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Indiana delegates to the Democratic National Convention voted unanimously Monday evening to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee after President Joe Biden announced over the weekend that he is withdrawing from the race.
The state’s 88 delegates took the vote in a Zoom call, the Indiana Democratic Party announced in a news release.
In a separate vote, Indiana’s Democratic State Central Committee unanimously passed resolutions honoring Biden and endorsing Harris to replace him on the ballot.
The Democratic National Committee still has many details to work out before delegates can cast their votes, including whether the vote will be taken virtually before the convention on Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
The Associated Press, citing its own survey, reported Monday that Harris has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates nationally to become her party’s nominee against Republican Donald Trump. Several state delegations met late Monday to confirm their support for Harris, including Texas and her home state of California. By Monday night, Harris had the support of well more than the 1,976 delegates she’ll need to win on a first ballot, according to the AP tally. No other candidate was named by a delegate contacted by the AP.
Indiana Democratic Party Chair Mike Schmuhl, who is a superdelegate, said the party is uniting quickly behind Harris. That is reflected in the over $50 million raised for her campaign in less than 24 hours as well as all 50 state chairs unanimously endorsing her as their candidate, he said. Biden’s endorsement of Harris also “carries tremendous weight,” he said.
Schmuhl said the party appears to be moving toward a virtual roll call and that guidance from the DNC rules and bylaws committee will be shared “very, very soon.”
AP reported Monday that the committee will meet virtually on Wednesday. He said the next few weeks could look like a two-step process where a candidate is confirmed to be the nominee, and the convention later serves as the presentation of the candidates’ platform.
The Indiana Election Division’s Matthew Kochevar, who is a delegate, said supports Harris and is waiting to hear what the nomination process will look like.
“My thoughts are that it needs to be something that everyone will understand because we don’t have a lot of time,” he said.
Regarding the potential of other candidates challenging Harris, Kochevar said that remains to be seen, but he predicted that delegates will stand behind Harris as they did for Biden. If there is competition for the nomination, he said the DNC will guide delegates on the process.
Derek Camp, who is the Allen County party chair, Wayne Township Assessor and a delegate, echoed that the party is largely enthusiastically endorsing Harris as its candidate to keep Trump from winning another term. He said “protecting democracy” and reproductive rights will likely be two major focuses he expects to see.
As a delegate awaiting word on what the nomination process will look like, Camp said “he’s along for the ride” but has no doubt Harris will be nominated.
Delegate and state Rep. Cherrish Pryor also gave her support to Harris in a post on X, saying “Can’t wait to officially say President Harris.” Indianapolis City-County Councilor and delegate Nick Roberts also said on X he intends to vote for Harris and is working with her campaign to win over the youth vote.
Seventy-nine of Indiana’s 88 delegates for the national convention were chosen at the state convention on July 13. Nine others, including Schmuhl, are automatic delegates. Former U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly will lead the Indiana delegation as its chair at the convention.
The names of several potential vice presidential nominees for Harris already are being floated. They include Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the former South Bend mayor who has Schmuhl’s support.
“There are two people from 2020 that Joe Biden ran against that are in the current administration,” said Schmuhl, who managed Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign. “One is Kamala Harris and the other is Pete Buttigieg, and so he has that national experience and portfolio.”
Schmuhl said he hopes the new energy of Harris’ campaign could inspire more voters to turn out to the polls.
“I’m under no illusions that there’s many, many folks in our state who support the former president,” he said. “But I think this offers just a freshness and an excitement on the Democratic side that we should take advantage of.”
For Democrats to be successful in Indiana, Camp said, it will take one-on-one conversations with voters, like former President Barack Obama used to help win the state in 2008 as well as former state superintendent Glenda Ritz and Donnelly.
However, he said the enthusiasm sparked already, plus her time spent in Biden’s administration will help her message reach voters on her short timeline.
“She is not starting from scratch,” Camp said. “She has been a part of that ticket and has been a part of the Biden administration for the last three-plus years so she is in a great spot.”
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Let us be unburdened from what was!
And what was is what is what!
We got to take this stuff seriously, as seriously as you are because you have been forced to have taken this seriously.
