Nine out of 10 Florida Democratic delegates back Kamala Harris after Biden exit, party says

Less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden bowed out of his reelection bid, nearly all of the Florida Democrats who will help pick their party’s new presidential nominee have lined up behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried on Monday said that more than 230 of the state’s 254 delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention have pledged their support to Harris, including every Democratic member of Florida’s congressional delegation. Fried said she expected that number to continue to grow.

Fried said that conversations over whom to support for the nomination in Biden’s absence have been taking place for weeks, and stressed the need for Democrats to coalesce around Harris quickly, given that the November election is only three-and-a-half months away.

“We must use this time we have left to move forward as one team to elect Kamala Harris as president and defeat Donald Trump in November,” Fried told reporters on a video call.

Biden abruptly ended his reelection bid on Sunday after weeks of pressure from fellow Democrats, who feared that questions about the 81-year-old president’s age and fitness for office would cost the party the White House and crucial congressional seats in November.

Within minutes of announcing his decision, Biden endorsed Harris to be the party’s new nominee. Since then, Democrats across the country have largely rushed to support Harris, with multiple state delegations to the Democratic National Convention moving in short order to pledge their votes to the vice president.

So far, no other Democrat has stepped up to challenge Harris for the presidential nomination. Several high-profile Democrats who were seen as potential presidential contenders have thrown their support behind Harris, easing her path to the nomination.

State Sen. Shevrin Jones, the chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, said that the party held a “unity meeting” on Sunday night to rally support for Harris among its membership.

“Everyone’s on board because everyone understands what’s at risk if we go into a contentious convention,” Jones said.

While Florida Democrats are overwhelmingly supporting Harris for the nomination, any shakeup at the top of the Democratic ticket is unlikely to dramatically alter the state of the presidential race in Florida, a longtime swing state that is now seen as a likely Republican stronghold.