Delegates secured, Harris backers focus on organization.

With Vice President Kamala Harris securing the support of enough Democratic National Convention delegates to land the party’s presidential nomination, her backers in Illinois on Tuesday moved to the next step — putting together an infrastructure to promote her nascent White House campaign.

State Rep. Kam Buckner of Chicago, a member of Harris’ 2020 leadership team, said Harris has secured at least 85 of Illinois’ 178 delegates. More than 3,000 delegates nationally have vowed to back the vice president — far more than the 1,976 needed for the nomination.

In the two days since President Joe Biden’s announcement Sunday that he would drop his reelection bid and back Harris for the nomination, a number of state delegations to the upcoming Chicago convention met and pledged their support to Harris.

Illinois leaders under Gov. J.B. Pritzker waited until Monday to join the growing national movement to coalesce around Harris’ candidacy. While state Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth “Lisa” Hernandez declared earlier that Illinois Democrats would back Harris, her statement was based off discussions of members of the party’s State Central Committee, rather than a count of actual convention delegates who make the decision.

That prompted Buckner and other Harris supporters to work the phones to obtain endorsements for the vice president.

“Now it’s about building the apparatus. What does the fundraising look like? What does the outreach look like?” Buckner asked. “Just putting together what the fundraising apparatus looks like, and how we can be helpful in Illinois on that piece. There’s not a lot of days left in the calendar.”

The campaign apparatus will need to address a number of questions during that truncated time frame, he said.

“What does the outreach look like? Where’s she going? How’s she doing with labor? How she’s doing with African American voters? How’s she doing with women voters?” Buckner asked. “You know, it’s this whole thing that they hadn’t been planning on.”

Her team welcomed the “quick pivot” by the national AFL-CIO from Biden to Harris, providing her with a powerful labor ally in taking on former Republican President Donald Trump. She is focusing on the more pressing issues of putting together a campaign team, Buckner said.

“Obviously, she wants to keep some Biden people. I think there’s probably a desire to have a little bit of a new flavor in that space as well. So I know that her, her internal team is having a discussion now on who they can bring on,” he said.

The Democratic National Committee is moving ahead with plans for delegates to virtually nominate its presidential candidate, now Harris instead of Biden, by Aug. 7, almost two weeks before the Aug. 19-22 convention in Chicago. The DNC’s rules committee is scheduled to advance a plan for electronic voting by delegates on Wednesday.

In a memo, the DNC said the virtual voting was necessary to “ensure we are on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.” The timetable will require Harris to name a vice presidential running mate quickly.

“The in-person portion of the convention in Chicago will then showcase the party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees and their winning agenda to rally voters and defeat Donald Trump in the fall,” the DNC memo said.

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Meanwhile, convention officials said despite the change in nominees, work continues on “executing a successful convention that highlights what Democrats stand for.”

The convention team is working to set up interviews with Democratic surrogates for battleground state media; political officials have been sending out invitations to Democratic allies and advocacy groups for the convention; and construction work continued on media studio spaces at the United Center.

“Come Aug. 19, we’ll be prepared to welcome 50,000 visitors to the city of Chicago and we are working day and night to ensure that their visit is as seamless as possible,” convention officials said. “Regardless of who is the presumptive nominee, the Biden-Harris record will be central to the story we bring to the American people.”