The sheep line up and do precisely as they are told.
Are you talking about Republicans?!? You have buy the Big Lie, you have to believe 40 years of trickle down economics trickled down to the bottom 50%, or the guys that put that new roof on your house is destroying the country while opposing reforms to better control immigration. That sounds like sheep lining up doing what they are told.
Dan, the Big Lie is that for the last 5 years the media and Democrats have said with a straight face that Biden is a “super-ager”, sharper than a 40 year old, in solid control of the federal government, fit, healthy, capable.
He was hid in his basement during covid. The nation will never forgive the Democrats for this betrayal.
I agree. It’s time for fresh, competent faces…out with the Biden, out with the Trump and his lap poodle Vance. In with Harris and whomever will be her running mate.
I respect Joe Biden, but he had four jobs to do, and almost missed on number 4. He was to tame the Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party and secure the nomination. Job 1 finished. He was to beat Trump and be elected. Job 2 completed. He was to govern as President of the United States, rebuild our economy and our standing in the world…got that one done, too. What he missed was perhaps the most critical…Job 4…to make sure he had a successor the party could unite around in anticipation of the Trump “revenge for my hurt feelings” tour. That he did not do in a timely fashion. Joe was never expected to be a two term President, at least not by most of the folks who voted for him. The delay may cost the forces defending democracy and the dream of America the Presidency and the Congress. But maybe it’s not too late…GO Kamala!!!
In the words of Kamala:
“hahahahahahahahahhHAHAHAHAHAHhHAHAhahahahHAHAHAHAHhahahahHAHAHAHAHahhahaahahahHAHAHAHAHAHA”
Vance is a “lap poodle” but Harris is a “fresh face”? Right … you need the TDS vaccine, badly.
Oh dear – though it pains me greatly, gotta agree with D.H. and Steven J on this one….trust the DNC to look a gift horse in the mouth and screw things up…
That’s always been the problem as the Republican Party sees the only antidote to its irrelevancy as a pivot towards destroying democracy and remaking American in the image of Russia or Hungary … the only thing standing in the way of the Republicans is the Democratic Party. Gulp.
Vance, and pretty much every remaining Republican, is indeed a lap poodle… a person of conviction would have stuck to their guns on Trump, instead of realizing that the best way to grift their way to success was to pivot. Trump, to his credit, has exterminated all disloyal to him.
Joe B, do you mean pivot in the same way that Harris did after her disastrous 2020 debates and attacks on Biden to then become his best bud and VP? Or is there a different pivot you’re referring to? Just goes to show that in politics, all politicians can do in either party is lie and deceive. And the beauty of it is they can get away with it because the vast majority of us voters (including me) are ignorant enough to buy it. Politics is like sports. Only the other team fouls, not our team. Amen. Alleluia.
Joe,
The Democrats have literally destroyed democracy by ignoring the will of their primary voters, and tried assassinating, jailing, bankrupting, and disenfranchising their political opponent.
Checkmate.
Democracy is destroyed because of primary voters? Good lord, do you understand how the primary system even “works”, how millions of primary voters never have a say because both parties determine some states have a say while others don’t?
I missed it in 2016 when Democrats sent along fake electoral paperwork and encouraged Joe Biden to accept that instead so that Hillary would be the president. And, failing that, Hillary convened a big rally with people known to be armed and … then Obama sat on his hands the entire time it got violent. And the crowd chanted “Hang Joe Biden” and built a gallows, because that’s what you do.
And I also missed when Obama and Biden talked about how they were entitled to a third term. Or when they talked about how much they admired dictators.
I mean, Trump got to the bottom of all that election fraud with his commission he convened after his 2016 election because of all that election fraud he claimed had happened ina election he won. You remember it, the commission that was quietly shuttered after finding nothing.
So spare me about Democrats ruining democracy. Republicans are just trying to justify their own desires to make the 2024 election the last election. Same reason they sow so much distrust in the current election system, because they want to destroy it.
Trump has been a crook his entire life. If you don’t like having a president under constant investigation, don’t have a crook be your president. But it’s been really sad to watch a lot of people fall under his spell because they are just too scared of change. Some day, they be just as embarrassed as the followers of any number of charlatans.
