Hillary Clinton said the US faces “even tougher” choices in the 2024 elections after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race and named Kamala Harris as the top Democratic candidate.
Clinton wrote an op-ed Featured in the New York Times On Tuesday, Harris declared she could beat former President Donald Trump in November.
“Elections are about the future, which is why I am excited about Vice President Kamala Harris,” Clinton wrote. “She represents a new beginning in American politics.”
“This election has created a sharper, clearer choice,” she added, praising the 81-year-old Biden for ending his reelection campaign after disastrous debate performances and poor poll numbers.
The former secretary of state said the new showdown between the vice president and the leading Democratic nominee pits a convicted felon against an experienced former prosecutor.
“This is a conflict between old grievances and new solutions,” Clinton wrote.
Clinton and her husband were among the first prominent Democrats to endorse Harris just hours after Biden announced he was dropping out of the race.
She also spoke about the misogyny Harris will face in the coming months as she seeks to be elected the first woman president of the United States.
“I know something about how difficult it is for a strong female candidate to combat the sexism and double standards in American politics. I’ve been called a witch, a ‘mean woman’ and worse,” Clinton said of her failed presidential campaign.
“While it still hurts that I didn’t break the highest, most solid glass ceiling, I am proud that I ran for president twice and helped make it normal for women to rise to the top of the list,” she wrote.
She also noted that Harris would face “unique and additional challenges as the first Black and South Asian woman to be a major party’s top candidate”.
But, she added, “it’s a trap to believe progress is impossible.”
Clinton lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump, but millions of Americans voted for her over the businessman-turned-former reality TV star.
“After all, I won the national popular vote by nearly three million votes in 2016, and it wasn’t that long ago that Americans overwhelmingly elected their first Black president,” she pointed out.
“Harris, like so many women in politics, is consistently underestimated, but she is fully prepared for this moment,” Clinton said.
“The time to mourn is over. Now is the time to organize, mobilize and win.”
A new poll finds that a majority of Democrats favor Harris over Biden as their preferred candidate.
About 91% of Democratic voters said they had a favorable view of Harris, 59, and 80% said they had a similar impression of Biden, 81. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
A new poll shows Harris leading Trump 44% to 42%.
The vice presidential nominee won enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination and is therefore likely to face Trump in the general election, but he or she still needs to appear on a formal vote to become the official candidate.
