2024-07-05 05:34:13
More and more US Democrats want a different candidate. Biden is also considering withdrawing from the election campaign. But what could that look like?
The White House quickly denied the report, but the questions that remain are: What would have to happen for there to be a new candidate? And what would happen if Biden actually backed out?
Biden won the Democratic primaries with 95 percent. The incumbent US president has thus secured the necessary delegate votes for the nominating convention in the summer – around 4,000 Democratic delegates will meet in Chicago, Illinois, in mid-August.
However, they are not legally obliged to vote for Biden. However, it is common practice and is also set in the Democratic Party. Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, had significant control over the selection of delegates – it would take a majority opposing Biden to block his nomination. Especially since the party leadership had announced that it would select Biden as a candidate for the November election in a virtual call. And that was before the delegates even voted.
This means that a new candidate is only realistic if Biden actually withdraws from his candidacy. “He has to step down of his own accord and clear the way,” former Obama campaign manager Julius van de Laar told t-online at the end of last week. You can read how realistic that is in this interview. “Then the delegates who were chosen in the primaries and are currently supposed to vote for Biden would also be released.”
In this case, there would be a so-called “open convention” at the party conference in August, the expert continues. “Several candidates would then stand for election – and the Democrats would choose a new presidential candidate.” But this is a complicated process.
The position would be open to all possible top candidates from each party, and various alternative candidates would certainly publicly announce their ambitions. You can read about the possible alternative candidates here. The delegates would then choose the new presidential candidate at the party convention – probably in several rounds of voting and accompanied by intense candidate lobbying and some spectacle.
However, expert van de Laar warns against such a scenario: “That would be a risky gamble for the Democrats.” The last time such an open convention took place was in 1968. At that time, Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not run again. Read more about that here. “At the convention, the Democrats nominated Hubert Humphrey, but he lost to Richard Nixon – partly because of the short election campaign,” said van de Laar.
Even if a new candidate entered the race in August, he would have less than three months to campaign for himself. “There is no blueprint for how the Democrats can still win now,” says van de Laar. In the end, it all depends on Joe Biden – and the coming days.