Former President Barack Obama endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee on Friday.
The endorsement was made public on YouTube, where the Harris campaign posted a video of Obama telling her via a phone call that she has his support. Michelle Obama participated in the call, too.
“We called to say, Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” Obama said.
When President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he would not seek reelection, Obama released a statement but held back from throwing his full support behind the vice president. Until now, he had been one of the few high-profile holdouts who had yet to endorse her candidacy. According to NBC News, Obama had been in touch with Harris since Biden ended his campaign, and had been privately expressing his support for her in their conversations.
According to The New York Times, 100% of elected Democratic governors, 96% of Democratic U.S. senators and 94% of Democratic U.S. representatives have endorsed Harris.
Notable endorsements from other politicians and political groups include former President Bill Clinton, former first lady and Sen. Hillary Clinton, and the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee, which includes Sen. Raphael Warnock and Reps. James Clyburn, Bennie Thompson, and Maxine Waters.
Spike Lee, John Legend, Shonda Rhimes, and many other public figures have also endorsed Harris.
If she wins election in November, Harris would be the nation’s first female president and second Black president, after Obama. Her campaign is already making history and breaking records: she raised $81 million in the 24 hours after Biden’s announcement, the most ever raised in a single day for either party.
Vote.org announced that it registered 40,000 voters in the two days following Biden’s announcement. That’s “an almost 700% daily increase in new registrations,” Andrea Hailey, the CEO of Vote.org, posted on X. “That’s the largest number of new voters registered over a 48 hour period we’ve seen this entire cycle.”
Democrats will hold their national convention Aug. 19-22 in Chicago, where, if Harris secures the delegates she is expected to, she will become the party’s official nominee.
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