After calls from Democratic Party leaders, the political world flipped when, on July 21, 2024, President Joe Biden announced his decision to resign from the 2024 Election. Biden’s shaky performance at the June debate with Donald Trump, the four-time indicted former president and current repeat presidential candidate, responded to calls from party leaders and donors to move President Biden aside. Donations began to dry up, and calls from the party, volunteers, donors, and activists—including George Clooney, Rob Reiner, and Susan Sarandon—loudly demanded that the Democratic Party make a change or risk losing the election up and down the ticket.

            As the Democratic National Convention approached, the Democratic party, not known for staying calm amid crisis, panicked about who would be Biden’s successor strong enough to hold Trump’s feet to the fire. In recognition of the possibility of a divided convention and a whirlwind of uncertainty, President Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as his successor to carry the Democratic torch.

            Under new procedures adopted by the convention’s rules committee in late July, candidates had until Tuesday, August 6, 2024, to declare their intent to seek the nomination and submit the 300 delegate signatures required to qualify for the roll call vote. According to a DNC statement, Vice President Kamala Harris was officially certified as the Democratic presidential nominee after receiving the majority of delegate votes (4,567 votes) in a virtual Democratic National Committee roll call that concluded on August 5.

            After a whirlwind of speculation, Governor Tim Walz of Minneapolis, Minnesota, was chosen as Harris’ running mate. In 2019, Walz became the 41st governor of Minnesota. He is a retired U.S. Army and non-commissioned officer and former schoolteacher. On Thursday, August 22, 2024, Harris officially accepted the Democratic nomination as the party’s presidential candidate. With the soundtrack of Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” and rally chants of “Not going back,” Harris and Walz plan to lead the nation to an opportunity economy in the shortest presidential campaign in modern history. 

            Kamala Harris and her sister were raised in a middle-class neighborhood by a single mother. Harris attended the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., while working part-time at McDonald’s. She is a historic black Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated member. After graduating from Howard, Harris returned to California and, in 1989, received her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In 1990, Harris was hired as the Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County, CA. In 2003, she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco; in 2010, she was elected Attorney General of California. 2011, Harris was sworn in as the first female African American South Asian Attorney General of California. 2017, she was elected as a U.S. Senator from California. In 2023, as Vice President, Harris broke the record for the most tie-breaking votes cast by a vice president.

            Today, 78% of Democrats are more enthusiastic about voting in the 2024 presidential election than their opposition. With a boatload of enthusiasm, a new sense of joy, a united party, and leads in the swing state polls, Harris, the first African American and South Asian woman nominated to lead the Democratic party, adorned with her sorority’s trademark pearls around her neck and with her favorite Chuck Taylor footwear, is touring with Walz across the country as they race to the White House with plans to take the nation forward.