This is how Joe Biden can pass the baton to Kamala Harris

On August 19, the Democrats’ national convention opens in Chicago. It was intended as a pure coronation of Biden as presidential candidate. Now the 4,700 delegates must choose another candidate instead.

The president wants it to be today’s vice-president Kamala Harris, which he made clear in a message X shortly after he resigned. However, it leaves a great many unanswered questions. Biden cannot automatically transfer the 3,896 delegates he has already secured to someone else, even though his words will have a lot to say.

Good and bad cards

In theory, the Democrats will now have an open national convention – something that has been held in American politics for many decades. Since the sitting president has made it so clear who he wants, Harris now gets the job of making sure she actually has those delegates behind her – plus the 700 so-called superdelegates. This includes party leaders and a number of elected representatives, as well as former presidents and vice-presidents.

Among the other names that have been mentioned as possible Biden replacements are a number of governors: Gavin Newsom (California), Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan), JB Pritzker (Illinois) and Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania). At the same time, Harris offers a number of good cards: She is a woman, and the daughter of a black man and an Indian woman. No woman – and none of the South Asian vote – has been elected as either president or vice president before her. Blacks are among the Democrats’ most important voter groups, especially black women.

At the same time, Harris has struggled to gain recognition for the role she has played as vice president, and, like Biden, does not have particularly good numbers in the opinion polls. The best thing that can happen to the Democrats is probably that she manages to gather broad support in the party quickly, and that they manage to act together.

Money and lawsuits

Another card that plays in her favor is that Biden’s election campaign is also in her name. Thus, she – and probably no one else – can “inherit” the huge sums of money the Biden election campaign has collected. They themselves recently reported that they had 91 million dollars – close to 1 billion kroner – available. Another candidate could still freely use the money raised by the party, but not necessarily by the Biden campaign.

A final question that has become relevant in recent years is the legality of changing candidates so late. In a very divided United States, there may soon be a flurry of lawsuits to find out whether it is even legal for Harris to stand as a presidential candidate on the ballot. However, a number of Republican governors have already worked to ensure that their party does not prevent the Democrats from nominating whoever they want.