Hours after Vice President Kamala Harris secured enough delegates’ support to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, House Democratic Caucus chair Ted Lieu and vice chair Pete Aguilar held a press conference praising her rise to the top of the ticket.
“Vice President Harris will be the Democratic nominee for president, whether people put in a press release or not, that is going to happen,” said Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, on Tuesday morning. “She has locked up the delegates and the support.”
“I know the vice chair and I have had conversations with her, and as a Californian there is a lot of pride among us,” he added.
On Monday evening, the Associated Press reported that Kamala Harris had secured well more than the 1,976 delegates needed to win the nomination in the first round of voting. No other Democratic challenger has stepped forward since Biden stepped down and endorsed Harris as his replacement on Sunday.
“I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top,” Harris said in a Monday evening statement on becoming the presumptive nominee. “I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.”
Her nomination will become official when the party’s delegates take a virtual roll call vote in early August before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Aguilar said that having Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket will be “incredibly helpful” for California Democrats running in competitive down-ballot races. Of the 22 House races ranked as a “toss up” by the Cook Political Report, four are in California, which means the state could play a key role in determining which party controls the House come November.
“Donald Trump’s favorability rating is pretty low in California and I think that the vice president is going to remind people exactly the threat that he poses,” said Aguilar. “I think that there’s going to be some energy and enthusiasm that will get our candidates across the finish line.”
The impact of a weak presidential nominee on battleground races was a key fear that Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, cited when publicly imploring Biden to step down.
On Monday, Schiff said that Harris had his “full support” and thanked President Biden for “putting the country first” when deciding to withdraw from the race.
During Tuesday morning’s press conference Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles, also lauded President Biden’s decision to step aside, saying, “His selfless act this weekend reminds me of what George Washington did when he voluntarily gave up reelection and put country first.”
Lieu called Biden “one of the best presidents America has ever had” and said that just because he is not seeking reelection, it doesn’t mean he will stop being effective during the remaining six months of his term.
“You know how you have pro-athletes like a quarterback who takes a team that, four years ago is not doing well, and then takes them to winning victory and says ‘I’m going to retire next year’,” Lieu said. ‘Well, that doesn’t mean that quarterback can’t play this year.”
Lieu then took a swing at Donald Trump’s cognitive abilities and fitness for office.
“He makes incoherent statements. He forgets people’s names. He mixes people up. His kind of decline is readily apparent,” he said.
Trump has routinely defended his mental capabilities and in a December campaign stop said he passed a cognitive test “with flying colors.” At 78, Trump is now the same age Biden was when he won the 2020 election.
