Live updates: Kamala Harris gets endorsements from WA Dems

KUOW and NPR coverage of President Joe Biden's decision to end his reelection bid.

Biden announced he would "stand down" in the 2024 presidential race Sunday. Here's what we know.

President Joe Biden endorsed Harris to take his place as the nominee shortly after he announced he would end his reelection bid. Here are the highlights:

• The Washington State Democratic Party endorsed Harris immediately after Biden said he was standing down.
• Most of the Democrats in Washington state's congressional delegation had endorsed Harris by Monday morning.
• Get caught up on Biden news from over the weekend here.

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Melinda French Gates backs Harris

Melinda French Gates added her name Tuesday to the growing list of lawmakers, celebrities, and Democratic Party leaders throwing their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to head the presidential ticket this fall.

"There is so much riding on the election in November," French Gates said in a statement posted on X. "We need a leader who knows that when women have their full power in society, we all thrive."

French Gates credited Harris with traveling across the country in support of reproductive rights in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade. She also cited Harris' support for legislation to eliminate racial disparities in maternal health care, and her promotion of policies to make paid leave, child care, and elder care more affordable.

"During her years in the White House, she has proven that she knows how to lead through crises while pushing for the change we need," French Gates said. "I want her fighting for our country for the next four years."

French Gates stepped down last month from her role as co-chair of the $75 billion foundation she helped run with her former husband, Bill Gates.

As part of an agreement with the Microsoft founder, she received $12.5 billion to use for her own charitable purposes.

— Stephen Howie

Schrier endorses Harris

Rep. Kim Schrier, of Sammamish, officially put her support behind Vice President Kamala Harris Monday afternoon.

"Uniting our party in support of Kamala Harris for president is the best way to make sure Donald Trump never sets foot in the White House again," Schrier wrote in a statement shared on X.

With Schrier's endorsement, just one Democrat in Washington state's congressional delegation had yet to comment explicitly on Harris: Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, of Washougal.

Neither Gluesenkamp Perez's D.C. office nor her campaign has responded to requests for comment.

— Katie Campbell

Monday, July 22, 2024

As Harris launches her presidential run, the veepstakes is on. Here's who to watch (NPR)

Democrats are coalescing around Vice President Harris's presidential bid, and now eyes are on who she could pick as her running mate, if she secures the party’s nomination.

In the weeks since President Biden’s poor debate performance, which pushed many on the left to amplify calls for him to drop out of the race, a handful of Democrats have been seen as potential candidates to run in his place.

Now, some of those same names are being floated as potential vice-presidential candidates.

Notably, most of these potential picks are under 60 years old, which could provide a strikingly different Democratic ticket than just last week. But the potential veeps have a different kind of challenge: low national name recognition and minimal time to change that.

Read who may be considered here.

— NPR

WA GOP Chair suggests Harris is a DEI candidate

Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh told KUOW's Soundside he believes Vice President Kamala Harris is a so-called DEI candidate.

DEI refers to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Republicans have rejected DEI initiatives in both the public and private sectors for years, and have sought to end federal DEI programs geared toward improving diversity.

"I think she represents an approach to public service that is driven by a misbegotten notion of equality and, [Democrats’] preferred term, 'equity,'" Walsh said.

Harris has a long public office resume: She was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003, attorney general of California in 2010 and 2014, and won a Senate election in 2016. She's also the current vice president. And yet in response to multiple follow-up questions, Walsh seemed to suggest that she is only being endorsed for president because of her race and gender.

Walsh insisted that Harris herself can be held accountable for the "failures of DEI," and that the government should step away from DEI principles.

Before Walsh spoke with Soundside, the State GOP called Harris an "unqualified" candidate on X. In the same post, the party suggested Harris' elevation was the result of "antimeritocratic (sic) DEI."

State Democratic Party Chair Shasti Conrad told Soundside those comments were "disgusting" and "abhorrent" dog whistles, if not "straight up" racist and sexist.

"All that is is red meat for their base," Conrad said, "that is meant to turn on a woman of color and to make her seem as though she is not the incredible leader that she is."

In any case, Walsh isn't worried about Republican nominee Donald Trump's chances to win in November – no matter who takes Biden's place.

