Harris secures Democratic presidential nomination
US Vice President Kamala Harris effectively secured the Democratic party's presidential nomination on Friday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November's showdown against Republican Donald Trump. Harris was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates. She will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month. "I am honoured to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States," Harris, 59, said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon vote. In the two weeks since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Harris has gained full control of the party. No other Democrats stepped forward to challenge her elevation to the top of the ticket, making her confirmation as the first black and south Asian woman ever to secure a major party's nomination a formality. The announcement came with Harris preparing to hit the campaign trail next week for a swing across seven crucial battleground states with her newly minted running mate – who is expected to be revealed within days. The Democratic Party decided on a virtual nomination process – mirroring the pandemic-hit 2020 vote – because of Ohio's August 7 deadline for major parties to submit the names of their certified candidates for the November election. The virtual roll call marks the official beginning of the 2024 convention, although in practice the festivities really get going when thousands of party faithful descend on Chicago on August 19. That will feature ceremonial votes for Harris and her running mate in what is expected to be a raucous celebration of her rise from state politics to the top of the ticket. Trump's White House bid was thrown into chaos on July 21 when Biden, 81, withdrew his candidacy, backing Harris as the Democratic nominee. The vice president has already smashed fundraising records, packed arenas and wiped out Trump's polling leads over Biden, creating momentum that she hopes she can ride through the convention to the White House. She is set to make her first public appearance with her running mate on Tuesday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – a crucial swing state whose Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, is among a handful candidates being vetted to potentially join the Harris ticket. The swing will take Harris through all the "blue wall" states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where she will seek to rebuild the coalition that carried Biden to victory in 2020. But she will extend the tour to the much more racially diverse Sun Belt and southern states of Georgia, North Carolina Arizona, North Carolina and Nevada as she seeks to shore up the black and Hispanic vote that had been peeling away from the Democrats. (AFP)