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Two of the last remaining Democrat holdouts on Kamala Harris are expected to jointly announce they will be backing the vice president as she looks to take on Donald Trump in November.
Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and House Leader Hakeem Jeffries will finally make their endorsement for the presidential race in the wake of Biden’s bowing out on Sunday.
According to sources familiar with their plans, they will make the public showing of support at a 1 p.m. ET press conference on Tuesday.
Notably, former President Barack Obama still has yet to throw his support for Kamala, saying vaguely that he would support the Democrats’ next ‘outstanding nominee.’
The endorsement comes one day after former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi threw her support behind Kamala and after the VP secured enough delegates to capture the Democratic nomination late last night.
The top California Democrat had remained silent about whether she was in support of Harris following President Joe Biden’s stunning withdrawal from the race Sunday afternoon.
The former speaker – who is speculated to have played a critical role in the pressure campaign to get the president to bow out – announced her endorsement in a statement Monday.
‘Today, it is with immense pride and limitless optimism for our country’s future that I endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States,’ she wrote.
‘My enthusiastic support for Kamala Harris for President is official, personal and political.’
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed Kamala Harris for president Monday
Her support comes as a wave of influential Democrats have moved to endorse the vice president in the 24 hours since Biden canceled his reelection bid.
The Clintons, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., Squad leader AOC and nearly two hundred Democratic lawmakers have officially endorsed Harris for the presidential nomination.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom – who many believed could step in for Biden as a replacement – even went as far as endorsing Harris for president.
Former President Barack Obama, meanwhile, has stayed silent about who he wants to lead the party forward in November.
Other influential congressional Democrats like Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and House Leader Hakeem Jeffries have yet to announce any endorsement for the presidential race in the wake of Biden’s bowing out.
Jeffries, however, did have glowing words for Harris on Monday.
‘Vice President Kamala Harris has excited the community. She’s excited the House Democratic Caucus, and she’s exciting the country,’ Jeffries told reporters.
He added that he and Schumer have a meeting with Harris ‘shortly.’
US Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., applaud as US President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 1, 2022
Pelosi had allegedly been working the halls of Congress, speaking to as many powerful Democrats as possible to try and come up with a plan to make Biden reconsider his reelection run.
That plot appears to have worked as the 81-year-old president announced in a statement Sunday that he would no longer seek to return to the Oval Office.
Still, Pelosi has in the past expressed reservations about Kamala Harris’s ability to lead the party.
In September 2023 when she was pressed on whether Harris is the best possible running mate for Biden’s reelection, she retorted, ‘He thinks so.’
‘She’s very politically astute,’ Pelosi added. ‘I don’t think people give her enough credit.’
The response clearly was not an endorsement at the time, but much has changed since Biden announced his reelection in April of that year.
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