Kamala Harris clinches Democratic Party nomination

Vice President says she will 'accept the nomination' when it becomes official on Monday

US Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate soon. AFP

Kamala Harris has surpassed the required number of votes to become the Democratic Party nominee for president in this year's November election, the party chairman announced on Friday.

“I am so proud to confirm that Vice President Harris has earned more than a majority of votes from all convention delegates and will be the nominee of the Democratic Party following the close of voting on Monday,” Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison said, according to Politico.

Delegates from the Democratic Party began voting on Thursday in an electronic roll call in a process that will not conclude until Monday.

No one has challenged Ms Harris for the nomination since President Joe Biden announced last month he was no longer seeking a second term in the White House and endorsed his deputy.

“I am honoured to be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. I will officially accept the nomination next week,” Ms Harris said in call with supporters and in a post on X.

Her campaign account on X responded to the news by posting a picture of Ms Harris at a recent rally, with the caption: “The presumptive Democratic nominee.”

About 4,000 delegates – the grass roots activists and politicians allocated during the primary process – sent in signatures backing Ms Harris to feature on the ballot for the five-day electronic vote.

Ms Harris, who will run against Republican nominee Donald Trump, won the support of 99 per cent of the delegates who signed petitions, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) said in a statement, while no one else met the qualifying threshold of 300 signatures.

Ms Harris is expected to announce her pick for running mate shortly after her nomination is confirmed.

Her coronation as nominee would come at the DNC meeting in Chicago later this month.

Mr Harrison said “we will rally around Vice President Kamala Harris and demonstrate the strength of our party” during its convention in Chicago later this month.

The formal nomination is expected to be finalised by August 7 even though the party's convention in Chicago is not scheduled to begin for two more weeks.

Democratic officials have said the accelerated timeline was necessary because of an August 7 deadline to ensure candidates appear on the Ohio ballot, the Associated Press reported.

If elected, Ms Harris would smash several glass ceilings, becoming the first woman, the first black woman and the first Asian American to become US president.

“Think about this: her dad is of Jamaican descent, her mother is of South Asian descent and then she went to the great Howard University, worked in California, worked in the United States Senate,” Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock told a raucous, 10,000-strong crowd at Ms Harris's rally in Atlanta on Tuesday.

“That is the American story. She brings all of those strands together. She sees us because in a real sense she is all of us.”

Mr Trump drew criticism on Wednesday after he questioned Ms Harris's racial identity, saying she had turned black.