(The Center Square) – North Carolina’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month has unanimously voted to endorse Kamala Harris for the presidential nomination, North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Anderson Clayton said following a meeting of the group Sunday evening.
Earlier in the day, Clayton had signed a letter with leaders of the Democratic Party in the six other battleground states representing a collective 93 electoral college votes endorsing President Joe Biden. Shortly after Sunday lunch on the East Coast, everything changed with social media posts from Biden's accounts.
The 81-year-old president, embattled since a June 27 debate fired up intense questions about his health, did not appear in public to announce his decision or take questions. His choice wipes out the will of the voters from the primaries contested so far, where he easily won enough pledged delegates and in some cases was the only name on the ballot.
“Tonight, our North Carolina Democratic DNC delegation held an emergency meeting and we discussed how to best chart a path forward, build on his success, and unite, ready to win in November,” Clayton said in a statement. “Our DNC Delegation is thrilled to announce that we unanimously endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to be the next President of the United States. This November it’ll be a prosecutor going up against a felon. It will be experience going up against extremism. We know that with the infrastructure and the organizing powerhouse we have spent years building, North Carolina will send VP Harris to the Oval Office.”
North Carolina has the ninth largest delegation in the nation, with 130 voting members. All but 14 of the delegates are pledged to a candidate based on the primary, won by Biden. The 14 unplugged are what is known as automatic delegates, such as Democratic National Committee members, Democratic members of Congress, and the governor.
The Democratic National Convention is Aug. 19-22 in Chicago. There is a convention rules committee meeting this week, one with potential to unwind the chaos of process by the party.
Consensus on Monday morning was that Democrats across the country were uniting behind Harris, who turns 60 on Oct. 20.
Earlier this year North Carolina’s party declined to submit Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., for the primary ballot. Criticism for suppression of voters by the party increased this summer through the actions of its members on the state Board of Elections.
On Super Tuesday, with Phillips having been denied ballot access by the state party, 12.7% of Democratic primary voters chose “no preference” rather than picking Biden . The Democratic primary drew 698,580 voters in the 10.8 million population state with more than 7.5 million registered .
The five-member state Board of Elections, with majority of three Democrats, drew heat this summer for its handling of three parties trying to gain ballot access. Ultimately it granted access to the conservative-leaning Constitution Party, supporter of Randall Terry for president, and the We the People Party, supporter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for president.
The state board denied the Justice for All Party, supporter of Cornel West. All three parties petitioning had cleared the signature threshold of 13,865 and were supported by the two Republicans on the panel.
The recognitions mean voters can register affiliation with seven parties or as unaffiliated, and those entities can put candidates on the ballot for any race – not just president. The parties recognized, in alphabetical order, are Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, No Labels, Republican, or We The People.
North Carolina has 16 electoral college votes and is considered one of seven key battleground states representing 93 electoral college votes. The others are Pennsylvania (19), Georgia (16), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10) and Nevada (six).
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