"I'm not sure they have a horse that's more likely to win in November," he said.

— Soundside

WA Dem Chair working to get state delegates behind Harris ahead of DNC

There’s a sense of relief among Democrats Monday, according to Washington State Democratic Party Chair Shasti Conrad, even as party leaders work to get their delegates behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

Speaking to KUOW’s Soundside Monday, Conrad said Democratic voters in Washington state want to beat Trump. She believes President Joe Biden has put the party in a position to do so by stepping aside and endorsing Harris.

Conrad met with Washington’s delegates Sunday night after Biden announced he was ending his reelection campaign. She said the delegates were still processing their grief even as they were starting to coalesce around Harris.

She noted Biden did not direct delegates that were meant to be pledged to him to support Harris. Now, delegates across the country are in conversation about who should get their nominations. Conrad said she hopes Washington’s delegates will be able to make a “big statement” in support of Harris.

Conrad was also on a call with all of the state party chairs to discuss the matter.

“It was a space to process,” she said of that meeting. “And what was really beautiful was… by the end of the call, folks were really clear about what we need to do.”

And that is to get behind Harris and stop the “hand-wringing.”

— Soundside

Washington state delegates consider Harris before DNC

At the Jefferson County Democrats’ fundraiser in Port Townsend on Sunday, Attorney General Bob Ferguson said he and the crowd owe the president a debt.

"Round of applause for Joe Biden," Ferguson said. Cheers filled the room at the Jefferson County fairgrounds. Ferguson then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

In the audience was Alex Morgan, a Biden-Harris delegate from the 6th Congressional District. Next month, he and around a hundred other delegates from Washington state will travel to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to anoint a new nominee. It's not yet clear who that nominee will be now that Biden has stepped aside.

Morgan said he thinks he'll be voting to nominate Harris and feels a renewal of energy around her, but wants to talk to as many Democrats in his district as possible to get their feelings.

"So far, everyone is really excited about the Vice President's candidacy, and I just want to make sure that, you know -- I want to make sure I continue to do my job of representing them to the convention," Morgan said. He's also the president of the Progressive Turnout Project, a political action committee based in Chicago.

Another Biden-Harris delegate in Seattle, Solona Sisco, told KUOW that she had doubts about Harris, based on the then-senator's performance in the 2020 primary.

"I really dislike how a majority of the Democratic Party leadership has pushed Kamala on us in the past 22 hours," Sisco said over text. "I am concerned about Kamala Harris’ lack of electability and lack of ability to excite voters."

While the overwhelming majority of delegates Washington sends to Chicago will be Biden-Harris delegates, there are two "uncommitted" delegates – elected by voters trying to send a message about Biden’s support for Israel during its bombardment of Gaza.

Yaz Kader, an uncommitted delegate from Seattle, said he's hopeful Harris will be "a little more empathetic towards the Palestinian cause" based on her calls for a ceasefire in March. Kader is Palestinian-American.

"If you just listen to the language of the two of them, you know, it's very clear that Biden was just not up to the task – to standing up against Israel," Kader said. "There was no red line with him in terms of what Israel could do, and that's just unacceptable."

— Scott Greenstone

Donald Trump has donated to Kamala Harris twice, but she didn't keep the money (NPR)

Former President Donald Trump donated not once but twice to re-elect Kamala Harris as the attorney general of California.

California records show that Trump contributed $5,000 in September 2011 toward Harris' 2014 reelection campaign, and followed up with another $1,000 in February 2013. His daughter Ivanka Trump also donated to the campaign, contributing $2,000 in 2014.

Harris was elected attorney general in 2011 and reelected in 2014. She served until 2017, when she was sworn into the U.S. Senate.

But Harris did not keep the $6,000 from Trump. A spokesperson told the Sacramento Bee in 2020 that she donated the money to a "nonprofit that advocates for civil and human rights for Central Americans" in 2015, by which point she had been reelected and was launching her bid for the Senate.

News of Trump's contribution surfaced after Biden picked Harris as his running mate in 2020 and again this week after he endorsed her for president.

Read more here.

