© 2024 Allbritton Journalism Institute

Democrats Have Stopped Despairing

The party is determined to put on rose-colored glasses with Kamala Harris as the presumptive nominee.

Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., House Minority Leader-elect Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Kamala Harris for president. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

After a month of grief, dread, tears and hand-wringing, congressional Democrats are relieved — jubilant, really — that they’ve successfully ditched what many of them identified as the root of all their electoral troubles: Joe Biden.

“There’s a great spirit of hope out there,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the Texas Democrat who was first among his colleagues to urge the president to get out of the race after his poor debate performance against Donald Trump in June.

With Vice President Kamala Harris already poised to claim the party’s nomination, “we have hope of winning this election,” Doggett told reporters on Tuesday.