Joe,
How quickly you forgot that in 2016 the Democrats refused to accept the results of the election and used a fake dossier to spy on and cripple the new duly elected administration of Donald Trump.
Did you forget the Mueller?
The report that went into it knowing it couldn’t prosecute Trump, noted that the Trump campaign welcomed the help from the Russians, and also stated:
“while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
No, I hadn’t forgotten. Maybe you did?
Remind me … why does Trump love people who hate America so much? Why does Trump want to be Orban or Putin so much? Why exactly did his son-in-law get $2 billion dollars after we turned a blind eye to the leader of Saudi Arabia erasing someone who dared criticize him?
Ever consider that you’re getting help from the enemies of America solely because they hate America because they will never catch up to America, they can only tear down America to their level?
Joe,
The entire process of the Steele Dossier to rig an election in favor of the Clinton campaign followed by the crippling of the Trump administration through a fraudulent federal investigation is the very definition of destroying democracy.
You are continuing, to this day, to support the charade that has literally destroyed democracy in this country. Have you no shame?
If the point of the Steele dossier was to rig their election in favor of Clinton, then why wasn’t its existence leaked to the media before the election? Why was the only thing the public heard about before the election … Hillary‘s emails?
Here’s the reality – Putin helped Trump get elected. Trump is just a useful tool of a former KGB agent. He’s been played six ways to Sunday. He’s in over his head.
Get back to me when a Democratic candidate for president claims he wants to be a dictator, claims he’s entitled to a third term in office, and praises authoritarians overseas. You’re projecting. Your loyalty is not to a country, it’s to a man.
Joe,
Hillary had the Steele Dossier compiled before the 2016 election so she could claim (as she did on camera), that Trump was a “puppet” of the Kremlin.
The entire Russian-based line of attack from Clinton’s campaign was constructed from her campaign alone. That is subversion of democracy.
The 51 intelligence officers in 2020 who said Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation”. That was a clear case of destroying democracy. You supported it. You spout that nonsense even today in your comment.
You are a purveyor of disinformation and lies, and you don’t even realize it. So sad.
So much for Democracy. They could have taken a nationwide poll of who the voters wanted the nominee to be. Instead, it’s one option chosen behind closed doors. About the most un-Democratic way to handle things.
Political nominations have never been a nation wide poll. You just aren’t aware of the history where there was no clear nominee until the convention.
Well, only one of the candidates is suddenly really squeamish about the second debate and the terms he already agreed to. What’s he have to worry about if he’s the superior candidate?
Why not give the people a chance to see how their two candidates stack up against each other?
When I voted in the primary, I knew Biden was an old man and there has huge possibility I was voting for the whole ticket Biden/Harris. But unlike the Republican party, the Democrats have a platform that spells out real policies. Go Kamala.
Yes, the Dems have a platform: more federal government programs, more vote-buying spending, more regulation of every corner of our lives, more taxes on everyone, and more inflation. They say the youth want socialism. Well, Harris is their chance.
If your idea of fixing America is Project 2025, well, that’s certainly a choice.
I just can’t believe Republicans were foolish enough to write it all down in one single document.
“We gotta get, where we gotta go, ya know, because when we get where we gotta go, we need to get back from where we went” smh
Holt “Have you been to the border”? Her “We have been to the border”. Holt “ you haven’t been to the border have you?” Her “I haven’t been to Europe either. I don’t understand why it’s a big deal.”
That could actually be the first female president of the USA. I trust AOC 100 more times than Kamala. DEI at it’s worst.
It does seem the Dems want to guarantee Trump’s election. They can hope to regroup as the opposition party.
So…the same delegates who voted for Biden (a few weeks ago) given his cognitive abilities have been questioned for a long time, now ‘unite’ and vote for Kamala? Is this supposed to be news???? LOL
I’m just going to sit back with my popcorn and enjoy the show…
And…agree with above, choosing the candidate behind closed doors is the most undemocratic thing you could do, so any argument that they are fighting for democracy is just a joke to me now.