Former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donnelly, previously a U.S. Senator from Indiana, gives an Independence Day speech on June 25, 2024. (From U.S. Embassy to the Holy See)
Joe Donnelly — who until this month served as U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican — will chair the Hoosier delegation to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) next month, the Indiana Democratic Party announced Monday.
Indiana will send 88 delegates to the DNC, which is set to take place August 19-22 in Chicago.
“Ambassador Donnelly has given a lifetime of service to our state and country and will be the perfect leader for our delegation,” Party Chair Mike Schmuhl said in a news release. “Joe understands what this election is about: protecting our democracy, promoting personal freedoms, and continuing the record investments in infrastructure and union labor across our country.”
Donnelly predicted a “historic convention.”
“I’m looking forward to working with my fellow Hoosiers at the convention … We take this obligation very, very seriously,” Donnelly told the Capital Chronicle. “And I think you’ll see people working very, very hard to do the very best for our country.”
President Joe Biden bowed out of his reelection campaign Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination on his way out.
Donnelly has also endorsed Harris.
“I served with Vice President Harris in the United States Senate. She’s incredibly smart and talented, and will be ready on day one,” he said.
But he noted delegates can make their own choices.
“We’re not trying to convince them to go one way or the other,” Donnelly said.
Indiana delegates “unattached” to presidential candidates at DNC 2024
But the party may “at some point” hold a vote on whether to endorse Harris — because, he said, “It’s my belief (that) probably the significant majority support her.”
Although there are just over 100 days until Election Day on November 5, Donnelly was confident Harris could pull out a victory.
“She can certainly win, and she’ll be going throughout the country to talk about the important things that the Biden-Harris administration has done,” he said, listing job growth, clean energy, lower inflation and the U.S.-led coalition opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But Donnelly held back on naming a vice presidential pick, saying, “I think, first, we want to decide who the presidential candidate would be.”
Biden nominated Donnelly to the ambassadorship in 2021, and he was sworn into the role the following year. He worked on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, according to the news release. In May, he announced he’d step down in early July, briefly prompting speculation from a prominent GOP lawyer that he’d run for governor.
Donnelly served as a U.S. Senator from 2013 to 2019 — knocked out by gubernatorial hopeful and outgoing Sen. Mike Braun — and was a U.S. Rep for Indiana’s Second Congressional District from 2007 to 2013.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The post Former Vatican ambassador Joe Donnelly to lead Hoosier DNC delegation appeared first on Indiana Capital Chronicle.