BUFFALO, N.Y. -- New York state delegates to the Democratic National Convention had varying opinions when President Joe Biden announced he was no longer seeking reelection over the weekend.

"I was very shocked because he was really holding strong about running and continue to run into the fall but now I think that the president made the right decision," Buffalo Common Council Member Mitch Nowakowski said.

Delegate from Niskayuna Caroline McGraw is a strong supporter of Biden and said she was very upset.

"Not with him, but with the party that pressured him into dropping out of the race, especially this late in the game," she said.

Meanwhile, Buffalo Common Councilmember Leah Halton-Pope said she always planned to support whatever Biden decided.

"I wasn't thrilled about the pressure but I support whatever he decided," she said.

The president endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place at the top of the ticket.

"I think that uplifting the vice president is critical at this time because Vice President Harris is a part of the ticket," Nowakowski said. "She's incumbency and she has the ability to do a really quick sprint for 100 days until Election Day to turn out voters."

Halton-Pope, one of the first Black women to represent the common council in years, said she is very excited about the potential for Harris to trailblaze for women and people of color.

"Black women lead. We win with Black women. We've been doing the work and so she's better qualified than anybody else," she said.

McGraw also believes Harris is a viable alternative to Biden.

"I think she's an amazing person and she would be an amazing president so I was very glad that if he was going to drop out, he did endorse Kamala," she said.

The delegates do believe the decision in many ways has eased some of the tension within the ranks and re-energized the base.

The convention begins in a little less than a month in Chicago and they predict a slightly more open process than if Biden was at the top of the ticket, with Harris ultimately getting the nod.

"Our adversaries are going to want us to rip each other apart at the convention and I think we have to be very, very strong in refraining from that but ultimately have dialogue as well," Nowakowski said.

Halton-Pope said this one of the most "consequential elections" in a long time and voters and delegates alike have to take it seriously.

"We've got a prosecutor and a felon," she said. "I don't know who's going to be better suited for that position other than the vice president."

They expect much of the conversation over the next several weeks, and potentially even during the convention, to turn to who to choose as the vice presidential nominee.