
Montana’s Democratic delegates endorse Harris for presidential nomination
Kamala Harris
(Daily Montanan) Montana’s Democratic delegates endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party nominee for president on Wednesday following President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse his vice president.
The endorsement comes from the delegates previously pledged to Biden because he won Montana’s June primary, who will vote on the virtual roll call that started on Thursday morning as part of the Democratic National Convention, which will officially take place Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
“We are proud to support Vice President Kamala Harris as our party’s presidential nominee and enthusiastically endorse her as the next President of the United States,” the delegates said in a statement provided by the Montana Democratic Party.
The previously pledged delegates were elected at the party’s platform convention in June in Havre. After Biden dropped out of the race earlier this month and endorsed Harris, and since no other candidate qualified as an eligible candidate before Tuesday’s deadline to do so, Harris is the only candidate eligible to receive votes.
The Democratic National Committee said earlier this week that Harris was the only candidate had gotten 300 delegate signatures to qualify for the ballot for the Democratic nomination. Harris got support from 3,923 delegates – 99% of those participating and 84% of all delegates.
There are still automatic delegates – often party leadership and members of Congress – whose votes will also be counted on the first ballot during a state-by-state roll call at this year’s DNC. Virtual roll call voting will close at 4 p.m., on Aug. 5.
Harris had already secured the majority of delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic nomination within two days of Biden’s departure from the race, but Montana at that point was one of nine states where Democratic delegates had not already pledged their verbal support to Harris, the New York Times reported.
Montana’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has for a week been the lone Democratic holdout in the Senate who has not endorsed Harris. He is in a close race with Republican challenger and political newcomer Tim Sheehy, who was picked by Montana’s other senator, Republican Steve Daines, who is currently chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, will campaign alongside Sheehy next Friday night in Bozeman.
Tester has also distanced himself from some of the Biden-Harris administration’s policies, namely surrounding the southern border and some energy regulations, as he tries to win a fourth term in the Senate while being Montana’s only statewide elected Democrat.
Former President Donald Trump won the last two presidential elections in Montana by 16% and 20% over Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, respectively.
Tester, who called on Biden to drop out before the president did so, has not endorsed a Democratic nominee nor attended the convention when he is up for election, the Montana Free Press reported last week, and a spokesperson for the Montana Democratic Party told the MTFP Tester supported an open nominating process.
Asked again Wednesday if Tester’s stance had changed at all, a spokesperson for his Senate office said, “Senator Tester’s position hasn’t changed.”