Originally published by The 19th: Your trusted source for contextualizing Election 2024 news.
President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic nominee on Sunday, 3-1/2 months out from Election Day on Nov. 5.
It’s unusual for a presidential candidate and presumptive nominee to drop out so soon before the election. But it’s not totally unprecedented in history and doesn’t necessarily spell chaos for how the 2024 election will be run and administered, election experts said Sunday.
“A major party’s presumptive nominee stepping down months before Election Day is not an ordinary event, but it is also not a crisis,” Trevor Potter, president of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center and a former commissioner of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), said in a Sunday statement.
Here’s what we know about the situation:
It happened before he was officially the nominee
Biden dropped out of the race before Democratic delegates formally nominated him, meaning he can now release his delegates, freeing them up to vote for another candidate. The Biden campaign filed paperwork with the FEC formally changing its name from Biden for President to Harris for President.
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said in a Sunday afternoon statement.
Voters in Democratic primary elections selected delegates to vote for the candidate of their choice at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Because Biden has left the race, those delegates are no longer bound to support him. Biden faced no serious opposition in the 2024 primaries and earned 3,896 delegates. A candidate needs to win the support of 1,976 delegates to become the Democratic nominee this year.
In multiple states, pro-Palestinian activists urged Democrats to vote “uncommitted” on primary ballots in protest of Biden’s stance and policymaking on the Israel-Hamas war. There are 36 delegates total pledged to Uncommitted.
Elected leaders and party officials known as superdelegates come to the convention not pledged to vote for any particular candidate. Rule changes made after the 2016 election mean these superdelegates do not vote on the first ballot but can vote on subsequent ballots in case of a contested convention where no candidate earned a majority of delegates on the first ballot.
“There are Democratic Party rules in place to govern the process of selecting a new nominee. There are also rules established by the Federal Election Commission that apply to the funds currently held by the Biden-Harris campaign,” Potter said.
Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Sunday that “in short order,” the American people would hear from the Democratic Party on “next steps and the path forward.”
“The work that we must do now, while unprecedented, is clear. In the coming days, the Party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Harrison said. “This process will be governed by established rules and procedures of the Party. Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people.”
The National Task Force on Election Crises, a cross-partisan coalition of election experts, said Sunday that “Americans can be confident that this situation falls well within existing rules and that their election system continues to allow for a free and fair election.”
Before Biden dropped out, Democratic Party officials were considering holding a virtual roll call to formally nominate him before the DNC, which is set to take place August 19-22 in Chicago, Illinois. So far, it’s unclear whether the party will proceed with a virtual roll call to select a new nominee or wait until the in-person convention.
What happens with his campaign
As vice president and a member of the Biden-Harris ticket, Harris is positioned to assume control of the Biden campaign’s infrastructure and apparatus, including its $240 million war chest.
“Because Biden and Harris share a campaign committee, the Vice President and her running mate can continue using the campaign’s existing funds for the general election if she is on the Democratic ticket as either the presidential or vice-presidential nominee,” Potter said.
Daniel Weiner, a former counsel to the FEC and campaign finance expert at the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, agreed.
“A little more than $90M is with Biden’s principal campaign committee — the official vehicle for his reelection campaign,” Weiner wrote on X. “This is ALSO the principal reelection committee for VP Harris. Most campaign finance experts (including me) believe that she can tap into the money immediately if, as expected, she seeks to move to the top of the ticket.”
Who would be on the ticket?
Harris — and anyone who wants to run against her for the Democratic presidential nomination — will also select a running mate. The running mate will also be formally nominated by Democratic delegates.
When does voting start?
The first ballots of the 2024 election will start going out to military and overseas voters starting in early fall. The Task Force added that state ballot access laws are “no obstacle” to the Democratic Party choosing new presidential and vice presidential nominees.
“States have not yet printed ballots for the general election, and state laws across the country provide for the candidate chosen by the Democratic Party at or before the convention to appear on ballots this November irrespective of whether that nominee is the same individual as the party’s presumptive nominee based on the results of the party’s presidential preference primaries,” the organization said.
