After largely staying silent in the hours immediately after President Joe Biden announced that he wouldn’t seek reelection, Western New York’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) have largely publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
The slew of endorsements from the region’s DNC delegates comes as Democrats across the country rally around Harris. Biden, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a long list of congressmen, and potential rivals like California Gov. Gavin Newsome and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have all endorsed Harris. The vice president has also seen a wave of financial support, raising $81 million in her first 24 hours as a candidate.
Buffalo Common Councilmember Zeneta Everhart became the first of Western New York’s delegates to publicly endorse Harris Sunday evening, writing in an X post that “the future is female!”
In a follow-up statement on Monday, Everhart praised Harris for her leadership and her response to the May 14th shooting that killed 10 people in a Tops on Buffalo's East Side. Everhart's son, Zaire Goodman, was one of the three people injured in the shooting.
“Her compassion, heart, and strength were beyond what I could have ever imagined,” Everhart said in a statement of her 2022 private meeting with Harris. “She cares. She is sympathetic and empathetic. She is the leader who meets the moment, and I want thank her again for taking the time to meet with the families affected and for returning to Buffalo to grieve with us.”
The stakes of this election are incredibly high, and the choices before us are starkly clear.
— Zeneta Everhart (@CouncilWomanZE) July 22, 2024
Who better to confront a convicted felon than a seasoned prosecutor with a proven track record of upholding justice?
As a delegate, I’m with HER. @KamalaHarris pic.twitter.com/rR33dKPF19
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Erie County Democratic Committee Chairman Jeremy Zellner followed suit later Sunday night, both citing her “heartfelt” visit to Buffalo in the wake of the Tops shooting in 2022. Zellner described himself as a “big fan” of the vice president during a phone interview with WBFO Sunday afternoon.
“I think she’s going to work really hard to get her message out about what action she’s going to take as our candidate,” Zellner said. “And again, I think the one unifying factor that we have here is Donald Trump: the fact that he has still yet to pledge that he’ll accept the results of a free and fair election this year, the fact that he says that he’s going to pardon those who were part of the insurrection. You know, people have deep concerns about that, and that’s unifying them in our party.”
She is an individual of great integrity, intelligence, and capacity for leadership and compassion, as she demonstrated during her visit to Buffalo following the 2022 Tops shooting. I look forward to leading the WNY delegation at the DNC in Chicago next month as we unite behind VP…
— Chair Jeremy Zellner (@ZellnerforECDC) July 22, 2024
Vice President Harris gave the most heartfelt and best off-the-cuff speech I've ever seen at the funeral of Ruth Whitfield, the oldest victim of the Tops Shooting. She is ready to be President now. I look forward to joining others to unite behind her to defeat Donald Trump. https://t.co/gM6tqbkmzX
— Mark Poloncarz (@markpoloncarz) July 22, 2024
Two other delegates — Erie County Legislature Chairwoman April Baskin and Buffalo Common Councilmember Leah Halton-Pope — both told WBFO on Monday that they would back Harris.
“We, as a party, need to unite behind Vice President Harris in order to defeat Donald Trump,” Halton-Pope said in a statement. “As a delegate for Western New York, I am honored to support a woman who is poised to make history as the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to head a major party’s presidential ticket and to become president.”
Halton-Pope had originally declined a request for comment from WBFO through a spokesperson.
“As President Biden steps down from the race, I fully support Vice President Kamala Harris as our nominee,” Baskin said. “She has been by the President’s side as he delivered for the American people and she’s the ideal candidate to carry forward the legacy of President Biden and defeat Donald Trump in November.”
A rapidly dwindling contingent of Western New York’s DNC delegation still hasn’t publicly backed a candidate.
Buffalo Common Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski praised Biden for “choosing his country and what is best for our party over ego” in an X post less than an hour after Biden dropped out of the race, but he didn’t mention Harris or any other potential candidate. A spokesperson for the Common Council told WBFO that Nowakowski is “looking forward to the open convention and hearing the pitches from the possible candidates.”
I want to thank @JoeBiden for his service as President to our country and his decades of service throughout his career. This decision, I’m sure, didn’t come easy for the President, but it proves that President Biden is choosing his country and what is best for our party over ego. pic.twitter.com/V1NUrH0P0K
— Mitch Nowakowski (@mitch4fillmore) July 21, 2024
Fromer Erie County Legislator Howard Johnson is one the few delegates who hasn’t made a public statement about Biden’s decision or about who should succeed him. Johnson abruptly resigned earlier this month to take a position at the County Board of Elections and has kept a low profile since then.
Two other delegates, Bonnie Kane-Lockwood and Melissa Bochenski, haven’t made a public statement about Biden’s decision or who the Democratic nominee should be. Both Kane-Lockwood and Bochenski are aides to Hochul, who endorsed Harris on Sunday night in a statement posted to X.
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to take place Aug. 19-22 in Chicago. DNC delegates could select a presidential nominee as soon as next week under a draft plan released by the Democratic National Committee, according to Politico.