President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race just one month before the Democratic Party’s convention has left many wondering about the next nominee of the party.
The development has a striking resemblance to the events of 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson declared in late March that he would not seek reelection.
His vice president, Hubert Humphrey, received enough support among delegates to secure the nomination at the party’s convention in August 1968 in Chicago.
Now, all eyes will be on Vice President Kamala Harris, who has secured the president’s endorsement to be the nominee.
“I think there‘ll be a lot of talk over the next 48 hours over who the potential candidate could be, and you’ll hear some names be floated,” David Carlucci, a Democrat strategist and former New York state senator, told The Epoch Times following President Biden’s announcement.
“But I think that any serious contender is going to recognize that it’s going to be hard to beat Kamala Harris in this convention and that they might try to position themselves for the vice presidential pick.”
Some of those names include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
Mr. Newsom and Mr. Shapiro have publicly endorsed Ms. Harris to lead the party’s presidential ticket in November.
“This battle right now is for the middle, for those few percent of people that are still undecided,” Mr. Carlucci said. “And I think having Kamala Harris there now gives them the opportunity to really energize a new group of people and get those few extra votes that we need in those swing states to win the elections.”
According to Democrat political strategist Christopher Bruce, the next couple of weeks will be extremely “unpredictable” because nothing like this has happened since 1968.
“Democrats need to take a page out of Republicans’ book and become united,” Mr. Bruce said.
“It is no longer the general public or even general Democrats who are going to elect their nominees—now, it goes toward the delegates.”
The Democrat candidate must secure a majority of the approximately 4,000 delegates in Chicago. Now that President Biden has withdrawn from the race, the delegates are no longer pledged to vote for him.
“That means there’s an open convention. Even though he’s endorsing Kamala Harris, that still means that these delegates can vote for whoever they would like,” Mr. Carlucci said.
If there are multiple candidates and one does not receive a majority of votes on the first ballot, the process will advance to a second ballot, he said.
If that happens, this would be the first time that the party’s convention goes to a second ballot to determine its nominee since 1952.
“I don’t predict there being a battle. I think it’s going to be Democrats rallying behind Kamala,” Mr. Carlucci said.
Mr. Bruce also doesn’t foresee a battle for the nomination. However, he said, if Ms. Harris is passed over, “there’s going to be a lot of upset people in the black community.”
One consideration is the Biden–Harris campaign’s recent disclosure that it has more than $91 million in funds on hand, which could not be used to support a candidate other than Ms. Harris.
While this is not a huge concern for the party, it might present a challenge for other candidates.
“Biden–Harris is a different legal entity,” said Mr. Bruce, who is also a lawyer. “There’re definitely ways to get around it. I would say that it would not be easy.”
Jacob Burg contributed to this report.
