Harris gets party nod, names VP pick

WASHINGTON — US Vice-President Kamala Harris, a daughter of immigrants, has secured the Democratic presidential nomination and named Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

More than four years after her first attempt at the presidency collapsed, Harris' coronation as her party's standard-bearer caps a tumultuous and frenetic period for Democrats, prompted by President Joe Biden's disastrous June debate performance that shattered his own supporters' confidence in his reelection prospects and spurred extraordinary intraparty warfare about whether he should stay in the race.

Harris' nomination became official after a five-day round of online balloting by Democratic National Convention delegates ended on Monday night, with the party saying in a statement that 99 percent of delegates casting ballots had done so for Harris. The party said it would next formally certify the vote before holding a celebratory roll call at the party's convention later this month in Chicago.

In choosing Walz, 60, Harris is turning to a Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter who helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state, including sweeping protections for abortion rights and generous aid to families.

Policy consistency

Harris has indicated that she does not plan to veer much from the themes and policies that framed Biden's candidacy, such as democracy, gun violence prevention and abortion rights.

However, her delivery can be far fierier, particularly when she invokes her prosecutorial background to lambaste former president Donald Trump and his 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records in connection with a hush money scheme.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court rejected a bid by the state of Missouri to halt Trump's upcoming sentencing for his conviction in New York on felony charges involving hush money paid to an adult movie star and left a related gag order until after the Nov 5 presidential election.

The decision by the justices came in response to Missouri's lawsuit claiming the case against Trump infringed on the right of voters under the Constitution to hear from the Republican presidential nominee as he seeks to regain the White House.

Harris was born on Oct 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, to Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist who emigrated to the United States from India, and Stanford University emeritus professor Donald Harris, a naturalized US citizen originally from Jamaica.

Agencies - Xinhua