Kamala Harris officially secured as Democratic nominee after 'no challenger qualified'
US Vice President Kamala Harris
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Kamala Harris has officially received the necessary amount of votes from delegates to become the Democratic US presidential nominee.
The more than 4,000 convention delegates had until Monday to submit their ballots, but no other candidate qualified to challenge Harris.
Harris's nomination took place via a virtual vote.
She has become the first woman of colour leading a major national ticket, with a chance to become the first woman president in American history, reports The Washington Post.
US Vice President Kamala Harris
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Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said: "The fact that we can say today — just one day after we opened voting — that the vice president has crossed the majority threshold and will officially be our nominee next week, folks, that is simply outstanding."
The new nomination contest allowed anyone to run if they obtained 300 signatures of delegates supporting their bid, including no more than 50 from any single delegation while meeting other basic qualifications.
No elected Democratic politician apart from Vice President Harris announced their intention to seek those signatures. The candidates who did signal their intent to seek the nomination failed to obtain the required signatures.
Harris will also be the second female major-party nominee, after Hillary Clinton in 2016.
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Kamala Harris
ReutersIt comes as the Vice President has added two former aides to Barack Obama to her presidential campaign team.
David Plouffe, an American political strategist who ran Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign, has joined Harris' campaign for president as a senior adviser, a source said.
The campaign is also being joined by Stephanie Cutter, who previously served as Obama's White House communications director and deputy campaign manager, the source added.
Harris is expected to make her choice for Vice President by Monday and is expected to meet candidates over the weekend.
The contenders she will meet reportedly include Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, US Senator Mark Kelly, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.
Her shortlist of candidates includes all white men with a track record of winning over rural, white or independent voters.
Harris and her new running mate are expected to embark on a four-day tour of battleground states on Tuesday that will take them to six other locations including western Wisconsin, Detroit and Las Vegas.
The first stop, Philadelphia, has fuelled speculation that Shapiro is a frontrunner, but the campaign has warned against reading too much into the choice.