Harris likely to cement rapid rise as party standard bearer with 'virtual roll call'

While the Democratic National Convention will not take place for several weeks, Vice President Kamala Harris is likely to cement her place as the party’s nominee through a "virtual roll call" beginning on Thursday.

Originally planned to account for an Ohio law setting a deadline for parties to certify their nominees, the DNC opted to move forward with the plan even after President Joe Biden dropped out. 

With Harris now the presumptive party nominee, the virtual roll call will serve to speedily wrap up the shuffle at the top of the Democratic ticket and represent the culmination of the party’s swift coalescing around Harris, who does not face a challenger for the post.

Critics, however, question the extent to which the party’s rank-and-file have rallied around the new presumptive nominee and suggested that the replacement process has been somewhat manufactured to limit internal disagreements. At most conventions, platforms and policies are often debated internally, but the novel replacement process may shortchange that dialogue from happening.

How the roll call will play out

The Democratic National Committee last week asked potential challengers to Harris for the nomination to submit their candidacies by last Saturday. The DNC also declared that the roll call would begin on Aug. 1 if only a single candidate qualified, but would start Aug. 3 if she faced a challenger. None were forthcoming and the DNC formally announced on Tuesday evening that voting would begin on Aug. 1.

The process itself will see party delegates vote online using a DNC-controlled platform from Thursday morning through 6 p.m. on Monday, CBS News reported. It is not yet clear if the party will livestream the roll call process.

“Our party has met this unprecedented moment with a transparent, democratic and orderly process to unite behind a nominee with a proven record who will lead us in the fight ahead,” said DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison and DNC’s convention chair Minyon Moore in a joint statement.

Harris has reportedly secured the support of enough delegates to clinch the party nomination within a day of Bien dropping out. A candidate needs 1,976 delegates to win the party nomination and Harris reportedly had 2,668 on the first day. They are not, however, bound to her candidacy in the same way they were for Biden, although the absence of an alternative candidate on the roll call renders that something of a moot point.

The party’s top brass are all behind Harris

The top of the party structure has near-uniformly come around to the vice president’s candidacy. Harris’s ascension faced notably little opposition from Democratic heavyweights, with most key lawmakers throwing their support behind her within days of Biden dropping out.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for example, publicly endorsed her within two days of Biden’s announcement.

"When I spoke with her Sunday, she said she wanted the opportunity to win the nomination on her own and to do so from the grassroots up, not top-down. We deeply respected that, Hakeem and I did," Schumer said at a press conference. “Now that the process has played out from the grassroots, bottom-up, we are here today to throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Likewise, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., endorsed Harris within a single day, saying that "[m]y enthusiastic support for Kamala Harris for President is official, personal and political."

Former President Barack Obama was a notable holdout, but he and his wife endorsed her for the job several days later. "We agree with President Biden – choosing Kamala was one of the best decisions he’s made," the pair said in a statement. "She has the resume to prove it: As a prosecutor, she defended the Constitution and fought for folks who deserve a fair shake. As California’s Attorney General, she worked hard to ensure everyone was treated fairly, no matter who they are or who they love."

Is the ‘virtual roll call’ necessary?

Democrats announced the original virtual roll call plan in May to secure Biden’s place on the Ohio ballot, which requires that parties submit their nominees 90 days prior to the election, which this year is Aug. 7. The Democratic National Convention is slated for Aug. 19-22.

The party has ostensibly opted to move forward with the virtual option due to the Ohio ballot deadline, but state officials have contended that it no longer applies and suggested that the DNC was using the pretense to justify bypassing the party’s primary electorate.

The state has approved legislation pushing back the deadline to Sept. 1, according to NBC News. Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, moreover, has insisted that the Democrats do not need to hold the virtual roll call. 

Writing to Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harris last week, LaRose asked the party to stop suggesting that Ohio law necessitates the virtual roll call, saying that “the Ohio General Assembly made an exception to the ballot access deadline for the 2024 presidential election, passing legislation signed by the governor that temporarily extends it to Sept. 1, 2024.”

“I’m confident that your attorneys are well aware of this fact, and I suspect your current rhetorical posturing is part of a plan to replace the incumbent president without a contested convention or any kind of democratic process,” he added. “It’s clever, if not completely antithetical to your party’s relentless finger-wagging about threats to democracy, but I ask that you stop using Ohio to justify your course of action.”

Despite some reservations, Democrats seem fine with Harris

On the left side of the aisle, the left-wing activist group Black Lives Matter expressed frustrations with the DNC earlier this month for what it saw as “installing” Harris as the nominee and demanded that the party “host an informal, virtual snap primary across the country prior to the DNC convention in August."

But polling data suggests that the overwhelming majority of Democrats would be “very or somewhat satisfied” with Harris becoming the party nominee. In a recent AP/NORC survey, 79% of Democrats expressed that sentiment, compared to 10% who were indifferent and 11% who were either “very or somewhat dissatisfied” with the prospect.

The survey did not directly ask about the Democratic selection process to confirm Harris, but did ask more broadly about voter optimism toward “the way our leaders are chosen under our political system.” Overall, 29% were very or somewhat optimistic, 24% were neutral, while 47% were either very or somewhat pessimistic.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X.