US President Joe Biden announced on Sunday, July 21, that he was ending his re-election campaign. Although he has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, this does not guarantee that she will be the one to face Republican Donald Trump in the November elections, since the candidacy officially depends on the decision of the party delegates.
Other candidates, such as California Governor Gavin Newsom and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, might enter the race for the Democratic Party nomination, challenging Harris for the nomination at a possible open convention.
Now the Democratic Party must carry out a process to nominate a new presidential candidate to replace Biden. In this process, Democrats have several options, including one that has not been applied for more than 70 years.
What is the process for selecting a candidate?
Traditionally, presidential candidates receive their official nominations during their party conventions. Trump, for example, was officially nominated as the Republican candidate this week on the first day of his party’s convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
However, this year the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had planned to hold a virtual vote in early August to determine the nominee, ahead of the convention scheduled for August 19-22 in Chicago, Illinois.
It is unclear whether this plan will be maintained, as some sectors of the party consider that holding an electronic vote before the convention denotes a lack of transparency.
If the teleconference vote is suspended, the new candidate would be chosen at the convention, where the delegates chosen during the Democratic primaries held between January and June of this year, in which Biden obtained 87% of the votes due to having no significant rivals, play a crucial role.
It is important to note that during the primary process, voters do not directly choose their favorite candidate, whether Biden or another, but rather they designate some 4,000 delegates who, during the convention, formally elect who will represent the party in the elections. Do those delegates automatically go to Harris?
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Delegates would not automatically transfer to the vice president, even though the campaign has always been called “Biden-Harris.”
During the primary process, delegates pledged to vote for Biden, but this commitment is not irrevocable. Now, with the president withdrawing, they might support other candidates.
For this to happen, Biden would have to formally “release” delegates from their initial commitment. While the president might recommend that they support Harris, whom he has chosen as his successor, delegates would be free to vote as they see fit.
This implies that they might lean towards an alternative candidate if they believe that he would have a better chance of beating Trump in November.
This flexibility in the voting of delegates opens the possibility of a “negotiated convention” or “brokered convention”, a scenario that has not occurred for more than 70 years.
In fact, the last open conventions were held in 1952. Adlai Stevenson II (Democratic Party) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican Party) were the last presidential candidates of their respective parties to win their nominations at such conventions.
What is a brokered convention?
An open convention would occur if there were more candidates besides Harris and they had the ability to garner significant delegate support.
Although Harris is the front-runner and Biden has called on the party to back her, other prominent figures in the Democratic Party, such as influential California lawmaker and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have privately expressed a preference for a “competitive process” of open primaries, according to recent reports. The New York Times y Politico.
Influential African-American lawmaker Jim Clyburn, until recently a key Biden ally, also recently suggested that while Harris should be the nominee, it would be wise to hold a “mini-primary” to strengthen her and select her potential vice president.
At a brokered convention, uncertainty regarding the nominee adds excitement to the process. Candidates negotiate on site With the delegates, agreements are reached in closed-door meetings and we can see how the different groups that make up the Democratic Party compete for power.
In this scenario, delegates can vote for any candidate who comes forward, in as many rounds as necessary to secure a nominee. A candidate would be declared the winner by surpassing the magic number of 1,968 delegates needed to secure the nomination.
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