WASHINGTON — President Biden’s announcement Sunday that he would be dropping out of the presidential race left Democrats scrambling to rally around the next likely candidate on the 2024 ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris. The former California senator and attorney general found swift support from progressive and reproductive rights groups that championed her record on abortion policy and maternal health care, two longtime Harris policy priorities that Democrats hope will resonate with voters.
“There is nobody who has fought as hard for abortion rights and access, and we are proud to endorse her in this race,” Reproductive Freedom for All President and CEO Mini Timmaraju said in a statement one hour after Biden dropped out of the race.
While Harris did not explicitly mention reproductive rights as she accepted Biden’s endorsement, the vice president nodded to a right-wing think tank’s agenda for a next Trump presidency, which includes broad abortion restrictions along with reforms to numerous health agencies.
“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Harris said in a statement.
While some progressive biotech entrepreneurs and health care venture capitalists were willing to endorse Harris, others withheld their views. Some health care analysts worried about the uncertainty the upheaval in the presidential race could create.
Harris was the first vice president to visit an abortion provider during her time in office. Unlike Biden, who expressed anti-abortion views as a senator, Harris has been unwavering in her support and grilled Biden during the 2019 primaries about his evolving stance.
Planned Parenthood acknowledged her abortion clinic visit in a statement supporting her candidacy. Harris “has kept the needs and experiences of patients and providers front and center … and we know that she will continue to fight like hell to rebuild a fundamental right that was stripped away, said the group’s president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson.
Emily’s List, a nonprofit aimed at electing pro-abortion rights women to office, was also quick to back the vice president. “This election will be fought and won on the issue of reproductive freedom, and Kamala Harris has been a pro-choice champion her entire career,” the group’s president, Jessica Mackler, wrote on X. “She is well-positioned to turn out the voters we’ll need to win this election, especially women, voters of color, and young voters.”
While Republicans, and most notably presidential nominee Trump, embraced the overturning of Roe v. Wade, they have sought to distance themselves from broad abortion bans in recent months. That makes it crucial for Harris to draw a clear distinction for voters in the months before the November election.
“We are fired up and laser-focused on mobilizing voters of color and engaging our communities in support of Vice President Harris, who has shown us time and time again that she will fight for us, our families, and our communities,” said Nourbese Flint, president of the abortion rights group All in Action Fund.
Anti-abortion groups including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America have seized on Harris’ record as a potential liability.
“While Joe Biden has trouble saying the word abortion, Kamala Harris shouts it,” the group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said in a statement.
Besides reproductive rights groups, Democratic lawmaker caucuses representing the most progressive and diverse arms of the party were swift to back Harris on Sunday.
The vice president “will mobilize and energize our base,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal said in a statement issued within an hour of Biden’s announcement. “At a time when Donald Trump and his Republican Party have stripped away women’s reproductive freedoms, we will respond by electing the first woman to the presidency.”
If elected, Harris would be the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian heritage in the Oval Office.
Leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus also rapidly endorsed Harris. The vice president has been “instrumental” during the Biden presidency in “lowering maternal mortality rates, protecting reproductive freedoms, and ensuring economic opportunities for all,” CBC Chairman Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) and the caucus PAC chairman Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said in a release.
Jerome Adams, the surgeon general under Trump who made maternal health one of his focuses, told STAT, “If the Democratic nominee ends up being Harris, she has a unique opportunity as a Black woman to highlight the issue of maternal mortality.”
The health care world under Harris
While Harris’ health agenda will only emerge during the campaign, Emily Gee of Center for American Progress Action stated she believes Harris would stick with the Biden administration’s agenda, including expanding drug price negotiations and limits on price hikes to reach people not covered by Medicare.
Some socially progressive biotech CEOs and venture capitalists had positive things to say about Harris.
John Maraganore, the founder and former CEO of the biotech company Alnylam, said he isn’t sure yet if Harris would value innovation in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, though she is from the industry stronghold of California, and she recognizes the value of science and truth.
“The reelection of Trump, would call into question science and truth as tenets of our society. And that is the most unacceptable part of it,” Maraganore told STAT.
Jeremy Levin, the CEO of Ovid Therapeutics, similarly called on the pharmaceutical industry to support a candidate that believes in scientific evidence and doesn’t spread misinformation about vaccines and public health.
“This announcement is clear — we see such a candidate,” Levin said, in reference to Harris.
Bob Kocher, who served in the Obama administration and is now a partner at Venrock, a VC firm, said that Harris presents an option for people who stand for more access to women’s health, subsidies for premiums for Affordable Care Act plans, and expanded drug price negotiation.
Not everyone in health care was so enthusiastic, however. Ted Love, the board chair of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, said he thinks Biden made the right choice in stepping down, but didn’t explicitly endorse Harris.
“I look forward to learning more about the priorities of both presidential candidates and how they will support the innovation required to bring more advances for patients and support broad access to health care,” Love said in a written statement.
Others raised concerns about uncertainty being injected into the nomination process, with the prospect of a candidate who hasn’t gone through the vetting process of a party primary. It’s also not a sure thing the nominee will be Harris, as key party figures, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Obama, did not endorse her in their statements Sunday on Biden dropping out of the race.
Vinod Khosla, who founded the venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, called for an open convention to get a more moderate candidate like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
“Would be a great thing for America not held hostage between MAGA extremists and DEI extremism,” Khosla wrote on the social platform X.
Harris fares only a fraction better than Biden against Trump, according to New York Times and Siena College polls conducted earlier this month. Forty-seven percent of voters favor her in Pennsylvania, compared to 45% who prefer Biden to Trump, and 48% who prefer Trump to both Democrats. Harris and Biden have the slightest advantage in Virginia — which has voted for Democratic candidates for two decades now — according to the same polls.
Adam Feuerstein, Allison DeAngelis, Matthew Herper, and Nicholas St. Fleur contributed reporting.