Kamala Harris officially selected as Democratic nominee

US Vice President Kamala Harris has crossed the threshold for the Democratic presidential nomination in the party’s delegate vote.

Ms. Harris said by phone that she was “honored to be the presumptive nominee” as virtual roll calls continued ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month.

Ms. Harris is the first Black woman and the first South Asian woman to serve as the White House standard-bearer for a major American party.

If she defeats Republican candidate Donald Trump in November, she will become the first female president of the United States.

She faced no opposition during the virtual roll call after President Joe Biden stepped down last month and quickly endorsed her. Several potential competitors followed his lead.

Ms. Harris officially became the nominee on Friday afternoon after receiving the support of 2,350 delegates, the threshold needed to win the nomination.

“We believe in the promise of America, and that’s what this campaign is about,” she said briefly by phone as she crossed the benchmark.

“We’re in this thing, we’re on the road, it’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to get this done.”

Democrats said a total of 3,923 delegates, or 99% of participants, planned to vote for her.

Roll call begins on Thursday and ends on Monday.

Presidential and vice-presidential nominees are typically appointed at party conventions, but the relatively late date of the 2024 Democratic National Committee could violate state ballot access laws.

Harris, 59, was born in Oakland, California and is the first Democratic candidate from a western state in the party’s nearly 200-year history.

She rose through the ranks of state politics, from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general to U.S. senator.

Biden handily won the Democratic primary before dropping out of the race. Despite concerns among voters about his age, he faced no backlash and won the support of 99 percent of Democratic National Committee delegates.

But the 81-year-old faced mounting pressure from within the party to quit after a poor performance in a June debate with Trump.

The decision to hold a virtual nomination process ahead of the Aug. 19-22 convention was made while Biden was still the presumptive nominee.

This is in response to Ohio voting rules, which require candidates for the November ballot to be formally selected 90 days before the election, on August 7.

The state’s Republican leaders warned they would enforce the law, and while lawmakers eventually enacted exemptions as they have in the past, Democrats said the early roll call would prevent further risks of their candidates being left off the ballot.

Delegates are not required to vote on the vice presidential pick.

Ms. Harris is expected to name her running mate by Monday.

The Trump campaign and some Republicans have criticized Ms. Harris for replacing Mr. Biden, arguing that she is the first major party candidate to win the nomination without holding a news conference or sitting down for an interview. Some are calling the replacement a “coup.”

But since Mr. Biden’s endorsement, Ms. Harris has invested heavily in the campaign, speaking out against Mr. Trump at numerous campaign rallies and fundraisers in swing states.

On Friday, the campaign announced it had raised more than $310m (£242m) in July, with more than two-thirds of those making first-time donations.

The figure is more than double the $138 million the Trump campaign raised last month and the largest amount raised so far in the 2024 election cycle.