Less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden dropped out of his reelection race, Maryland Democratic delegates rallied around Vice President Kamala Harris, unanimously endorsing her for the nomination to head the Democratic ticket for president.
Biden announced Sunday afternoon that he would not continue his candidacy in the 2024 presidential race. On Monday, the Maryland delegation to the 2024 Democratic National Convention met virtually and voted to endorse Harris.
Ken Ulman, chair for the Maryland Democratic Party, said delegates from the state unanimously agreed on Harris as a candidate. Ulman said it was a “fairly easy decision” due to her years of public service and her strong partnership with Biden.
“When (Biden) put the country over himself. He endorsed his vice president,” Ulman said. “... I think there's such a release of positive energy and momentum behind rallying around a nominee like Kamala Harris and having this vigorous, robust 105-day campaign.”
Patrick Firth, chair of Talbot Democrats, said he is excited for Democratic leadership and is working to make sure that in November Talbot County votes blue once more.
“In 2020, they (Talbot voters) saw what a Trump administration looked like and for the first time since 1964 voted for the Democratic presidential candidate,” Firth said. “And I'm not surprised if Talbot County remembers what happened in the Trump administration's first term and rejects him once more at the ballot box.”
Jared Schablein, a delegate to the national convention from Wicomico County, said he is excited for Harris’ candidacy because of her legislative history in “fighting climate change,” because of her work addressing crime as a prosecutor and because she represents politically underrepresented populations in America.
“Not only does she have an amazing track record of delivering real results in infrastructure, affordable health care and clean energy jobs,” Schablein said, “she also gives representation for communities that have been looking for representation for a very long time. She is going to be our first woman president.”
During the virtual meeting on Monday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the Maryland Democratic Party and the Maryland delegation to the national convention applauded Biden for his history of work in public service, according to a press release from the Maryland Democratic Party.
As of Monday afternoon, the Harris campaign said it has raised $81 million in the first 24 hours after Biden dropped out from “hundreds of thousands of donors,” about 60% of whom were making their first donation of the 2024 election cycle.
For Ulman, he looks forward to focusing on the political values such as abortion, common sense gun safety and investing in education that he says will continue with the Harris campaign.
“I think for the next 105 days, we get to have the conversation about the kind of country that we want to live in, and that's a conversation and a debate that I think we're really excited about having," Ulman said.
The Democratic National Convention will be in Chicago from Aug. 19 to 22.
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