Kamala Harris has officially been selected as the Democratic nominee

US Vice President Kamala Harris has passed the Democratic presidential nomination threshold in the party’s delegate vote.

He will have to speak this lunchtime as the roll call continues ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago this month.

Ms Harris is the first black woman and the first South Asian woman to become White House general manager of a major US political party.

If she defeats Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, in November she will become the first female president of the United States.

He ran unopposed in the election after President Joe Biden stepped aside last month and endorsed him. Many potential rivals followed him.

On Friday afternoon, Ms Harris was officially nominated after receiving the support of 2,350 delegates, the threshold required to be nominated.

In all, Democrats said 3,923 delegates – or 99% of participants – plan to vote for him.

The call for names started on Thursday and ended on Monday.

The presidential and vice presidential nominees are usually inaugurated at their party’s conventions, but the DNC’s latest 2024 date risks falling under state ballot access laws.

Ms. Harris, 59, was born in Oakland, California, and is the first Democratic nominee in the party’s nearly 200-year history to hail from a western state.

He rose through the ranks of state politics from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general and US senator.

Before dropping out of the race, Mr. Biden had easily won the Democratic Primary. He did not face strong opposition despite voter concerns about his age and won the support of 99% of committed DNC delegates.

But the 81-year-old faced growing pressure from the party to step down after a June debate against Trump.

The decision to hold the virtual nomination process ahead of the August 19-22 convention was made while Mr. Biden was still the presumptive figure.

It came in response to Ohio state voter access laws, which require candidates for the November election to be officially nominated 90 days before the election — or by August 7.

Republican leaders in the state had warned that they would use the law and, although lawmakers ended up creating relief as they have done in the past, Democrats said the early recall would remove the increased risk of candidates not being placed on the ballot.

Delegates are not required to vote on the choice of vice president.

Ms Harris is expected to call her partner on Monday.

Top contenders are Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The Trump campaign and other Republicans have criticized Mr. Biden’s replacement of Ms. Harris, saying he is the first major party to defend his nomination without holding a press conference or sit-down interview. Some called the change a “coup d’état”.

But Ms. Harris has hit the campaign hard since Mr. Biden’s endorsement, laying the case against Trump at numerous campaign rallies and fundraisers across battleground states.

On Friday, the campaign announced it had raised more than $310m (£242m) in July, with more than two-thirds of people donating money for the first time.

That figure is more than double the $138m raised by the Trump campaign last month and marks the largest 2024 election cycle so far.