All 168 of North Carolina’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention voted Sunday night to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nomination, the state Democratic Party chair announced.
The vote happened just hours after President Joe Biden announced he was ending his campaign , and made his own endorsement of Harris.
Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said Gov. Roy Cooper also garnered delegates’ support as Harris’ running mate if she chooses him. He’s one of several possible contenders mentioned as possible running mates, which also includes Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“Our delegates are enthusiastically supportive of Gov. Cooper becoming the nominee for our vice president as well,” Clayton said in an exclusive interview with McClatchy.
Kinston City Councilmember Chris Suggs was on the call and posted his take on Cooper.
“As a delegate to the Democratic National Convention next month in Chicago, I am excited about the possibility of nominating a ticket with North Carolina’s Governor, Roy Cooper, on it as Vice President. @RoyCooperNC would be a phenomenal addition to the ballot with @KamalaHarris,” he wrote on social media.
Clayton has yet to release a full list of delegates from North Carolina representing the state’s Democrats at the national convention, scheduled to begin Aug. 19 in Chicago.
She said all 168 delegates were overwhelmingly supportive of Harris and extremely excited.
Democrats across the country had been calling for Biden to end his campaign after he gave a dismal debate performance against former President Donald Trump in June that led many to question his mental agility. Now, with Biden out, the party has begun to rally around Harris to take his place as the nominee.
Diversity of delegation
“You could feel the energy through this call,” Clayton said.
“All of these folks that are very excited, and we’re very vocal, tonight, about their excitement and seeing the next president become the first woman president of the country, and also the historical nomination, of the fact, that she is Indian-American. She would be the the first Black woman,” Clayton said.
Harris made history in 2020 when she became the country’s first Black and first South Asian-American vice president, and Clayton said several Black and Asian American and Pacific Islander women were in the conversation Sunday night.
“I think the fact that diversity is our strength, and the idea that we’re seeing that at the top of our ticket right now, is really mobilizing to all of our delegates,” Clayton said. “Especially our young people, our Black and Brown delegates and people of color on the call, were excited to see someone that looks like them representing them.”
Tennessee became the first state to have its delegates unanimously endorse Harris Sunday, Clayton said.
“We should be the second state,” Clayton told McClatchy, “in the South, at least, that says we are also pledging our support behind her.”
Choosing a Democratic nominee
Clayton said the delegates in theory are pledged to Biden, but because he dropped out of the race, they’re now released from that obligation.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that the Democratic Party, and then the Republican Party, began using primaries to determine who delegates would nominate as their party’s presidential candidate, McClatchy previously reported.
In 1968, violent protests broke out at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago after the party nominated then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey as its presidential nominee without him having appeared in any primary.
Because of that, people believed that the nomination process was left to party insiders, instead of voters. Primaries were used to rectify that.
This year’s convention will likely revert back to conventions prior to the 1970s, and delegates will determine who becomes the party’s nominee.
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