Now the president Joe Biden has announced that he will not seek re-election, but has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor as the Democratic presidential candidate.
But that’s not up to him, although Biden’s support is the latest in a series of powerful factors working in Harris’ favor.
Although Biden secured nearly all the delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago and was the party’s presumptive nominee, he is relinquishing that title by stepping aside and has no direct power over who officially nominates those delegates.
That’s because the convention delegates, the people who actually choose the Democratic Party’s nominee, are not bound by any law or party rules to support the candidate they’ve pledged to support. They are only required to “reflect in good conscience the feelings of those who elected them.”
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Biden can and likely will still wield enormous influence over the delegates preparing to nominate him. But those delegates are free to decide for themselves, both in terms of whether to support Harris and who they want to be the party’s vice presidential nominee.
So far, a number of prominent state party chairs and organizations have come out in support of Harris. Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic Party and head of the Association of State Democratic Committees, announced in a statement that “party chairs, vice chairs and executive directors across the country are overwhelmingly united behind Vice President Kamala Harris.”
The statement noted that no members of the association voted against supporting Harris, though some abstained for “procedural reasons specific to the state.”
Hours earlier, Martin had told NBC News that “everyone I’ve spoken to so far agrees that we need to unite quickly.”
“The idea of turning the conversation inward for four weeks is not something I’m particularly excited about. The sooner we can unite our party behind a ticket, the sooner we can get this campaign moving,” he added.
Convention delegations in New Hampshire, LouisianaNorth Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee all voted in favor of Harris, just hours after Biden’s announcement.
And Eden Giagnorio, communications director for the Democratic Party of Florida, told NBC News that the “delegation overwhelmingly supports Harris” and will release a statement soon.
While the exact number of delegates backing Harris is not yet known, it is clear that there is a rapid movement within the party to unite around her.
Chris Korge, the national finance chairman of the Biden Victory Fund, told NBC News that after a day of talking to other Democrats, he believes “there will be enough commitment to name Kamala Harris as the nominee on Wednesday.”
Meanwhile, it remains unclear exactly when the Democrats will meet to choose their candidate.
They had planned to formally nominate Biden during a virtual roll call vote in the first week of August to avoid a potential legal challenge over a ballot access deadline in Ohio. But the party may now have to change course if Democratic delegates aren’t willing to ratify her nomination so quickly.
That process is being led by the Democratic National Convention Rules Committee, which has nearly 200 members and is chaired by Leah Daughtry, a DNC insider and expert on rules, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, in a statement, did not elaborate specifically on what will happen next, but said an answer would be forthcoming soon.
“Soon the American people will hear from the Democratic Party what the next steps are and how the nomination process should proceed,” he said.
Democrats seeking to replace Biden have been divided for weeks, with one camp favoring an open, multi-candidate Congress, while others want a smooth transition to Harris without too much disruption.
Any other candidate would have to act quickly. To have a chance of winning at the convention, candidates must have a petition signed by at least 300 convention delegates, and they must sign the document themselves, so that no draft effort can be made on someone else’s behalf without their explicit approval.
To prevent one delegation from trying to designate a favorite, a petition may not include more than 50 delegates from any one state, and delegates may sign only one nominating petition.
Why Harris Started Out Ahead
But even in an open nomination process, Harris began with structural advantages that gave her a significant lead over potential Democratic challengers for the presidential nomination. She sought to rally the party behind her and quietly held calls to open the process to more candidates.
The most important of these flow directly from her position as vice president: She has already faced a major national investigation into someone running for president, been selected to serve on the candidate list, won an election to become Biden’s designated replacement in the event anything were to happen to him, served alongside the president and been involved in the administration’s handling of major domestic and international issues, and been targeted by Republicans and the news media for four years.
That’s four years of experience that no other potential candidate would have. And she would represent the most continuity with the Biden campaign and team, since she was part of that campaign as well.
“Because it’s so late in the game … she would be in a very strong position,” Elaine Kamarck told NBC News’ Chuck Todd on a recent episode of “The Chuck Toddcast.”
Kamarck, a longtime DNC member who wrote a book on party nominating rules, added: “She’s been there four years and there’s no time for anyone else to prepare. She can answer a question about the weapons we’re sending to Ukraine. I mean, there’s all these things that governors, frankly, don’t have to deal with, but presidents do.
The second advantage is that Harris is the only candidate with a direct line to the Biden campaign’s bank account, which had nearly $96 million in the bank as of late June. That’s because her name appears on all the relevant legal forms, right next to Biden’s. And hours after Biden withdrew on Sunday, the committee filed paperwork to change the name to “Harris for President.”
“Biden and Harris share a campaign committee,” said Trevor Potter, president of the Campaign Legal Center and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
Potter noted that this situation has never happened before and may be tested legally, but he thinks it is clear. “The vice president and her running mate can continue to use existing campaign funds for the general election if she is on the Democratic ticket as a presidential candidate or vice presidential candidate,” he said.
Biden’s campaign shared a similar message with donors during a phone call shortly after the June debate, NBC News previously reported.
Other candidates would likely still have access to Biden’s money, especially since campaigns can donate as much money as they want to national or state party organizations. (That is, the Biden campaign could send all of its money to the DNC.) But no other candidate would likely be able to directly control the Biden-Harris war chest they’ve spent years building up — at least without a potential legal fight.
A third advantage for Harris is that Democrats say it would be politically dangerous for another candidate — particularly a white man — to be seen as the one to put forward the potential first female and first Asian American president in American history.
Democrats of color, such as members of the powerful Congressional Black Caucus, have already made it clear that they see Harris as the only rightful successor if Biden were to withdraw.
“The Congressional Black Caucus PAC joins President Biden in fully endorsing Kamala Harris as our party’s nominee,” Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said in a statement. “She will do an outstanding job as President of the United States.”
And NBC News reported that South Carolina Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, a veteran of CBC, a longtime member of House leadership and a key Biden supporter in 2020 and beyond, plans to endorse Harris for president.
Fourth, even before Biden left office, Harris had emerged as the consensus choice between the progressive and more moderate wings of the party.
While Harris wasn’t a favorite of the left during the 2020 Democratic primary, progressives have come to like her. Just as importantly, they have no credible alternative candidate waiting in the wings. (Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is even older than Biden.) And progressives would much rather see Harris than see more moderate alternative names floated before Biden withdrew, like Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., even essentially endorsed Harris on MSNBC on Saturday, saying she was fine with the idea of Biden stepping aside because Harris “is ready to unite the party.”
And finally, for a party that has made democracy a central pillar of its position, Harris has a stronger claim to democratic legitimacy than any other potential candidate.
After all, a majority of Americans have already voted for her as vice president in 2020, though most of them obviously looked to Biden and Trump as frontrunners. No other potential candidate could make such a claim.
“Remember, 80 million people voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in 2020 knowing that Kamala Harris would be ready to take action if needed,” Warren added.
With just five months to go until the November election, even some Democrats who might favor an alternative candidate say Harris’ nomination strikes the right balance between replacing their nominee and not jettisoning Biden’s record and legacy, which are still popular with Democrats.
And Biden’s allies say passing the torch to a historic successor of his own choosing would be a final powerful act of public service for him and a distraction for worried Democratic voters.
Because Biden and his campaign are actively supporting Harris, it will be difficult for potential alternatives to find support.
“We are honored to join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and we will do everything we can to support her,” Bill and Hillary Clinton said in a statement. “Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we have to get her elected. The future of America depends on it.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
