PORTLAND, Ore. — The Associated Press's Delegate Survey predicted Monday night that Vice President Kamala Harris has enough support from Democratic delegates to become the presidential nominee. The news came just one day after President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race.
Several state delegations met late Monday to confirm their support, and the AP tally showed Harris with well over the 1,976 delegates she needs to secure the nomination.
On Wednesday, all delegates of the Democratic Party of Oregon unanimously voted to endorse Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president.
However, nothing is official yet.
"In the next 106 days, we have work to do. We have doors to knock on. We have people to talk to. We have phone calls to make. And we have an election to win," said Harris, rallying staffers at President Biden's campaign headquarters.
Since the president endorsed Harris, more endorsements for her have rolled in, and the Democratic delegates in Oregon and beyond have continued to pledge their support.
"It's historic, absolutely historic," said Moses Ross, one of Oregon's 78 Democratic delegates. He is also running for Portland City Council District 4. "I don't see this being as a contested convention, I really don't. I think that my feeling of the pulse of the Democrats is that they're 100% behind Vice President Harris, and they also admire and respect President Biden's decision to do what he has done ... to not run for re-election, and to pass the baton."
Jim Moore, a politics professor at Pacific University, also weighed in.
"Biden's entire message — and Trump's entire message — was 'Put me back in so that I can finish what I started,'" explained Jim Moore, politics professor at Pacific University. "(Harris) can say, 'Yeah, it was a good start, but here's where we need to go.'"
Moore predicts that the Vice President will name her running mate by the end of this week or the beginning of next. By Aug. 7, the Democratic delegates will choose a presidential nominee in an online vote. The Democratic National Convention then begins Aug. 19 in Chicago.
"This is all normal process, but now it's in a really compressed time span. That's what makes it seem so different, but it's basically following the same rules, doing the same things that would have happened if Biden had stayed in," Moore said.