The Democratic Process

I'm seeing a lot of concern trolling on the right about how Harris being the presumptive nominee is unfair to the close to 15 million Democrats who voted for Biden in the primary. My own take on this is that since Harris is Biden's VP, the assumption was that if something happened to him, Harris would take over. Well, something happened to him. In fact, technically Biden was never the nominee, just the assumed nominee, as no one will be nominated until the convention (or the virtual convention which will take place earlier to meet several states' filing deadlines).

So I'm asking our conservative SW members, if the way it was done wasn't "democratic," what would you suggest? If nominating Harris at the convention won't be good enough, then nominating anyone else who isn't even in Biden's administration, like Newsom, Whitmer, Shapiro, Pritzker, Beshear, Kelly, etc. won't be good enough either. There isn't time to redo the primaries. So what would you suggest? With all the complaining about this, I haven't seen a single suggestion of how the Democrats could have a "democratic" nomination process.

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dancingtongue · 80-89, M

Technically, when you vote in the primaries you elect delegates to that party's convention. While the candidate's name is on the ballot, you are electing the group of delegates who have pledged to vote for him. Whether that is first round, three rounds of voting, or forever -- the rules will vary by state. So when the candidate they are pledged to is no longer a candidate, they are free to exercise their best judgment on how to proceed representing those voters who elected them. Obviously the opinion -- and the campaign funds -- of the candidate they were elected to support is going to weigh heavily in their decision making and Biden announced his support of Harris. Consequently the vast majority of the delegates have said they are voting for Harris. They are still representing those who voted for them on the Biden/Harris ticket.

LeopoldBloom · M

@dancingtongue That is correct. And under Democratic party rules, delegates are supposed to vote for the candidate they're pledged to, unless they cannot do so in good conscience. This is why one option floated before Biden withdrew was for his delegates to rebel and nominate someone else, which they were legally empowered to do.