Some California Democratic delegates aren’t convinced Vice President Kamala Harris is the best candidate to succeed President Joe Biden—but they supported her coronation as the party's presumptive presidential nominee anyway, they told Politico.
"She’s not our best candidate, but she’s gonna be the candidate," one California delegate told Politico, expressing disappointment that there wasn’t an open primary process. "There’s no point in not getting on board," the delegate added.
The Democratic Party rushed to support the Bay Area native after her boss caved to party pressure and exited the race on Sunday. After Biden’s dismal debate performance last month, Democrats lost confidence he could beat Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump. Hoping to stabilize their party, California delegates unanimously gave their votes to Harris, pushing her over the threshold to win the Democratic nomination. The VP did not earn a single vote cast by the American public.
"This is kind of an ideal situation for her," one Golden State Democrat told Politico. "She got past the primary, she has a united party, [and] she inherited a structure already built for her."
"Partially we just want it to be true so badly because we really really want to beat [Trump]. And we do love her as a person and what she believes," the Democrat added.
California political insiders, Politico reported, are "trying to squelch" their concerns about Harris's "over-cautious instincts, periodic word salads on the stump, and persistent staff upheavals."
Harris ran a failed campaign for president in 2020, ending up in fifth place in California, trailing Bernie Sanders, Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg. At the time, more than 60 percent of voters in the state thought it would be better for her to suspend her campaign and return to Congress.
As vice president, Harris’s approval rating in California has mostly aligned with national attitudes about her job performance, consistently below 30 percent since August 2023.
Though former House speaker and California Rep. Nancy Pelosi endorsed Harris’s campaign this week, she has not always been a fan of the former senator. One Harris supporter told Politico that Pelosi "never said anything particularly nice" about Harris before she became the presumptive 2024 nominee.
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