Harris is in a strong position to contest Monday’s Democratic nomination, having been endorsed by President Biden, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
But it’s by no means certain that she will lead the Democratic Party on Election Day.
Because Biden has already been selected as the nominee, there can be no full-scale election process within the Democratic Party, and candidates must announce themselves at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.
Let’s see who they are:
She gained attention during the pandemic for her criticism of President Trump’s handling of the crisis, and then made front pages when radical Trump supporters hatched a plot to kidnap her.
He advocates stricter gun control and clean energy, the polar opposite of Trumpism.
Wife of former President Barack Obama
A graduate of Princeton and Harvard, she is best known for being a colleague of future President Obama when they were young lawyers. The two have been married for 32 years and have two daughters.
She inspired many as first lady and her 2018 memoir, “Becoming,” has sold 11.5 million copies. She has not signaled she will run for office.
Though he’s prized for his TV-friendly looks, he’s likely to face challenges over the state of the “Golden State”: California faces budget problems, and San Francisco and Los Angeles have a decidedly un-TV-friendly image, with crime, drugs and homelessness issues.
He’s a brilliant speaker who has been praised as governor of a key battleground state (surprisingly, one poll suggests that more than a third of local Trump supporters have a favorable view of him) and, less known nationally, is a conservative Jew who observes the Sabbath and follows a kosher diet.
He certainly bucks the trend of older presidential candidates and would be the first openly gay man to hold the White House. A graduate of Harvard University and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, like former Democratic President Bill Clinton, he served in Afghanistan as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserves.
Known to millions around the world as a movie star – he won an Oscar for his supporting role in Syriana and an Oscar for co-producing Argo – he is also a well-known Democratic supporter and fundraiser. He is married to Amal, a glamorous British human rights lawyer. He has not indicated he plans to run for office.