July 22, 2024
President Biden has dropped out of the 2024 election. So now what?
This video is going to be a lot but stick with me here.
First – just because President Biden is not seeking a second term does not mean he’s not still the president. He is absolutely still the president of the United States. In fact, in his statement he said he plans to “focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.” That means he will be the president until the afternoon of January 20th 2025.
Now – to who’s next. Obviously – the president endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. And he wasn’t alone – most of the major political figures in the democratic party all stepped up to support her. While it is looking like Harris will be the nominee — this does not mean it’s a done deal. In fact, the Vice President said her “intention is to earn and win this nomination.”
So what does that look like? Well – a party’s presidential candidate is officially nominated during the national convention. Remember – just last week president trump formally accepted the nomination of the Republican party at the RNC. He was not the official nominee of the party until then. Well, the Democrats have not yet had their convention. It’s scheduled for mid-August. With a possible virtual convention scheduled for early August. So as of today – the Democrats do not officially have a nominee.
But what about the 14 million votes President Biden won during the primary elections and the caucuses? Well as I told you in this video waaaaay back in January – when you are voting in a primary or in a caucus you’re not actually voting for the candidate – you’re voting for the state’s delegates who will then go to the convention and select the presidential nominee for each party. This is how it works for both the republicans and the democrats. It’s very similar to the electoral college process. And it’s those delegates and the party leaders who get to choose their candidate. For the democrats — there are a total of about 4700 (4,747) convention delegates and just under 4,000 of them are ‘pledged” delegates. The rest are “automatic” or “super delegates” these delegates are elected officials party leaders and former presidents.
So how does the convention voting work? And what happens now that Biden has dropped out? Well – you just have to look at the DNC rules that were established in September of 2022. This can still change – but for now — under those rules, pledged delegates “shall in good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.” That means – 14 million people voted for Biden delegates. But now that Biden is no longer a candidate, his delegates are free to vote for whomever they like. So who are the delegates going to vote for? What are the options? Well – according to the DNC rules — anyone who wants to be the Democratic party nominee for president must submit a request that includes between 300 and 600 signatures from voting delegates supporting their nomination. Then there will be 20 minutes of nominating speeches for every certified candidate prior to voting on the first ballot. They call the roll call vote – a ballot. On the first ballot – pledged delegates will vote alphabetically by state for the candidate they like. And if a candidate does not secure a majority of the total delegate votes to become the party nominee – then the super delegates get to join in and they go to the second ballot and the third ballot until someone wins the majority of the delegates and becomes the party’s nomination.
Now – some Republicans are already saying that they are going to file lawsuits in several states because they say it’s illegal for the Democrats to just swap Joe Biden out with someone else. But the reality is – the democrats aren’t replacing Biden because he’s not technically the democratic nominee yet.
Read the DNC rules here.
More DNC rules here.
