Hochul explains her Harris endorsement

Gov. Kathy Hochul “know(s) a little bit about being number two,” which is why she’s full steam ahead for Vice President Harris now that President Joe Biden has dropped his bid to be the Democratic nominee. Although it took her several hours after her initial statement reacting to Biden’s announcement to endorse Harris, Hochul is working to unify Democrats in the state behind the vice president ahead of the party’s August nominating convention. 

On Monday, Hochul told reporters at an unrelated press conference that she “didn’t hesitate” to endorse Harris after Biden bowed out. She said that Harris had in fact tried to call her on Sunday, but poor cell service upstate and scheduling conflicts prevented them from connecting. “We subsequently played phone tag, so there’s nothing to be read into that,” Hochul said of the slight delay while other elected officials in New York voiced their support for the vice president, adding that she “was certainly one of the earlier governors (to endorse) as governors were busy with the business of running states as well.”

Hochul said that in the hours between Biden’s announcement and the release of her statement endorsing Harris, she spoke with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and county party chairs “all to build up support for what I was going to do next as the leader of the Democratic Party in New York.” Hochul said that she had initially hoped to delay her formal endorsement until she had a chance to speak with Harris, so that she could mention the fact that they had spoken together and “add a little more depth” to her statement endorsing the vice president. But that was not possible, and Hochul said that she didn’t want to delay the endorsement any longer.

After Hochul endorsed Harris, state Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs offered his support as well. A handful of individual Democratic delegates have also said they would back Harris at the convention. While other top Democratic leaders in the state have coalesced behind Harris, Schumer and Jeffries have so far stopped short of officially endorsing her. On Monday afternoon, the congressional leaders released a joint statement acknowledging Harris’ momentum and that they will soon meet with her in person.

Hochul now plans to talk with delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August to solidify support for Harris, who needs 1,976 pledged delegates to win the nomination outright. “We'll be convening our delegates very soon to talk about the fact that we have a lot of influence here in the state of New York,” Hochul said. According to sources with knowledge, that meeting will take place this evening at 8 pm. New York has 268 pledged delegates who can participate in the first round of voting at the convention, a number second only to California. According to the Associated Press, Harris had secured just over 1,208 delegates as of Monday afternoon. 

Hochul told reporters that she doesn’t regret sticking with Biden until the very end, but she is now ready to shift gears for Harris. “This is going to be a campaign for the ages as people get a chance to see the starkest difference (between candidates) that we've seen in my lifetime,” she said. “So I’m excited to be out there for her.”