United States | The switch in time

Which Kamala Harris is now at the top of the Democratic ticket?

The race to define the new presumptive nominee

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks at a campaign event in Kalamazoo, Michigan on July 17th 2024
Photograph: Erin Schaff/New York Times/Redux/Eyevine
|WASHINGTON, DC

IT IS BAD form to be dour, doubting or dissenting at a coronation. And Democrats are a well-behaved lot. On July 21st President Joe Biden abandoned his bid for re-election, less than a month before he was to be formally nominated at the party’s convention in Chicago. One day later, his anointed successor, Vice-President Kamala Harris, had secured the spot before any simulacrum of a contest could even begin. Mr Biden transferred his whole campaign infrastructure immediately; his campaign renamed itself “Harris for President” within hours. Her mooted opponents went prostrate: every sitting Democratic governor had endorsed her within a day.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “The switch in time”

From the July 27th 2024 edition

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