamala, Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said this week on a widely discussed social media post.
