Michigan Democratic Party delegates who had been committed to President Joe Biden voted Tuesday night to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement on this year's presidential ticket, according to the state Party officials.
While no exact breakdown was given as to the count for Harris or how many delegates took part in the online meeting, the state Democratic Party put out a statement Tuesday night saying those committed to Biden "overwhelmingly" endorsed Harris.
“Our party and our delegation are built on values of hard work, community, and building a brighter future — and that is exactly what Kamala Harris represents,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chairwoman Lavora Barnes. “She has been a tireless fighter for reproductive rights, workers’ rights and growing the middle class.
After Biden announced he was stepping aside as the presumptive Democratic nominee on Sunday and endorsed Harris in the race against former President Donald Trump, Harris moved quickly to nail down support. By Monday, informal counts in the media indicated she had enough delegates lined up to secure the nomination, even before Michigan's delegates met.
Strictly speaking , all of Biden's delegates became free to vote for any nominee they chose when the president formally left the race, though the barriers to being nominated — the signed support of 300 delegates, no more than 50 of whom could be from any state and none of whom could sign for another nominee — are high. Democrats are expected to hold a virtual roll call sometime before Aug. 7 to formally nominate Harris ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later that month.
That virtual roll call will ensure that Harris' name appears on the ballot in all 50 states and elsewhere, the Party has said, noting some state laws, including in Ohio, set an earlier deadline than that which have been possible to meet by waiting until the Democratic convention to call the roll.
Michigan has 138 delegates to help decide the nomination, including 21 unpledged delegates or "superdelegates," a group that includes Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Barnes and the state's Democratic members of Congress. Most of that group has already formally endorsed Harris as the nominee.
Party officials said in the online meeting Tuesday night most of the other 115 pledged delegates Biden won in the state's February primary also committed to voting for Harris. Two other delegates were considered uncommitted, according to the primary vote. And while most of the Democratic delegates moved to Harris, it was clear not all have: While many prominent unions have endorsed the vice president as Biden's replacement, the UAW — several top members of whom are Michigan delegates — has not as yet.
On Tuesday, a UAW spokesman told the New York Times in a statement that the union’s executive board would meet to talk about endorsements "and is excited to talk with Vice President Harris about the issues that matter to our members and the whole working class.” The UAW is likely to endorse Harris, however, given the union's long association with the Democratic Party and the fact that Biden last year became the first sitting president to walk a picket line as part of the UAW's strike of the Detroit Three automakers.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Biden's Michigan delegates vote 'overwhelmingly' to endorse VP Harris
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