AP scoops when Harris secured majority of DNC delegates

By Maya Sweedler, Leah Askarinam, Rhonda Schafner, Randy Herschaft, Jennifer Farrar, Linda Gorman, Dan Kempton and Chad Day

As President Joe Biden faced growing pressure to withdraw from the presidential race, AP was gearing up for the challenge of how to determine what would happen to the nearly 4,000 Democratic National Convention delegates.

With the world relying on AP to track the support of convention delegates, a massive behind-the-scenes effort sprang into action in early July, painstakingly collecting names and contact information for the delegates for every state.

Delegates are people chosen to represent their state at the party’s convention and cast ballots for their party’s nominee, typically based on who voters backed in the state’s primary.

Biden’s unprecedented decision raised big questions about how that process would look so close to an election. To track the developments, election explanatory reporters Leah Askarinam and Maya Sweedler joined forces with the News Research team of Rhonda Shafner, Randy Herschaft and Jennifer Farrar, plus state government reporters across the country.

The herculean preparation paid off July 21 when Biden suddenly announced his withdrawal and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Led by assignment editor Jill Bleed, dozens of journalists across the country volunteered to make hundreds of delegate calls.  

Meanwhile, Linda Gorman and Dan Kempton of the news interactives team and Chad Day of the decision desk worked well into the night to create a new landing page to house the survey results.

More than 100 AP journalists contributed to the team effort that paid off with AP dominating the story of Harris securing a majority of delegates’ support in just 24 hours.

AP was first with the confirmation and stood so far ahead that even competitors like Reuters cited AP’s reporting.

It was the top-performing story for digital on AP News and for our customers the day after Biden’s withdrawal from the race.

The coverage dominated across the news landscape and its impact resounded across the globe. The Washington Post featured the survey on their homepage, as did other customers such as the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters and even Chinese state news agencies relied on AP’s determination that Harris had consolidated majority support from delegates just one day after Biden’s withdrawal.

For their sweeping, lightning-fast teamwork across the company that shows why AP is the authoritative source for information about U.S. elections, Maya Sweedler, Leah Askarinam, Rhonda Shafner, Randy Herschaft, Jennifer Farrar, Linda Gorman, Dan Kempton and Chad Day earn this week’s Best of the AP — First Winner.

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