President Biden’s performance in the first 2024 presidential debate is being called disastrous even by the most committed Democrats. Some influential left-of-center editorial pages are even calling on Biden to step aside as the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee. With over a month to go before Democrats officially make him their nominee, the pleas for Biden to step aside will likely continue; they may even intensify. While Democrats can dump Biden from the ticket, some legal and political hurdles stand in the way.
If Biden were to willingly withdraw before the convention, the convention delegates would be released from any obligation to vote for Biden and be able to vote for a new nominee. This includes the unelected Democratic National Convention superdelegates — elected officials and party pooh-bahs who were not elected democratically through primary elections or caucuses.
Interestingly, the DNC made a change in recent weeks to hold a “virtual roll call” to nominate Biden before the actual convention is even called to order. This was done to meet Ohio’s presidential ballot access deadline. Should Biden withdraw from the race and a knock-down-drag-out fight for the nomination ensue, would the Democrats continue to hold this “virtual” vote for the nomination? If they scrapped the early “virtual” vote, would that put their eventual nominee’s spot on the Ohio ballot in jeopardy?
Politics, not law, may actually be a bigger roadblock to removing Biden from the Democrats’ ticket. Even if Biden acquiesced and voluntarily left the ticket, who would replace him? Vice President Harris? Her fellow Californian Gavin Newsom? Or might it be a Democratic Governor from a purple state like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer or Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro? How about hardcore progressive Senator Bernie Sanders, the runner up for the Democrats’ presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020? Or might a dark horse candidate surface to snatch the nomination?
God only knows who might emerge as a replacement for Biden, but it’s hard to see any of the wannabe nominees not putting up a serious fight for the party’s backing. While things look bad for Democrats today, a late, no holds barred fight for the nomination could mean an absolute disaster for Democrats this November.
A late change in the Democratic ticket could come with even more pitfalls for Democrats in New York. New York State is one of only a handful of states that still allow fusion voting, the practice of multiple political parties nominating the same candidate for public office. While electoral fusion was once the norm in American politics, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries most states passed laws banning fusion. Today, fusion is only regularly practiced in New York and Connecticut.
In New York, the left-wing Working Families Party has generally backed the Democrats’ national ticket while the Conservative Party has historically cross endorsed the GOP ticket. If Biden was forced out as the Democrats’ nominee for president at the eleventh hour, would the WFP get on board with a replacement? Would the avowedly socialist WFP be comfortable backing a centrist Democrat who tries to find common ground with Republicans? Or would the WFP end up nominating a left-wing, independent presidential candidate such as Jill Stein or Cornel West (neither of whom qualified to be on the New York State ballot)?
Should WFP run a candidate other than the Democratic nominee, New Yorkers would see a four-way race for president on the November ballot. Given that pre-debate polls have shown Trump to be within striking distance of winning the Empire State, might a fractured Democratic coalition and an additional left-wing progressive candidate on the ballot as the WFP nominee for president be enough to win President Trump the electoral votes of deep blue New York? It’s certainly not out of the question.
The next few weeks could be a political junkie’s dream. How it all plays out is anybody’s guess. One thing, however, is for sure: replacing Biden as the Democrats’ nominee for president will be legally and politically messy for Democrats.