President Biden’s weak debate performance has quickly triggered anguish and alarm within the Democratic Party as some question whether the 81-year-old should be replaced on the ballot.
Biden’s raspy and halting attempts to confront former President Donald Trump, 76, on Thursday night sparked a fresh round of calls for the Democrat to consider stepping aside as the party’s nominee — just four months out from the election.
While there’s no evidence Biden plans to back down and end his campaign, questions have been mounting over whether Democrats could actually force him out.
But can the president be replaced as the Democratic candidate so close to the November polls and, if so, how?
The Democratic National Committee’s current rules make it near impossible to replace a nominee unless they choose to step aside.
Given every state has already held its presidential primary, the rules mandate that the delegates Biden won pledge to support him at the party’s upcoming national convention — unless, of course, he tells them he’s leaving the race.
“Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them,” the rules read.
While the DNC could convene before the convention opens on Aug. 19 and officially change how things work, that isn’t likely as long as Biden still wants to continue his campaign.
If Biden abruptly agreed to decline the nomination though, the party could open a rule book that hasn’t been used in decades.
The party’s rules include a provision to replace a nominee if there’s a vacancy, which is intended to be used in rare incidents such as a death or incapacitation.
To fill the vacancy, the committee’s chair would have to call a special meeting with the full DNC to vote on new presidential and vice presidential nominees.
Given it needs to be a majority vote, that process could prove to be rocky given the number of Democratic candidates that tossed their names into the ring early on.
While Vice President Kamala Harris is Biden’s running mate, it doesn’t mean she can just swap in for him at the top of the ticket by default, either.
Biden also can’t decree that she replace him should he suddenly decide to leave the race.
It means Harris would likely join other top Democratic candidates potentially looking to replace Biden — such as Govs. Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer and JB Pritzker.
That could potentially create a scenario where Harris and others end up lobbying individual state delegations at the convention for their support — a move that hasn’t occurred for Dems since 1960 when John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson rallied for votes.
Still, if Biden did abandon his campaign, conservative groups have already suggested they’ll file lawsuits questioning the legality of the new Democratic candidate’s name on the ballot.
Experts argue, though, that courts have consistently stayed out of political primaries in the past as long as the parties running them weren’t doing anything that would contradict other constitutional rights, such as voter suppression based on race.
Follow the latest on Trump and Biden’s 2024 debate:
“This is very clear constitutionally that this is in the party’s purview,” Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told the Associated Press prior to the debate.
“The business of nominating someone to represent a political party is the business of the political party.”
Biden, on his part, has already insisted he has no plans to step aside, telling supporters in Atlanta just moments after leaving the debate stage, “Let’s keep going.”
And a Biden campaign spokesperson was even more adamant on Friday, saying: “Of course, he’s not dropping out.”
With Post wires
