Vice President Kamala Harris is currently the only serious candidate to be the new Democratic nominee following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race Sunday. A host of party bigwigs swung right in behind her, but there are still some extremely notable silences.
After announcing his own departure, Biden offered his “full support and endorsement” to Harris to succeed him at the top of the ticket in November. Other major Democratic players quickly followed suit but some of the biggest party figures—including former President Obama—are yet to do so.
One of the reasons Biden hesitated to abandon his own campaign was because he feared Harris “wasn’t up to taking on” Trump, according to an Axios report Monday. Axios continues, “his private anxieties reflect broader questions among some Democratic leaders about Harris as their nominee this November. This next week will be critical for Harris, 59, to prove doubters wrong as she moves quickly to try to clear the field of potential challengers for the Democratic nomination.”