Now that President Joe Biden has announced that he will not run for reelection, he has endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to be his successor as the Democratic presidential candidate.
But it’s not up to him, even though Biden’s endorsement is the latest in several very powerful factors tilting Harris’ path.
While Biden won virtually all the delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago and was the party’s presumptive nominee, he relinquishes that title as he steps aside and has no direct power over choosing who those delegates will officially nominate.
This is because convention delegates, the people who actually choose the Democratic Party candidate, are not obligated by any law or party rule to support the candidate they have pledged to support. They just need to “reflect in good conscience the feelings of those who elected them.”
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Biden can and probably will still have enormous influence over the delegates preparing to nominate him. But these delegates are free to decide, both in terms of supporting Harris and who they want to be the party’s vice presidential nominee.
So far, several prominent delegates and state party chairs and organizations are mobilizing to support Harris. Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Party, told NBC News that he has spoken with several other state party chairs who have agreed to support Harris.
“Everyone I’ve talked to right now agrees that we need to unify quickly,” Martin said. “The idea of having four weeks to turn the conversation inward is not something that particularly excites me. The faster we can unify our party behind one ticket, the sooner we can get this campaign underway.”
New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley said Saturday night that the party’s executive committee has endorsed the vice president. When asked what the party’s next steps would be, Buckley wrote in a text message: “Ultimately it’s up to the delegates.”
In a conference call with all 50 state party chairs Saturday night, several party leaders supported Harris and agreed to “move forward and be open with our support for the vice president,” but there was no formal call or statement to support .
In Tennessee, Democratic delegate Bill Owen told The New York Times that all of the state’s delegates endorsed Harris on a conference call, as similar conversations are sparked across the country.
Meanwhile, at the moment, it’s unclear exactly when Democrats will meet to select their nominee.
They planned to formally nominate Biden during a virtual roll call vote in the first week of August in order to avoid a potential legal issue surrounding Ohio’s ballot access deadline. But the party may now have to change course if Democratic delegates are not prepared to ratify his nomination so quickly.
That process will be governed by the Democratic National Convention’s rules committee, which has nearly 200 members and is chaired by Leah Daughtry, a longtime DNC expert and rules expert, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
In a statement, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison did not directly address what will happen next, but said a response would come soon.
“In a short time, the American people will hear from the Democratic Party about the next steps and the path forward for the nomination process,” he said.
Democrats seeking to replace Biden have been divided for several weeks between a camp in favor of an open multi-candidate convention and others who want to see a less disruptive path to a seamless transition for Harris.
Any other candidate would need to act soon. To compete for victory at the convention, candidates need a petition signed by at least 300 convention delegates and need to sign the document themselves, so a project effort cannot be carried out on someone else’s behalf without their explicit approval.
And to ensure that a delegation does not try to anoint a favorite, a petition cannot include more than 50 delegates from a state, and delegates can only sign one nominating petition.
Why Harris starts up front
Even in an open nomination process, Harris has structural advantages that give her a significant advantage over any potential Democratic challengers for the presidential nomination, as she tries to unify her party and maintains quiet calls to open the process to more candidates. .
The main ones come directly from her position as vice president: she has already passed the major national vetting of someone who ran for president, was chosen to serve on the ticket, won an election to be Biden’s designated replacement if something happened to him, served alongside the president and was involved in the administration’s handling of major national and international issues, and spent four years as a target of Republicans and the news media.
That’s four years of experience that no other potential candidate would have. And she would represent the greatest continuity with the Biden campaign and team, as she was also part of that campaign.
“Because it’s late in the game…she would be in a very strong position,” Elaine Kamarck told NBC News’ Chuck Todd on a recent episode of “The Chuck Toddcast.”
Kamarck, a longtime DNC member who wrote a book about the party’s nominating rules, added: “She’s been there four years and there’s no time for anyone else to prepare. She can answer a question about the weapons we are sending to Ukraine. I mean, there are all these things that, frankly, governors don’t deal with, that presidents deal with.
The second advantage is that Harris is the only candidate with a direct line to Biden’s campaign bank account, which ended June with nearly $96 million in the bank. That’s because her name is on all relevant legal forms next to Biden’s. And hours after Biden dropped out on Sunday, the committee filed paperwork changing her name to “Harris for President.”
“Biden and Harris share a campaign committee,” said Trevor Potter, president of the Campaign Legal Center and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
Potter noted that this situation has never arisen before and could be legally tested, but he thinks it’s clear. “The vice president and her running mate can continue to use existing general election campaign funds if she is on the Democratic ticket as a candidate for president or vice president,” he said.
The Biden campaign shared a similar message with donors over the phone shortly after the June debate, NBC News previously reported.
Other candidates would likely still have access to Biden’s money, especially since campaigns can donate so much money to national or state party organizations as they wish. (That is, the Biden campaign could shift all of its money to the DNC.) But no other candidate would likely be able to have direct control over the Biden-Harris war chest they’ve spent years building — at least without a potential legal fight. . .
A third benefit for Harris is that Democrats say it would be politically dangerous for another candidate — especially a white man — to be seen as trying to jump the line ahead of the potential first female and first Asian-American president in American history.
Black Democrats, as well as members of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, have already made clear that they see Harris as the only legitimate successor should Biden drop out.
“The Congressional Black Caucus PAC joins President Biden in fully supporting Kamala Harris as our party’s nominee,” Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said in a statement. “She will do an excellent job as President of the United States.”
And NBC News reported that South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, a CBC veteran, longtime member of House leadership and a key Biden supporter in 2020 and beyond, is expected to endorse Harris for president.
Fourth, even before Biden stepped aside, Harris was beginning to emerge as the consensus choice among the progressive and more moderate wings of the party.
While Harris wasn’t the left’s favorite during the 2020 Democratic primaries, progressives liked her — and, just as significantly, they don’t have a credible alternative candidate waiting in the wings. (Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is even older than Biden.) And progressives would much prefer Harris to more moderate alternative names that were being talked about before Biden dropped out, like Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., even essentially endorsed Harris on Saturday on MSNBC, saying she felt comfortable with the idea of Biden stepping aside because Harris is “ready to step forward to unite the party.”
And finally, for a party that has made democracy a central pillar of its advocacy, Harris has a stronger claim to democratic legitimacy than any other potential candidate.
After all, most Americans already voted for her as vice president in 2020, although most were obviously looking at Biden and Trump’s names at the top of the tickets. No other potential candidate could make such a claim.
“Remember, 80 million people voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020, knowing that Kamala Harris would be ready to intervene if necessary,” Warren added.
With just five months to go before the November elections, even some Democrats who might prefer an alternative candidate say Harris’ nomination strikes the right balance between replacing their candidate and not dismissing Biden’s accomplishments and legacy, which remain popular among Democrats. .
And, Biden’s allies say, passing the torch to a historic successor he chose would be a powerful final act of public service for him and a common thread for eager Democratic voters.
With Biden and his campaign actively supporting Harris, it will be difficult for potential alternatives to find openings for support.
“We are honored to join the president in supporting Vice President Harris and will do everything we can to support her,” Bill and Hillary Clinton said in a statement. “Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we have to elect her. America’s future depends on it.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
