July 21st, when Biden announced he would not seek re-election, the Democratic Party encountered an unprecedented variable in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Some Democrats are calling for a small-scale primary.
With less than four months left until the election, the Democratic National Convention, where the party will nominate its presidential and vice-presidential candidates, is scheduled to be held in Chicago from August 19th to 22nd. Biden is the sole major candidate seeking nomination and has won nearly all the primaries this year, meaning that for Democratic delegates nationwide, supporting Biden at the convention is almost a formality for him to become the party’s official nominee.
Now that Biden is running, delegates from various states can only wait for the convention’s election rules to address this unprecedented situation. The current rules stipulate that delegates must “reflect the views of the people who elected them in good conscience.”
After Biden’s lackluster performance in the first debate with Trump on June 27th, some Democrats questioned whether he could hold onto the White House and worried that he would shatter the party’s hopes of controlling Congress. Democratic leaders broke their silence one after another, publicly calling on him to step aside.
Despite Biden’s repeated claims this week that he is the best candidate to compete against Trump, he has still not been able to calm the internal turmoil within the party.
On the evening of the 20th, Biden delivered a speech on the South Lawn of the White House, with his son Henry Biden present, which sparked displeasure among some White House staff members. They viewed it as a “disturbing sign,” indicating the re-engagement of a problematic family member in public affairs.
On Sunday, while announcing his withdrawal, Biden officially endorsed Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee. However, few of the legislators urging Biden to drop out mentioned Harris in their statements, with some expressing support for an open nomination process to support a new candidate within the party.
Democratic U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren stated on MSNBC on July 19th that holding a “small-scale primary” is reasonable.
New Yorker Helen White believes that changing leadership right before the election could decrease the Democratic Party’s chances of winning. Regardless of which presidential candidate the Democratic Party puts forward, it would be challenging for that person to garner the same level of popular support as Biden has received in such a short time, and it would also not guarantee high internal approval rates within the party.