Now that President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race and has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris – the entire country is watching to see what happens next.
Now that President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race and has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris – the entire country is watching to see what happens next.
The vice president already has a growing coalition of support from elected leaders and convention delegates – including 230 out of 254 Florida Democratic delegates.
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So far, that seems to be the trend as Democrats across the country have started to coalesce around the vice president. But it is still unknown how she will secure the nomination.
The selection will happen at an early August roll call or the convention.
“The nomination is the business of the party and the party is following its rule," said political consultant Josh Putnam, an expert in political conventions and how parties select their nominees. “If there is going to be opposition or competition for the vice president, then it’s going to be more of a vanity project than anything for somebody who’s looking to get their name out there. If they’re lucky they might get on the ballot.”
At this point, someone who wants to challenge Harris would have to get the support of 300 delegates to get on the ballot.
"If the trajectory of the endorsement so far continues, then yeah, I think they’re going to be pretty close to consensus on Harris," Putnam said.
Right now, he says to watch the endorsements and the delegate support, then you’ll see the party fall back on the rules they already have in place.
"The bottom line is that the rules committee can not anoint Kamala Harris even though President Biden has said that he absolutely and unequivocally endorses her," said political analyst Susan McManus.
The Democratic party rules committee is expected to meet this Friday, if not sooner. Once that meeting takes place, we’ll get a clear picture of what to expect at the Democratic Convention, which runs August 19-22.
