Brooklyn’s Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries became the latest powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid to become president,
The top two U.S. Democratic congressional leaders announced their enthusiastic support for Harris to be their party’s presidential nominee, the pair told reporters on Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries ended days of questions over whether they would join the growing number of Democrats in supporting Harris’s bid for the party nomination for the Nov. 5 election.
“We are brimming with excitement, enthusiasm, unity,” Schumer said at a press announcement with Jeffries on July 23.
President Joe Biden dropped his bid for reelection on Sunday amid worries that he no longer had the physical or mental stamina to wage what is expected to be a grueling race against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Harris told Schumer on Sunday that she “wanted the opportunity to win the nomination on her own,” the Senate majority leader said at a press conference held outside the Democratic campaign headquarters.
“Now that the process has played out, from the grassroots bottom up, we are here today to throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris,” Schumer said.
Jeffries, the House minority leader, shared many of the same sentiments with Schumer. He said Harris “is ready, willing and able to lead us into the future.”
“Kamala Harris and her candidacy has excited and energized the House Democratic Caucus, the Democratic Party and the nation,” he said, calling her “a common-sense leader who knows how to deliver real results.”
A majority of Democratic Party delegates committed on Monday to voting for Harris at the party’s roll call vote that is expected in early August.
