A number of prominent Connecticut lawmakers are immediately rallying behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become the new Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden dropped his bid for reelection Sunday and endorsed her to take up the party’s mantle at a politically tumultuous time.
Some of the biggest powerbrokers in Connecticut followed Biden’s cue that his second-in-command has his “full support and endorsement” to become the new nominee. But some notable lawmakers are not going as far to make any endorsement in the immediate aftermath, though they are not opposed to her and see Harris as the front-runner heading into the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.
Biden’s exit from the presidential race on Sunday afternoon capped a dramatic three weeks since his poor debate performance called into question his fitness for office. He tried to resist calls for him to drop out but lost critical support as Republicans united around Donald Trump last week at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
The president’s statement was met with widespread support and praise for his agenda and work over the past three and a half years.
“President Biden has served our country with distinction for decades. We thank him profoundly for his service and leadership through some of the most difficult years of our lifetimes,” Connecticut Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy DiNardo said.
“We urge every Democrat to follow his lead. Our country is facing a threat like no other from the MAGA ticket,” she added. “The time is now to unite behind Vice President Harris and defeat Donald Trump. As the president said, let’s do this.”
Democrats are looking to unify the party amid the uncertainty. And many believe the best way of moving forward as a party is getting behind Harris, who made history as the first Black and South Asian vice president. Many believe she has the best shot at winning at an open convention.
“I don’t think there’s another choice that makes political sense. I don’t think there’s another choice that makes strategic sense. I don’t think there’s another choice,” said state Sen. Gary Winfield of New Haven. “She’s vice president. If we believe the things that we’re supposed to believe, you can’t say she wasn’t ready to be president. That is her job.”
Winfield, a member of Black and Puerto Rican Caucus in the General Assembly, said passing over her at the convention would be unthinkable.
“The fact that she is the first woman, first Black woman, skipping over her with the assignment would be absolute disrespect” to an important element of the Democratic coalition, Winfield said. “That would be a disaster.”
House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford made a similar endorsement of Harris.
“I’m happy that the president made a decision that he’s comfortable with. I’m endorsing Kamala Harris to be the next president. I don’t really know how you could have anybody else. The whole point of having a vice president is to serve in a situation like this,” he said.
But not everyone in Connecticut was ready to make an immediate endorsement.
Gov. Ned Lamont said he sees her as the leading candidate and believes Harris could benefit from securing the nomination at an open convention in Chicago next month. Lamont was the first governor to endorse Biden in the 2020 presidential primary but shared the same concerns of other Democrats who wanted him to withdraw.
“I think that she’s the front runner, and I think if you went through an open convention, she’d be a lot stronger for it,” Lamont said. “I don’t think it’s a sign of disrespect that you go through the convention. … My instinct is she’s the front runner, especially with Joe Biden’s endorsement.”
U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, who was one of three dozen members of Congress to publicly call for Biden to release his delegates and exit the race, said his sense was the congressional leadership was intending to be “more explicit” this week in urging the president to heed their calls.
He was not ready to endorse Harris, but he said he saw no realistic alternative.
“My head is still spinning a little bit,” Himes said. But, he added, based on the initial exchange of texts with colleagues, “I’d be pretty astonished if any of the probables — you know, the Whitmers, the various governors, what have you — were to say, ‘I’m gonna take a run at Harris.’”
“It’s almost inconceivable that somebody would challenge Vice President Harris. Presumably, if that were to happen, it would have to happen very, very quickly,” he said.
But others in Connecticut’s congressional delegation readily got behind Harris on Sunday, including U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District; U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-5th District; and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
“During the last three and a half years, he’s had a great partner in Vice President Kamala Harris, who I strongly support to lead the Democratic Party to build on their record of success with a new agenda focused on our future,” Courtney said.
After the assassination attempt at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, Republicans presented a unified front at their convention last week, including former political opponents of Trump and his own running mate, who was a vocal critic in 2016.
Democrats warned against creating more uncertainty and divisions heading into their own convention.
Vinnie Mauro, the chair of the Democratic Party in New Haven and a delegate to the Democratic National Committee, said Biden made the right decision and the party should follow his lead and rally around the vice president.
“I think going into Chicago with an open competition is absolute fucking chaos,” Mauro said.
The Republicans left their convention in Milwaukee united behind Trump, and Democrats cannot afford to open a debate about Harris, he argued.
State Treasurer Erick Russell of New Haven, one of the two Black Democrats holding statewide office in Connecticut, praised Biden and endorsed Harris.
“I think it’s an example of what Biden has done his entire career, which is ultimately putting the country first,” Russell said. “Obviously, there are some questions around exactly what the process will look like, and we’re all waiting to see that. But Joe Biden and the country picked Kamala Harris to be vice president because of her qualifications and the work that she’s done throughout her career. And I think that’s also why he endorsed her.”
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
