Harris winning in swing states – votes in North Carolina

If Harris earns the nomination, polling conducted before Biden's decision shows she might have a higher hurdle to clear than Biden did in North Carolina. North Carolina delegates and Gov. Roy Cooper, rumored to be on a short list of possible Harris running mates, endorsed the vice president Sunday.

Democratic delegates from North Carolina unanimously endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party’s presidential nominee Sunday after a whirlwind of political maneuvering in the hours after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection campaign.

Biden said Sunday afternoon on social media that he won’t seek reelection and endorsed Harris to take his place atop the ticket. The move came weeks after an uneven debate performance that caused many Democrats to question the viability of his campaign.

Biden's decision gives Democrats a chance to repair its image with voters in key battleground states — including North Carolina, where he lost to the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, by less than 75,000 votes.

Biden doesn’t get to automatically pick his successor.

A presidential nominee isn’t decided until Democratic delegates from across the nation vote for a candidate at the party’s convention next month. The process is usually easy: delegates typically vote for the candidate who won the primary in their state. With Biden out of the race, the party’s delegates are slated to attend the convention while unassigned.

North Carolina’s delegates expressed their endorsement as delegates from other states — including Colorado, Alabama and Tennessee — started to do the same, and as other North Carolina political leaders started to close ranks behind Harris.

"This November, it’ll be a prosecutor going up against a felon," North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Anderson Clayton said in a statement late Sunday, referencing Harris' background as San Francisco's district attorney and California's attorney general. "It will be experience going up against extremism."

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, rumored to be on a short list of possible Harris running mates if she wins the nomination, endorsed Harris ahead of the party’s announcement.

"She has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country thoughtfully and with integrity,” Cooper said Sunday on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I look forward to campaigning for her as we work to win NC up and down the ticket.”

Cooper later spoke with Harris by phone to express his support.

Added U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat: “The path forward is clear — we must unite behind Vice President Kamala Harris to defeat Donald Trump. Together, we can win in November and build on the historic progress forged by President Biden.”

While support for Harris was growing Sunday, she will still need the support of the majority of the party’s hundreds of delegates across the nation.

Biden’s endorsement of Harris will carry weight with delegates who were pledged to him, but it’s not a slam dunk — they can choose to support someone else.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, in a statement, promised “a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November.”

The Democrats haven’t gone into a convention without a clear nominee since 1968, the infamous Chicago convention that ended in violence in the streets over candidates’ positions on the Vietnam War and civil rights.

Biden’s endorsement was already paying dividends late Sunday.

The Durham County Democratic Party announced its endorsement of Harris hours before the state’s delegates declared their support for the vice president. Biden’s backing underpinned the decision, said Emerson Kirby, a vice chairwoman for the county party.

“She's ready to run this nation and I think that the continued support that we're seeing so quickly only speaks to that,” Kirby said.