They aren’t required. But Biden/Harris delegates aren’t chosen randomly, they are Democrats who have demonstrated loyalty towards Biden and Harris and have personally pledged to support them.
Fair point. I think they would absolutely go with Harris. Partly out of deference, partly because she would remain in control of the Biden/Harris $100 million warchest and ground operations org, partly because her name can’t be taken off the general ballot in multiple states, and partly because Democrats need to campaign on women’s rights and it would look awful to pass over a Black woman.
I also think that Newsom/Whitmer/Beshear/Pritzker et al are not interested in replacing Biden. They will inherit chaos, are very likely to lose in the general, and that will be the end of their presidential aspirations.
As you suggest it’s a regulatory problem. There was a recent kerfuffle involving the Ohio ballot, which was solved by putting Biden/Harris on the ballot before they are officially nominated. So any changes made at the Democratic convention will come too late to change the Ohio ballot.
There was a similar issue in Alabama, but it looks like they just moved their deadline after the convention.
Are you supposing that the party could settle on a non-Harris replacement for Biden before their convention??
Getting delegates to agree on someone other Harris in smoke-filled backrooms in Chicago is unwise and unlikely, but at least within the realm of possibility.
Getting them to agree before they’ve even met sounds like pure fiction. And that’s what would be necessary to meet the Aug 7 deadline. Kamala Harris will be on the Ohio ballot no matter what happens in Chicago.
They aren’t required. But Biden/Harris delegates aren’t chosen randomly, they are Democrats who have demonstrated loyalty towards Biden and Harris and have personally pledged to support them.
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Fair point. I think they would absolutely go with Harris. Partly out of deference, partly because she would remain in control of the Biden/Harris $100 million warchest and ground operations org, partly because her name can’t be taken off the general ballot in multiple states, and partly because Democrats need to campaign on women’s rights and it would look awful to pass over a Black woman.
I also think that Newsom/Whitmer/Beshear/Pritzker et al are not interested in replacing Biden. They will inherit chaos, are very likely to lose in the general, and that will be the end of their presidential aspirations.
.
As you suggest it’s a regulatory problem. There was a recent kerfuffle involving the Ohio ballot, which was solved by putting Biden/Harris on the ballot before they are officially nominated. So any changes made at the Democratic convention will come too late to change the Ohio ballot.
There was a similar issue in Alabama, but it looks like they just moved their deadline after the convention.
.
Are you supposing that the party could settle on a non-Harris replacement for Biden before their convention??
Getting delegates to agree on someone other Harris in smoke-filled backrooms in Chicago is unwise and unlikely, but at least within the realm of possibility.
Getting them to agree before they’ve even met sounds like pure fiction. And that’s what would be necessary to meet the Aug 7 deadline. Kamala Harris will be on the Ohio ballot no matter what happens in Chicago.
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I think it’s impossible to replace Harris before Aug 7.
Even the staunchest proponents of running Newsom (or whoever) hope to accomplish this in Chicago.