WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top two U.S. Democratic congressional leaders endorsed Vice President Kamala 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.
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,” he 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.”
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.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Moira Warburton and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)
