Kansas, Missouri delegates to help choose Biden replacement. Are they backing Harris?

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Kansas and Missouri delegates to the Democratic National Convention rapidly lined up behind Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, but some said it was too early to back a new nominee for president.

The Star spoke to nearly 30 delegates from both states after President Joe Biden announced on Sunday he was leaving the race. Most praised Harris, who Biden has endorsed, and said explicitly they support her or that she would be a strong nominee.

Twenty-three delegates voiced some level of support for Harris, including those who said they were leaning toward voting for her. Five held off, either because they said it was too early in the process to publicly support a candidate or because they wanted more time to weigh their options and speak with voters.

The delegates interviewed included both state party chairs, leading Democratic lawmakers and local elected officials, as well as relatively unknown party activists and insiders.

The Kansas delegation met Monday night and endorsed Harris for president, the Kansas Democratic Party said in a statement. The Missouri delegation was scheduled to hold a meeting later on Monday.

The delegates – more than 40 from Kansas and 70 from Missouri between at-large, district-level, elected officials and party officials – will play a critical role in selecting the Democratic nominee.

“The first decision a candidate makes that really shows the kind of President they’re going to be is picking a VP. And I thought he did an excellent job four years ago, and I see no reason to try to second guess Joe Biden,” said Kyle Yarber, a Missouri delegate from Sedalia who previously ran for Congress.

In interviews with The Star, delegates said Harris was already energizing the party. They reflected on the historic role they are now being asked to play, with some saying they never expected to be in this position.

And they vowed that the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, could be defeated.

“Having more people who reflect the world we live in is important for our state of democracy, and that she is, you know, going to be our first woman president and a woman of color, I think, says a lot about who America is,” said Missouri delegate Daniela Velázquez, a St. Louis alderwoman.

The Democratic National Convention will begin in Chicago on Aug. 18. Democrats previously scheduled a virtual roll call vote for early August to select a nominee; it wasn’t clear Monday whether that vote would move forward as planned. The DNC includes nearly 4,000 delegates and Harris will need the support of 1,976 to secure the nomination on the first ballot.

Most Kansas and Missouri delegates had been pledged to Biden, who without significant opposition easily won the Kansas and Missouri primaries earlier this year. Now they are uncommitted and free to support a different candidate in the first open party convention in half a century.

Harris is moving swiftly to consolidate support within the party nationally. As of Monday afternoon, no major Democrat beside Harris had entered the race and she has gathered key endorsements, including from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who was seen as pivotal to the effort to convince Biden to step aside.

Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat who represents Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District, and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Kansas City Democrat, both endorsed Harris on Monday. Repass and Missouri Democratic Party chair Russ Carnahan also voiced support for Harris – a strong signal that the delegations in both states are likely to largely back Harris.

Before the Kansas delegation endorsed Harris Monday night, Kansas Democratic Party chair Jeanna Repass called Biden a “hero.” She said Harris is “eminently qualified” to be president, but she didn’t expect the Kansas delegation to arrive at a unanimous endorsement on Monday.

The Kansas delegation did not include a vote total for its endorsement of Harris later on Monday.

“We have very thoughtful people in our delegation who want to see this process play out, they want to make sure it’s open, they want to see who else might throw their name in the hat,” Repass said. “I do believe at some point, though, we will be at a place where we are unified around a candidate.”

Carnahan said conversations among Missouri delegates were ongoing. He said he didn’t want to say anything about the delegation’s position until everyone had been consulted but that action would come “very soon.”

He said he hadn’t encountered anyone opposed to Harris in his discussions but acknowledged everyone has an opinion about who Harris’ vice presidential pick should be – several Democratic governors, including Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Jared Polis of Colorado, have been mentioned prominently in national speculation.

Democrats have just over 100 days until the November election, Carnahan said, emphasizing the fast-moving nature of the process.

“So a lot of these things are coming together very quickly,” Carnahan said.

Some Democrats cautious

Missouri Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, a St. Louis County Democrat, didn’t immediately endorse Harris. He cautioned against the delegation or the larger party rushing into a decision and said he wants to speak with voters.

He pointed to Harris’s own comments on Sunday, when she said she wanted to “earn” the nomination, and said he didn’t think the new nominee needed to be decided in the first 24 hours after Biden’s announcement.

Still, Beck said he wasn’t for or against Harris.

“I wanted to kind of weigh this out,” Beck said. “I was hoping to have a little bit longer time period than the way things seem to be moving. Things seem to be moving pretty fast.”

Shortly after Biden’s announcement, Republicans claimed that elites in the Democratic Party – donors, high-profile Democratic lawmakers and Democratic strategists – were disenfranchising Democratic primary voters by pushing Biden out.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, claimed on Fox News that Democrats were attempting to rig the election.

“I mean this is hysterical,” Hawley said. “It looks like, dare we say it, an insurrection.”

But several Democratic delegates from Kansas and Missouri said they view the nomination as an open process – one that Harris will have to earn.

“I am now an uncommitted delegate, and so I need to see all the candidates that want to get into it,” said Geoffrey Gerling, a Missouri delegate from Kansas City. “But Vice President Harris is probably the most likely person to continue the policy work that President Biden has done for the last four years. And if she’s the strongest nominee, I’ll be happy to vote for her at the convention.”

Gerling was one of many delegates that stressed that the Democratic Party had a transparent process on how the party chooses a nominee. While Biden had won a majority of delegates in Democratic primaries, he was still considered the presumptive nominee; it would not have been official until the delegates voted in a roll call.

Kenneth Bacchus, a Missouri delegate from Kansas City, was dismissive of the Republican claim that the nomination was being decided by Democratic elites. Bacchus said he would support Harris at the convention, but stressed that Harris still needed to earn her way to the nomination.

“I really look forward to the future,” Bacchus said. “Kamala will earn this, she’s not going to be given this.”

Some delegates acknowledged Harris was headed toward the nomination, even as they held off on formally endorsing her.

Ronald Hobert, a Kansas at-large delegate and president of the American Federation of Teachers-Kansas, the state’s largest public worker union, said delegates will look to guidance from Repass. At the same time, Biden had already endorsed Harris and that was “where I’m leaning,” he said, adding that he didn’t know where the rest of the delegation was headed.

John Nave, another at-large Kansas delegate and executive vice president of the Kansas AFL-CIO, stressed the importance of a pro-labor nominee. He praised Biden as a strong union supporter and said both Biden and Harris had track records of supporting labor.

“We want someone who’s not going to say one thing and do another thing,” Nave said.

Missouri delegate Margaret Miles, of Clay County, said rumors were spreading of possible other candidates. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, for instance, was floated as a possible contender before he ruled himself out on Monday.

But Miles doesn’t foresee a formidable challenger to Harris emerging.

“I’m currently ready to jump on board and be pro-Team Harris in this fight,” Miles said.