— NPR

Potential rivals to Harris for president line up to endorse her (NPR)

Democratic lawmakers, organizers, and potential rivals rallied around Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy less than a day after President Biden stepped out of the race and put his support behind her for as the presidential nominee. She appears on a glidepath to the nomination when delegates meet in Chicago next month.

Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., seen as a potential contender, told MSNBC Monday morning that he was endorsing her candidacy. “The vice president is smart and strong which will make her a good president,” he said.

Fellow Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania also quickly endorsed Harris, eliminating speculation that they might try to challenge her at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in four weeks.

A flood of Democratic lawmakers in both the House and Senate have already rallied behind Harris.

While some Democrats are advocating for an “open process” in Chicago, there seems to be little appetite for a contentious battle for the nomination to take on former President Donald Trump, and any potential challenge seemed likely to be nominal.

“A lot of people would like to see a mini-primary. That’s the process to find out if you have the strongest candidate, whether it be Kamala or someone else, to get behind,” longtime Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told CBS on Monday.

However, Manchin, who is retiring, made clear he would not seek to challenge her. He did forecast problems with her candidacy in a general election.

Read more here.

— NPR

The Kamala Harris coconut tree meme, explained as best we can (NPR)

In the weeks before President Biden announced he would not be seeking reelection, some Democrats online rallied behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s new nominee. And their symbol became the coconut tree.

Not long after Biden announced on Sunday he was dropping out of the race, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tweeted out just three emojis: a coconut, a palm tree and an American flag. EMILYs LIST, the PAC focused on electing Democratic women, explicitly endorsed Harris in a tweet and, in a more subtle show of support, also added the tree and the coconut to its username.

So how did the coconut tree emerge as the emblem of Harris's most devoted, or at least most-online followers? It's a story more than a year in the making.

Read more here.

— NPR

Uncommitted WA vows to continue call for ceasefire in Gaza

Uncommitted WA, a coalition advocating for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, will continue that campaign "regardless of who the Democratic nominee."

In a statement Monday, the group reaffirmed their position that the war in Gaza should end as should military funding for Israel.

"We will support the nominee if they commit to these goals," said Yazan Kader, an Uncommitted WA leader, registered nurse, and uncommitted delegate to the Democratic National Convention, which convenes on August 19 in Chicago.

Two uncommitted delegates from Washington, both of whom are Palestinian, will attend the DNC.

"We must not forget that Palestinians face the brutality of the Israeli occupation knowing it is fully supported by the west," said Sabrene Odeh, a human rights advocate and the other uncommitted delegate. "As the granddaughter of Palestinians who survived the Nakba, I will continue to advocate for the right of Palestinians to live freely and in dignity. I urge every candidate running for the presidency to recognize this country's complicity and to right this wrong."

The United Nations defines the Nakba, which means "catastrophe" in Arabic, as the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

— Katie Campbell

Kilmer endorses Harris

Rep. Derek Kilmer, of Gig Harbor, officially endorsed Harris shortly after 10 a.m. Monday.

Kilmer, who is not running for reelection this year, called Harris "a leading voice to protect reproductive rights" and "a champion for voting rights."

"The stakes of this election could not be higher," he said in a statement. "I believe Vice President Harris can – and must – win at the ballot box in November. I support her, and I will do everything I can to help elect her so we can unite our country and build a better future for all Americans.”

— Katie Campbell

WA Dems getting behind Harris

As of Monday morning, just three Democrats in Washington state's congressional delegation had not explicitly endorsed Harris: Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, of Washougal; Rep. Derek Kilmer, of Gig Harbor; and Rep. Kim Schrier, of Sammamish.

KUOW reached out to them on Monday morning for their positions on Harris. This thread will be updated as we hear back.

In a statement Sunday evening, Gluesenkamp Perez said this of the party's next steps: "It’s time to move forward and put the past behind us. The next president must clearly be fit enough to do the job, and that fitness must be prosecuted publicly."

Neither of the state's two Republicans in the House — Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, of Spokane, and Dan Newhouse, of Sunnyside — had commented on Biden's departure from the race or his endorsement of Harris as of 9 a.m. Monday.

— Katie Campbell