South Carolina Democrats unite around Harris for party’s nomination after Biden steps aside  

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD)- Democratic leaders in South Carolina are quickly coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris to be the party’s presidential nominee as the November general election looms.

It comes just one day after 81-year-old Biden announced he would not seek reelection and formally endorsed Harris to take his spot at the top of the ticket.

As the dust starts to settle from that historic announcement, questions now turn to what comes next for the party from what the ticket will look like to how local leaders begin to rally support for a new nominee.

Former State Senator Marlon Kimpson, who left office in 2023 for a role on the Biden administration’s Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, has worked closely with both Biden and Harris in the White House and said Monday that Harris has his full support.

He characterized Harris as the “brightest, most articulate, [and] most intelligent,” encouraging other Democrats to get behind her.

“You saw former Speaker Pelosi get behind Vice President Harris this morning, most of the Senate Democratic leadership has already endorsed, most of the party chairs are coming together,” Kimpson said. “This is a seminal moment.”

Kimpson is slated to attend the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month and will be part of the leadership team helping to refocus the party in the wake of Biden’s exit.

“We’ve already adopted our platform,” he said. “There is no drama in the Democratic Party.”

Another major figure in the party, Rep. James Clyburn (SC-06), also solidified his support for the vice president, an endorsement he previously signaled he would give should Biden withdraw.

“One of President Biden’s first decisions as the nominee was to select a running mate that he believed possessed the values and vision necessary to continue this country’s pursuit toward a ‘more perfect Union,’ Clyburn said in a statement. “I echo the good judgment he demonstrated in selecting Vice President Harris to lead this nation alongside him, and I am proud to follow his lead in support of her candidacy to succeed him as the Democratic Party’s 2024 nominee for President.”

Clyburn’s endorsement ahead of South Carolina’s presidential primary in 2020 is largely credited with helping boost Biden to the nomination – and ultimately the White House.

Hours before Biden’s announcement, Clyburn had urged colleagues to quickly rally around a single candidate if Biden were to bow out, warning that failure to do so before the convention could spell trouble.  

“If you go to the convention, have an open process in the convention, It will come out the same way it came out in 1968, 1972 and 1980,” Clyburn said on CNN “State of the Union” Sunday morning.  

“When we had a contested process on the floor of the convention in 1980, we lost an incumbent president, and in 1972, we carried one state, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia,” he continued. “And all of us know what happened in 1968 when we ran Lyndon Johnson out of the race, with a great record Lyndon Johnson had, got rid of him over one issue, the Vietnam War. Here, we are now using one issue to get rid of a president, the result would be the same.”

Despite Harris garnering widespread support from senior Democrats, it will ultimately be up to the nearly 4,000 delegates attending the DNC to decide who becomes the party’s nominee.

The South Carolina Democratic Party said it met virtually Sunday night and voted to pledge its 55 delegates to Harris.

“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,” Chair Christale Spain said. “Vice President Harris has been fully vetted, and she has earned our unwavering support.”

Meanwhile, South Carolina Republicans are calling on Biden to resign, arguing he is not fit to remain in office.

“Joe Biden must resign,” Rep. William Timmons (SC-04) wrote in a July 21 post on X. “If he cannot run for re-election today, he should not be our President tomorrow.”

“This is common sense,” Rep. Nancy Mace (SC-01) told reporters during a July 22 call. “If you’re unable to run for reelection, you’re unable to run the country.”

If Biden does not resign – which he has made no indication that he will do – Mace said the vice president should take steps now to change command by invoking the 25th Amendment.

“If he is good enough to be president, he is good enough to run for reelection, but that is not what we are hearing, and that is not the message that the American people are receiving,” Mce said. “Kamala Harris should invoke the 25th amendment. We can’t do it as Congress, and so my resolution is simply expressing the sentiment encouraging her to do so because Joe Biden, I  believe, is a national security risk.”