US Vice-President Kamala Harris has passed the threshold to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination in a vote of party delegates.
Speaking by telephone, Ms Harris said she was “honoured to be the presumptive nominee” as the virtual roll call continues ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago later this month.
Ms Harris is the first black woman and first South Asian woman to become the White House standard-bearer for a major US political party.
If she defeats Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in November she would be America’s first female president.
She ran unopposed in the virtual roll call after President Joe Biden stepped aside last month and quickly endorsed her. Several potential rivals followed his lead.
On Friday afternoon, Ms Harris formally became the nominee after securing the support of 2,350 delegates, the threshold required to earn the nomination.
“We believe in the promise of America and that’s what this campaign is about,” she said in brief remarks by phone as she crossed the benchmark.
“We are in this, we are on the road and it’s not going to be easy, but we’re going to get this done.”
In total, Democrats have said 3,923 delegates – or 99% of the participants – plan to vote for her.
The rollcall began on Thursday and ends on Monday.
Presidential and vice-presidential nominees are typically anointed at their party conventions, but the relatively late date of the 2024 DNC risks falling afoul of state ballot access laws.
Ms Harris, 59, was born in Oakland, California, and is the first Democratic nominee in the party’s nearly 200-year history to hail from a western state.
