WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden stopping debate performance led some members of his own party to question whether he should be replaced at the polls before November.
There is no evidence that Biden is willing to end his campaign. And it would be nearly impossible for Democrats to replace him unless he chose to step aside.
Here’s why:
Each state has already held its presidential primaries. Democratic rules determine that the delegates Biden won they remain obligated to support him at the party’s next national convention unless he tells them he is dropping out of the race.
Biden indicated he had no plans to do so, telling supporters in Atlanta shortly after leaving the debate stage: “We will continue.” Biden campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt was even clearer, saying Friday: “It’s clear he’s not going to give up.”
Conventions and their rules are controlled by political parties. The Democratic National Committee could meet before the convention premieres on August 19 and change the way things will work, but that is not likely as long as Biden wants to continue seeking re-election.
The current rules say: “Elected national convention delegates committed to a presidential candidate must, in good conscience, reflect the feelings of those who elected them.”
The vice president is Biden’s running mate, but that doesn’t mean she can replace him at the top of the ticket by default. Biden also cannot order her to replace him if he suddenly decides to leave the race.
The Democratic National Convention is being held in Chicago, but the party announced it will hold a virtual call formally nominate Biden before the in-person process begins. The exact date of the call has not yet been defined.
If Biden chooses to abandon his re-election campaign, Harris would likely join other leading Democratic candidates seeking to replace him. But that would likely create a scenario in which she and others end up lobbying individual state delegations at the convention for their support.
This hasn’t happened to Democrats since 1960, when John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson maneuvered for votes during that year’s Democratic convention in Los Angeles.
In addition to the vice president, others who have supported Biden in 2024 while harboring their own presidential aspirations for future cycles include California Governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Illinois Governor , JB Pritzker, and California Rep. .Ro Khanna.
Still others who Biden defeated during the party’s 2020 presidential primaries could also try again, including Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, as well as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
If Biden abruptly dropped out of the race, conservative groups have suggested they would file lawsuits across the country, potentially challenging the legality of the Democratic candidate’s name on the ballot.
But Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington who wrote a book about the presidential nomination process and is also a member of the legislative arm of the Democratic National Committee, said the courts have consistently stayed out of political primaries. , as long as the parties that lead them did not do anything that contradicted other constitutional rights, such as voter suppression based on race.
“This is very clear constitutionally that this is within the party’s competence,” Kamarck said in an interview before the debate. “The task of nominating someone to represent a political party is the business of the political party.”
