President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race this late in the political calendar is unprecedented and has sent a jolt through both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns. 

But according to the chairman of New York’s Democratic Party, Vice President Kamala Harris is the one and only choice to run for the top spot, and New York state’s leaders are behind her.

“They are consolidating very fast and completely, and that is owed to the leadership of our governor,” Jay Jacobs told Capital Tonight.

When it was pointed out to Jacobs that Gov. Kathy Hochul was fully behind President Biden just two days ago, he explained that Hochul is loyal, but with Biden stepping out of the race, her allegiance has been transferred to Harris, something she planned to share with top Democrats during a Zoom call Monday evening.

“We are speaking to delegates ahead of time. I think before we get on that call, we’ll have a very good sense of where we are. From what I’m hearing, and I’ve been talking to county chairs, delegates, elected officials from across the state, and I’m hearing, overwhelmingly, not only are they going to be endorsing Kamala Harris, but that they’re enthusiastic, excited about it, and that’s the candidate they’ve been wanting,” Jacobs said.

He underscored the importance of New York state coming out early and uniting behind Harris.

“I think that’s going to make a big impact across the country because we have one of the largest delegations,” he said.

Jacobs dismissed criticisms that Democrats are anointing Harris as the candidate.

“That’s nonsense. That’s pure nonsense,” he said. “The fact is that 14 million people came out in the primary for Biden with Kamala Harris as his vice president.”

As they had planned to do with Biden, Democrats nationally may hold a virtual vote for their candidate prior to the start of the official Democratic nominating convention in Chicago on Aug. 19-22.

“My vote would be that that virtual vote would be for Kamala Harris and that would make going into Chicago a couple of weeks later that much calmer,” he said.