Now that President Biden has ended his re-election bid, Democrats must choose a replacement nominee in less than a month, condensing what is typically a yearlong primary campaign into just a couple weeks.
Here are answers to six key questions as Democrats navigate a possible post-Biden future.
What happens next?
Mr. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, but the official selection of a nominee will be made by the more than 4,600 Democratic National Convention delegates, a body of senior party figures, local activists and elected officials who were selected at state party conventions this spring. Most were vetted by the Biden campaign.
Those delegates, who typically serve a functionary role, will now preside over a decision of historic import. Never in the modern history of American politics has a candidate who swept through a party’s presidential primaries abandoned his campaign so close to a national convention. There is no precedent or historical record to consult, and the party’s rules are not always clear on the details of what will unfold next.
Could a Harris challenger win over the delegates?
That would be difficult to do logistically.
Only officials at the Democratic National Committee and the Biden campaign have the full roster of delegates. If someone decided to run against Ms. Harris, the first challenge would be to gain access to the people who will make that decision.
Without access to the delegate list, alternative candidates to Ms. Harris are effectively blocked from both canvassing the delegates for their opinions and trying to persuade them to support someone other than Ms. Harris. There is no evidence to date that any serious political campaign other than Mr. Biden’s and the D.N.C. has made an effort to reach out to the convention’s delegates.
What happens to the delegates now?
They are free agents, able to vote for any candidate they choose. Mr. Biden has endorsed Ms. Harris as his successor, but he cannot force delegates to follow his lead.
Will the nomination be contested?
That remains to be seen.
But to have a contested convention, someone would have to run against her — and whoever that might be would face staggering challenges.
Ms. Harris will most likely have access to the list of delegates and the Biden campaign’s cash reserves ($96 million as of the end of June). In the minutes after Mr. Biden stepped aside, figures from across the party quickly endorsed her as his successor.
Money raised by the D.N.C. and the state parties could be used to support any Democratic presidential nominee.
Party operatives who have called for a contested convention straight out of an Aaron Sorkin political drama cannot see that dream come to fruition unless someone else jumps into the race.
When will delegates vote on a new nominee?
That remains unclear.
The rules committee of the Democratic National Convention was set to meet this week to set a date for a roll-call vote to nominate Mr. Biden. It is unclear when that meeting will take place — though it is now likely to be pushed to next week.
Jaime Harrison, the party’s chairman, said in a letter to delegates last week that the vote would take place between Aug. 1 and Aug. 5, in order to have the nomination process completed by Aug. 7 — the date by which Ohio law had required a nominee to be in place to make the state’s ballot. Ohio lawmakers subsequently pushed back the deadline to Sept. 1, but party officials said they hoped to beat the Aug. 7 deadline to avoid any legal risk in the state.
With Mr. Biden out of the race, the logistics of nominating someone else may require officials to push back the delegate vote by a week or two, though people involved in the planning process said they would still need to select a nominee before the party convention begins on Aug. 19 in Chicago.
Ballot deadlines in Washington State and California, states that any Democratic presidential candidate must carry to win a national election, fall during the week of the party’s convention.
That means that if Democrats did not pick a nominee until the last day of the convention, Aug. 22, they could put their candidate at risk of lawsuits from Republicans seeking to block the Democrat from the ballot in those states. Party officials would prefer to avoid that scenario.
Who will select the nominee for vice president?
Whoever is nominated in Mr. Biden’s place will choose a running mate. The delegates would then hold a formal vote — probably a virtual one to comply with ballot deadlines before the convention — to formally nominate that person.
Aides to Ms. Harris have been silent on this question so far, but those around her are likely to carry out a serious yet accelerated vetting process.
Can Biden remain president now that he ended his campaign?
Calls for Mr. Biden to vacate the White House have already started, particularly from Republicans. Before he dropped out, some prominent progressive figures had said that he should resign.
But short of a steep deterioration in Mr. Biden’s health, that appears unlikely to happen.
Quitting the presidency would elevate Ms. Harris to the Oval Office. That would instantly make her more prominent, but it would also require her to simultaneously get up to speed with leading the country and mount a late, unexpected presidential campaign.
Crucially, she would be expected to select a new vice president, and that person would need to be confirmed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives — which might not play ball.
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