The Massachusetts Democratic Party says its delegates "voted overwhelmingly to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris" as the party's presidential nominee.
The state party has a total of 116 delegates and eight alternates. Members of the delegation met virtually Monday, a day after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris.
The party said Gov. Maura Healey, who announced her support for the vice president's candidacy earlier Monday, joined the call and encouraged delegates to "speak with one voice and endorse Kamala Harris."
"Elections are always about math; this one is no different. She announced she was running for president yesterday, she started calling delegates and political leaders yesterday, she's gathering an awful lot of support between yesterday and today. The person who gets the most delegates first gets the nomination," Mass. Democratic Party Chairman Steve Kerrigan said Monday morning on GBH Radio in response to a question about a "coronation" for Harris. "This is not an insider game. This is just how politics works in any party and in any nation. And so this is not about a coronation, this is about organization."
The Massachusetts Democratic Party has a total of 116 delegates and eight alternates, according to the party. Sixty delegates and the eight alternates were chosen by Congressional district-level caucuses this spring and 20 at-large delegates were chosen by the Democratic State Committee. The party also has 24 "automatic party leaders and elected official" delegates and 12 "pledged party leaders and elected officials" delegates.
A Democratic Party spokesman said there will be a call Monday night among the Mass. Democratic State Committee and a separate call for national delegates. The spokesman said that party delegates will be able to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice, but that the party will wait until after the calls to further discuss the next steps of the process.
Kerrigan told GBH's "Boston Public Radio" that he was on a similar call Sunday night with representatives of the 57 state, territory and other Democratic Party chapters. He said some state parties "overwhelmingly" endorsed Harris during Sunday night's call, but Massachusetts was not one of them.
"Some states are allowed the chair or the executive committee to just make those endorsements, and then get the state committee to back that up. Others, like ours, require a meeting of our state committee," Kerrigan said Monday morning. "But what you saw was unity around the importance of beating Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, and an understanding that President Biden's patriotism is unparalleled and his support for Vice President Harris is immeasurable."
Before last month's debate, 62 percent of Massachusetts DNC delegates told a MassINC survey that Biden should stay in the race. When presented with the hypothetical of Biden leaving the race, 67 percent of delegates said they would be open to considering Harris and 53 percent said the VP would give the party its best chance to win this fall -- by far the highest percentages of any of the dozen Democrats offered as potential candidates.
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Biden, with Harris as his declared running mate, won the Massachusetts presidential primary on March 5 with 81.6 percent of the vote (533,096 votes in total). U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota got 4.5 percent of the 662,609 Democratic primary ballot votes cast, author Marianne Williamson received 3.1 percent, and 9.2 percent of ballots (60,236) were cast for "no preference," according to official results.
And while many Massachusetts Democrats were quick to endorse Harris to take the baton from Biden as the party's 2024 nominee, there are some exceptions and a glaring one was removed on Monday afternoon: Gov. Maura Healey.
Healey, a super-surrogate for the Biden campaign who seemed to ruffle some feathers at the White House with the way she called for Biden to reconsider his candidacy in recent weeks, issued a statement Sunday praising Biden's service, but did not address who she would support as the party's nominee in his place.
Healey did not have any public events scheduled Monday and a spokesman for her political operation did not return a call from the News Service. But just before 2:30 p.m., the governor's political arm issued a statement in which the governor endorsed Harris.
"Kamala Harris is a proven leader who has delivered for the American people again and again. As President, she will grow our economy, reduce costs, create jobs, and make sure every woman has access to the health care she needs. She’ll lay the foundation for lower interest rates and prosperity, and she’ll support NATO and American leadership abroad. I also know she will deliver for Massachusetts and support growth, innovation and investment in our state," Healey said. "Kamala Harris is the best person to make the case against Donald Trump. Trump is coming after our rights and our freedoms. And he will jack up costs on the middle class by gutting Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act."
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll also put out a statement Monday afternoon backing Harris, saying that "there is no one better prepared to stand up for our democracy, to lead on our values, to carry forward the interests of Team Massachusetts and to beat Donald Trump than Kamala Harris."
Asked about Healey's lack of an endorsement by Monday morning, Kerrigan said on GBH Radio he does not "think anybody understands more what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have done for Massachusetts and for the country than Governor Healey, and they've been fantastic partners."
"And I'll let her speak for herself on this, but she understands what's at stake in this election and she knows the type of leadership that Kamala Harris can bring to the table," Kerrigan said about three hours before Healey's statement.
Before joining Biden on his 2020 ticket, Harris was among the Democrats who ran for president that cycle, but she withdrew before the voting began in the face of fundraising challenges and low polling numbers.
