New York’s Democratic elites quickly circled the wagons deciding to fall in line with the party in backing Vice President Kamala Harris to take over the presidential ticket after President Biden stepped aside Sunday.
Top Dems including Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins (D-Westchester) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) were set to urge the state’s 305 delegates to the Democratic National Convention to support Harris via a Zoom call Monday night.
“We’re trying to line up the delegation behind Kamala Harris,” State Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs told The Post Monday afternoon. “Everybody is excited. It gives us an opportunity to support Kamala Harris. We’re very happy about it.”
Jacobs added that he expected Monday night’s meeting to be short and that it could be followed up with an official “vote” in the future.
Hochul and Jacobs were quick to endorse Harris hours after Biden announced he’d step aside and hand the vice president the car keys.
Jacobs said spoke with Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams amongst others Sunday evening, but didn’t speak with the hundreds of other Democrats who now get to cast a vote for a candidate in the DNC’s open contest.
“The mayor wanted to make sure things were lining up the right way,” Jacobs said.
While no other candidate has emerged to run against Harris and other big names like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg have also thrown their support behind the Harris, some New York delegates wished they would’ve had a little more say.
Shawn Hogan, a delegate from Steuben County and former Mayor of Hornell the delegates who did the grueling work of passing petitions and knocking on doors in the freezing upstate winter should have had a voice.
“I think there should be a little more respect paid to those people, those delegates who did that work,” Hogan said.
Hogan’s vote had been technically pledged to Biden, but he can now vote for whomever he wants in the nominating contest. Still, he’ll throw his support behind Harris because Biden endorsed her, he said.
Others shrugged off concerns replacing Biden on the ticket at the last minute would leave some Democrats disaffected.
“I think there’s a sense of excitement within the party,” Tompkins County Legislator and delegate Shawna Black told the Post, saying she’s received calls from other local concerned Dems glad to see Biden go.
Black said her wife quickly cut off the “Biden” half of her Biden-Harris yard sign to make an impromptu “Harris” sign after Sunday’s news.
“For a while we were just in a holding pattern to see where things were going to go,” she said.