Democrats began the official roll call of delegates in the presidential nomination process on Thursday. The virtual roll call will continue through Aug. 5.
The delegates will get their ballots electronically and will cast them that way. To qualify, a candidate had to have at least 300 delegates pledged to them, and only Vice President Kamala Harris met that threshold.
The New Jersey delegation fell in line behind Harris almost immediately when President Joe Biden withdrew from the contest.
Laura Anne Keating, one of two uncommitted delegates from New Jersey, who was withholding support for Biden until he got tougher on a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, was still waiting for her ballot early on Thursday and said she remains uncommitted. She said “the entire point of uncommitted was to kick the Democrats in the butt to do what they had to do, not just for moral reasons but to win the election because they’re not going to win the election without the young people of America.”
Delegate Arlene Quiñones Perez said the coalition that put Biden in the White House in 2020 appears to be getting back together.
“I think you have a lot of people who feel more energized now, certainly younger voters,” said Quiñones Perez. “While very supportive of President Biden, I think you see a different excitement level from these individuals now, which is very important because we need that younger age group in order to make sure that we’re calling her President Harris soon.”
Impressive fundraising, new voter registrations and perked-up polling aren’t the only things that have boosted Democrats’ hopes. They are hoping — and there are some outward signs, including former President Trump’s appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists Wednesday — that the Trump campaign, which had planned on facing “sleepy Joe,” has been thrown for a loop.
“They have not been able to switch gears,” said Quiñones. “I think they’re just trying to figure out what is the appropriate attack to go after this new candidate.”
Micah Rassmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, said the Democratic surge has implications in New Jersey. “This is the nightmare scenario for people like [Republican congressional candidate] Tom Kean and [Republican Senate candidate] Curtis Bashaw, who just a few weeks ago were rallying behind Trump. He was looking like reasonable Trump. This is the Trump that we’re seeing now that scares away suburban voters.”
