Delegates will choose a new nominee now that President Biden has stepped aside, possibly at an open convention in August.
A convention is open when no candidate arrives with a clear majority of delegates, so the event turns into a mini-primary in which contenders scramble to persuade delegates to vote for them.
The potential for chaos is high, and the time is short. Some states have August deadlines to get on the ballot for the general election, and early voting begins in some places in September. So party leaders probably will try to settle the nomination before the Democratic National Convention begins Aug. 19.
Here’s how the process could play out.
Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday.
His delegates are free to vote however they would like.
Biden doesn’t endorse anyone
Biden endorsed Vice President Harris
Biden’s delegates aren’t obligated to support Harris, but they may be inclined to do as he wishes.
Additional candidates may see an opening to jump into the race.
Efforts at unity
Party leaders will try to convince delegates to coalesce around one candidate.
An early vote?
The party has planned a pre-convention virtual vote to officially nominate Biden. It could be delayed or canceled.
NO VOTE
VOTE
NO MAJORITY
MAJORITY
The decision will be
made at the convention
The nominee is chosen
before the convention
A few thousand delegates representing voters officially decide on the party’s nominee, whether a convention is open or not. Typically they choose the winner of the primaries — that’s what they are sent to do — so it may feel as if the voters choose directly.
749 superdelegates
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Democrats will formally nominate a candidate at the national convention in August in Chicago, where the eventual nominee will need to secure support from 1,969 of the 3,949 Democratic delegates.
Territories such as American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and other groups such as Democrats Abroad contribute to the Democratic National Convention with a total of 94 delegates and 30 superdelegates.
Source: AP
There are two types of Democratic delegates.
Pledged delegates commit to supporting the candidate state voters chose, although a “good conscience” clause in the party’s rules gives them a bit of wiggle room.
The party allocates pledged delegates to each state or territory, and state party officials divvy them out to candidates.
Jurisdictions have different criteria, but in general, almost any registered voter deemed to be loyal to the party and the candidate can be a pledged delegate: poll workers, local elected officials, fundraisers, even candidates’ kids.
They are not pledged to any candidate and are not allowed to vote on the first ballot at the convention.
So, we’ll see an open convention?
We could.
If the party goes ahead with a long-planned virtual vote, it could officially lock in the nominee before the convention starts on Aug. 19, and the contest would be over.
Biden has endorsed Vice President Harris, which could strongly tip the scales toward unity. His nearly 3,900 delegates wouldn’t be required to back Harris, but they were chosen for their loyalty to him and may be inclined to do what he asks, especially because she was already on the ticket that the primary voters chose.
The virtual vote is not a typical part of the process. It was largely set up to confirm Biden as the nominee before Ohio’s ballot deadline, which falls before the Democratic convention this year. Ohio legislators resolved the problem, but Democrats had planned to go through with the early vote anyway to avoid any legal challenges that would try to keep Biden off Ohio’s ballot.
However, that allows very little time for the party to coalesce around a new nominee.
Democratic leaders would be motivated to settle the question quickly so a new nominee can begin a campaign as soon as possible, said Amy K. Dacey, the executive director of the Sine Institute of Policy and Politics at American University and a former CEO of the Democratic National Committee.
“You’re ending a Republican convention where it’s very clear who their nominees are, whose names will appear on the ballot,” Dacey said. “… They now have this moment in time of like 31 days before the Democratic convention, where they have their nominees in place and they’re all campaigning.”
But if there is no consensus before the delegates arrive in Chicago, the Democrats would have their first open and contested convention since 1968. That one, also in Chicago, went so catastrophically awry that the party overhauled the way it chooses candidates.