SC Democratic delegates enthusiastic about Harris, think voters will be too

Vice President Kamala Harris hugs state Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine, who introduced Harris, before she gave the keynote address at King Day at the Dome on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. (File/Mary Ann Chastain/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)

COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention are enthusiastic about their decision to back Vice President Kamala Harris — and they think her ability to make history will turn out Democrats in November too, they told the SC Daily Gazette on Monday.

“At the end of the day, we have the opportunity to make history by electing the first African American woman to the presidency,” said Trav Robertson, former chairman of the state Democratic Party and a delegate to the convention.

“I think it sends an exciting message to African American women who have long been the backbone of the party that we stand ready to support her,” he continued.

Harris, a daughter of immigrants and the nation’s first woman vice president, is also the first Black vice president and the first of South Asian descent. Her father is from Jamaica and her mother is from India.

“The energy that we’re going to see at this convention … it’s going to be close to what folks experienced in Denver in 2008,” when President Barack Obama was nominated, said delegate Donovan Malloy, an attorney and son of state Sen. Gerald Malloy of Hartsville.

“So, we’re just excited because it’s kind of something we’ve been waiting for,” he said.

The overwhelming vote by delegates on Sunday to endorse Harris came just hours after President Joe Biden ended his bid for re-election. His announcement on social media followed weeks of increasing calls from within his own party to bow out after his disastrous debate performance with former President Donald Trump.

His path to a second term officially began in South Carolina, which in February held the nation’s first recognized Democratic primary. South Carolina was chosen to lead the nominating calendar this year partially as thanks for resurrecting his campaign in 2020 and because of its large Black voting base.

Party officials touted it as a blowout success. Biden won with over 96% of the vote against two relatively unknown challengers.

“We understood the importance of being first in the nation,” said Rep. Ivory Thigpen of Columbia, chair of the state Legislative Black Caucus and a delegate to the convention. “It was our responsibility as a state to be decisive.”

But whether the primary results projected the enthusiasm the campaign wanted is arguable, as just 4% of South Carolina’s registered voters bothered to participate.

The campaign’s pre-primary push in South Carolina included several visits by Harris, including as keynote speaker for the NAACP’s annual King Day at the Dome event at the Statehouse honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

While having Harris at the top of the ticket won’t turn South Carolina into a swing state, it will help Democrats down the ballot, said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.

“I’m sensing nothing but excitement for Vice President Harris at the top of the ticket,” Cobb-Hunter said. “We do have down-ballot races on the local level where this excitement may pay off.”

Cobb-Hunter, the longest-serving member in the state House, has been at every Democratic Nation Convention since 1984 and a delegate at all but one. She’s not a delegate this year, but she said she’ll work “as hard as I can” to make sure Harris is elected.

Trump is expected to easily win South Carolina as a whole in November. The former president beat Biden here in 2020 by nearly 12 percentage points.

But the Democratic Party still needs voters to be energized about supporting its candidates, starting at the top of the ballot. A lack of enthusiasm for the presidential ticket could result in a shellacking of Democrats in the Legislature and other local government races if Democrats simply don’t vote.

“There’s renewed energy for Kamala Harris but still a lot of respect for President Biden,” said Valerie Moore, one of the delegates and chair of the Richland County Democratic Party. “I think that’s a tough thing to do … to keep people excited about the current administration as well as what the future brings.”

South Carolina will send 55 delegates , and 10 automatic or superdelegates, to the Democratic convention of nearly 4,000 delegates.

The Palmetto State delegation is in good company in backing Harris. By late afternoon Monday, the Associated Press reported that over 1,000 delegates nationwide have said they plan to back the vice president.

The formal nomination was supposed to happen before the convention, which is scheduled from Aug. 19 to Aug. 22, though Biden’s departure complicated that. On Wednesday a group from the Democratic National Committee will meet to work on holding a virtual roll call to approve the nominee in order to meet deadlines in Ohio and some other states.

Christale Spain, state Democratic Party chairwoman, also chairs South Carolina’s delegation. Spain serves as one of the superdelegates, who do not vote in the first round of a convention. She thinks other states will follow South Carolina’s lead, allowing Harris to lock in the nomination prior to the convention.

Spain confirmed that no other potential candidates were offered during the virtual meeting of delegates Sunday evening.

The vote for Harris was not unanimous. Spain did not have an exact count of who voted against backing Harris. But she and others said that was largely due to procedural concerns, not concerns with Harris.

Malloy acknowledged being one of the delegates who did not support Harris in that vote.

But he stressed to the SC Daily Gazette that he was entirely behind Harris as a candidate, and that the delegation made the right decision.

Malloy said he wanted to be deferential to Biden and was concerned about timing.

“I’m voting for Kamala Harris point blank, period,” Malloy said he told his fellow delegates.  “I’m just trying to figure out when is best to announce as a delegation.”

Delegates had different feelings about Biden’s announcement.

Some expressed frustration or anger at what they saw as an unfair push from party leaders. Others said it was time for Biden to step away from the race as his re-election prospects dropped. Still others said that either way, they backed Biden’s decision.

Former state Rep. Jerry Govan, who is running for a seat again, said his preference as a delegate would be for Biden to stay in the race, but he respected the president’s decision.

“I feel like he vetted it and he’s come to a decision that he feels is in the best interest for himself, but more importantly the country, and I’m OK with that,” he said.

Some in GOP call on Biden to step down from presidency

Several South Carolina Republicans on Sunday said Biden’s decision to not seek re-election meant he should step down as president immediately. Many Republicans have said Biden is having cognitive issues and is unfit to be president.

Biden made no mention of any health issues in his letter posted on social media, saying only that it was “in the best interest of my party and country.”

Republican South Carolina Reps. Joe Wilson , William Timmons and Russell Fry called for Biden to resign. Rep. Ralph Norman said Biden owed America an explanation on why he is not resigning.

U.S. Rep Nancy Mace, another Republican, introduced a resolution calling on Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment, a clause which allows the vice president and Cabinet to take power from an incapacitated president.

A spokesperson for Mace said on Monday it was not clear if would ever receive a vote.

“This is common sense. If you’re unable to run for re-election, you’re unable to run a country,” Mace told reporters on a phone call Monday morning. “At the end of the day, you know, he’s clearly not running for re-election due to his diminished capacity.”

South Carolina Democrats dismissed the calls for Biden to step aside.

“If Nancy Mace and Joe Wilson think anybody should resign, let them resign first,” said Robertson, the former party chairman.

Who would be the vice president’s vice president?

Most of the delegates reached by the Gazette on Monday said they had no particular preference for who Harris should pick as a running mate.

“I’m going to support whoever is on her ticket,” said Margaret Sumpter, chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic Party Council of Black Democrats and a delegate.

Some floated several names — Malloy said he favored “southern Democrats” like North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

Marlon Kimpson, a former state senator who currently serves in the Biden administration, was all in on Cooper.

“We’ve got a real shot at winning the state of North Carolina and if Roy Cooper is the nominee, I think strategically that would be a good thing for the party,” he said.

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