N.Y. Dems coalesce around Harris
ALBANY — It took less than 48 hours for the cracks that had begun to widen between Democrats in New York about this year’s elections to be sealed after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid Sunday.
By Tuesday, the same Democrats who had loudly disagreed over having Biden as the party’s nominee days earlier had coalesced around their new one: Vice President Kamala Harris.
The 307 delegates from New York chosen to attend the Democratic National Convention next month in Chicago jumped on a well-attended virtual call Monday night to make that decision alongside Gov. Kathy Hochul, the state party’s de facto head.
The message was clear, Hochul said. The delegates from New York — the second-largest delegation behind California — will go to Harris.
“I’m so proud of New York’s delegation for joining me to support Vice President Harris,” Hochul said.
Democrats running for Congress who hadn’t yet pledged their support for Harris soon fell in line.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, who hadn’t yet endorsed Harris, said he would back her as the nominee around 10 p.m. Monday.
“The response to Kamala Harris’ historic candidacy has been overwhelming and I add my name to the chorus of endorsements,” Suozzi said.
The other Democrat from New York who had reserved his opinion was House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries from Brooklyn.
His endorsement — along with that of Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, also a Democrat from Brooklyn — was expected, but not promised.
Then the pair of high-ranking Democratic congressional leaders announced a rare joint news conference Tuesday afternoon and emerged in full support of Harris as their nominee.
They wanted to wait to see how delegates from New York and other states reacted to Harris, Schumer said. She secured more than half the number required for the party’s nomination Tuesday.
“Now that the process has played out, from the grassroots bottom up, we are here today to throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris,” Schumer said.
Harris spoke with Schumer Sunday, he said, and told him she wanted to convince Democrats in New York and across the country to support her nomination rather than demand it from the top levels of the party.
“We deeply respected that,” Schumer said.
But while Harris didn’t direct the delegates personally, she instead deployed powerful surrogates like Hochul and Schumer to drum up support for her at the state level. That wasn’t hard, Schumer said.
“The enthusiasm in this big, diverse party was amazing. It was palpable,” he said. “You could cut it with a knife!”
They view Harris as their best shot heading into November not only to win the White House, but to build their numbers in Congress. Democrats have a razor thin majority in the U.S. Senate and are in the minority in the House.
If Democrats flip enough seats in the House to win the majority, that would earn Jeffries a new title: House speaker.
“We’re going to hold the Senate, we’re going to win the house, we’re going to elect Kamala Harris as our next president in November,” Jeffries said.
The pair had reportedly asked Biden personally to consider ending his campaign for president but when asked if that was true, Schumer declined to answer.
“He put his country first and made the right decision,” Schumer said.