The current election season chaos continued in full force at the national stage as President Joe Biden announced he was ending his bid for reelection on July 21.
The move, coming after weeks of calls to end his candidacy, was a huge upheaval for both parties. Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump quickly decried the move, saying the Republican party should be “reimbursed for fraud” for the money spent attacking Biden. For the Democrats, the party has been left with no primary candidate four months before the general election.
Biden followed his announcement with an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, supporting her as his choice for the Democratic party nominee. Harris appears to be the leading choice for candidacy, as not only will she gain Biden’s war chest and support, but also the support of many members of the Democratic party.
Outside of internal party support, grassroots support was also prominently displayed. Harris's campaign reported she raised $81 million in the 24 hour period in the 24 hour period after Biden's announcement, making it the largest single-day total raised in United States history.”
However, nothing is set in stone yet, and there is no guarantee Harris will become the Democrat’s nominee.
The process for determining a party nominee begins with the primary election held by each party. During the primary, voters in individual states are given the opportunity to vote for the candidate they believe should be the party nominee.
However, the primary election does not actually choose the party nominee. The nominee for both parties is not actually selected until the two separate conventions are held in July for the Republican National Convention (RNC) and August for the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
During these conventions, delegates from each party meet to vote for the nominee. Delegates are split between those who represent state populations and party leadership. For the Democrats, delegates are split between “pledged” and “unpledged”, or superdelegates. Pledged delegates are generally supposed to vote for the winner of the primary election in their state, but are not technically required to. Superdelegates are free to vote for whatever candidate they wish.
The RNC has a similar system, but instead of superdelegates the party has three at-large “unbound” delegates from each state.
With this in mind, it is important to note Biden was the Democrat’s presumptive nominee, not their actual nominee, as the DNC will not start until August 19. Trump was not officially the Republican candidate until the Republican delegates voted during the RNC that took place from July 15 to 18.
Typically, the voting of delegates at the conventions is a formality, as the clear nominee is whoever won the primary election. It was a guarantee Biden would have been the candidate if he had not declined the nomination on July 21.
Now that the presumed winner of the Democratic primary election has left the race, the question of who will become the party nominee remains up in the air, as the delegates committed to Biden are now free to vote for any candidate.
This is not the first time something like this has happened. The last time there was an open convention was 1968, after President Lyndon B. Johnson ended his reelection bid after winning the primary election in New Hampshire. Other states still had primary elections remaining, which Johnson’s vice president Hubert Humphrey attempted to gain ground in. Humphrey was able to gain a delegate lead over the other candidates, however this quickly fell apart after the assignation of one of his opponents, Robert F. Kennedy.
After Kennedy’s death, no candidate had a majority of the delegates. This led to the Democratic nominee being decided at the convention, with Humphrey winning the delegates’ votes. Humphrey was unable to win the presidency itself, losing to Richard Nixon.
Granted, this DNC is not set out to play the same way, as even though Biden dropped out far later in the race than Johnson, support quickly coalesced around Harris. A majority of the delegates have already pledged support to her, so while there is a possibility she is not the nominee, it is almost certain she runs against Trump in the fall.
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