Democratic Delegates See Harris as the Strongest Candidate Against Trump

Delegates to the Democratic National Convention support the party moving forward swiftly to nominate Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate, rather than going through a prolonged and potentially divisive debate, according to interviews conducted by The New York Times.

Times reporters spoke with more than 250 delegates across the country this week, before Ms. Harris announced that she had collected enough delegate pledges to become her party’s presumptive nominee. The conversations showed that the party loyalists whose votes will determine the nomination overwhelmingly described the vice president as the strongest candidate the party has to run against former President Donald J. Trump.

“Kamala Harris puts us in a much better position to be able to compete, up and down the line, and makes this a much more winnable race,” said John Hendrick, a delegate from Leon County, Fla.

A majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August agreed with President Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential contest, according to New York Times interviews with delegates.Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times

As Ms. Harris turns her attention to selecting a running mate, the interviews show no clear consensus among this group of party insiders over whom she should pick: 16 percent of respondents said it should be Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, and 11 percent said Mark Kelly, the senator from Arizona. About 28 percent of respondents said they did not know whom the selection should be, or they did not respond to the question.