Vice President Kamala D. Harris gives the keynote address at he King Day at the Dome Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. (Photo By Mary Ann Chastain/ SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — The South Carolina delegation to the Democratic National Convention endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris hours after President Joe Biden announced he was no longer running for a second term.
“South Carolina’s Democratic Delegates join President Biden in endorsing Vice President Harris as our nominee,” said state Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain in a statement late Sunday evening. “We must move forward in unity for the sake of democracy; by selecting President Biden in February, South Carolina Democrats also selected the Vice President for her ability to lead.”
Biden won South Carolina’s primary in February, the first recognized primary in the country, by over 96% of the vote.
The vote to endorse Harris by the DNC delegates on Sunday was “wildly overwhelming,” according to one delegate, who did not provide an exact count.
The Palmetto State delegation to the DNC includes 55 delegates elected in a complex process outlined on the website.
The state will also send 10 automatic delegates, or superdelegates. Superdelegates do not get to vote in the first round of the Democratic convention. These superdelegates include current Democratic members of Congress, which in South Carolina is just U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.
Clyburn also endorsed Harris Sunday afternoon, saying he was “proud to follow (Biden’s) lead in support of her candidacy to succeed him.”
As recently as Thursday, Clyburn told reporters that he was backing Biden. Biden credits Clyburn’s endorsement of him prior to the 2020 South Carolina Democratic primary for his 30-point victory in the Palmetto State, after disappointing finishes that year in Iowa and New Hampshire.
In his statement posted to the social platform X, Clyburn praised Biden’s policy goals and accomplishments as president.
“President Biden has improved the lives of countless Americans through his selfless service, and I thank him for his unparagoned leadership,” he wrote. “I echo the good judgement he demonstrated in selecting Vice President Harris to lead this nation alongside him.”
Former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2014 and is a political commentator for CNN, was more critical of the forces that pushed Biden out in his endorsement of Harris than Clyburn.
“Democrats should be embarrassed by the way President Biden was treated by his own colleagues the last month,” Sellers posted on the social platform X. “He is one of the most transformative Presidents of a generation. That fight is over … Kamala Harris is battle tested and battle ready.”
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