The possibility of Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the country’s first Black woman president lifted the spirits of many of Georgia’s Black elected officials in the hours after President Joe Biden bowed out of the 2024 White House race.
Top Georgia Democrats, including many in the state’s legislative Black Caucus, had steadfastly backed Biden up until his abrupt announcement on Sunday, despite immense pressure from donors and operatives for the president to drop out. But that energy shifted in Georgia and nationally as the party quickly shifted toward coalescing around Harris as the front-runner for the party’s nomination.
“It may inspire some of these African Americans who are infrequent voters to come to the polls,” said Atlanta City Council member Michael Julian Bond on Sunday. “African American women are the bedrock of the Democratic vote across the country.”
That sentiment was echoed in a number of key endorsements from Black women leaders of the Georgia Democratic Party on Sunday, including state Sen. Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath and Nikema Williams, and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. It was also demonstrated in a renewed fundraising push: the Harris campaign raised nearly $50 million on Sunday after Biden’s announcement.
“I am all in for my sister in service, VP @KamalaHarris!” Williams, who chairs the Georgia Democratic Party, posted on X late Sunday evening. “I am proud to wholeheartedly endorse her as the next President of the United States.”
Harris received Biden’s endorsement Sunday afternoon after the president announced that he was suspending his reelection bid. Biden’s decision came less than a month after his abysmal debate performance in Atlanta ignited a relentless onslaught of concerns about his age, mental fitness, and chances of defeating former President Donald Trump in November.
Still, some in the Georgia party’s majority Black leadership expressed disappointment over Biden dropping out. Many who have known Biden for years felt the president was treated poorly by top Democrats in Washington and the national media following his poor debate performance less than a month ago, while acknowledging stopping Trump and Project 2025 — the conservative manifesto that would dramatically scale back civil rights gains — is the party’s bigger priority.
Georgia House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon, noted that a majority of his fellow Democratic caucus members had sent a letter to the White House on Friday urging Biden to stay in the race.
“It’s a sad day,” Beverly told Capital B Atlanta via text message on Sunday. “I’ve always really liked Biden and have certainly supported him over the years. He was a tremendous president.”
Former Georgia NAACP Youth and College Division President Jayden Williams, 21, was one of about 50 local Democratic Party members who learned about Biden stepping down and endorsing Harris while attending the grand opening of a new Biden-Harris campaign office in McDonough during the afternoon on Sunday.
Williams, who lives in Stockbridge, said local Democratic elected officials and party leaders like Henry County Democratic Party Chair Carlotta Harrell were rallying support for Biden at the event less than 30 minutes before the president announced he was dropping out.
“You could tell by a lot of Democrats’ faces in the room they were very disappointed,” Williams said. “It was very disheartening.”
Not everyone is convinced Harris gives Democrats the best chance to beat Trump in November. Fellow Democrat and former NAACP youth leader Courtney McClain, 23, a South Carolina native who does voter engagement work in Black communities, noted that Harris never enjoyed the same level of support from Black voters during the 2020 election cycle as Biden did. Polls conducted since Biden’s June 27 debate performance show Harris performing slightly better against Trump.
McClain is a graduate student at Harris’ alma mater, Howard University, who, like the vice president, is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. She and her parents were driving home from a road trip to Savannah on Sunday when they learned the news about Biden and Harris.
“I just haven’t gotten a lot of enthusiasm from the people I’ve been speaking to,” McClain said of Harris Sunday evening. “Just seeing how they’ve been speaking about her, especially regarding today, that’s something that I feel like the DNC hasn’t been able to tap into.”
Although many senior Democratic Party officials had lined up in support of Harris by Monday morning, some still cautioned any potential challengers against alienating the party’s base less than four months from the election.
“If you look at who is the voting power base of the Democratic Party, that is a dangerous risk,” Bond said, referencing the overwhelming support the party has historically received from Black voters in general elections.
“Anything that would interrupt that, I think, is to the Democratic Party’s peril,” Bond said.
