It used to be law that primaries were advisory only and the conventions could select whomever they wanted. A series of legal actions has flipped that, whereby some states have laws that control whom delegates can vote for, and them dictate they must vote for the winner of any primaries in their state, if one is held.
Kamala isn’t technically the Pres candidate from the primaries. It’s murky, but Repubs are sure to sue to obstruct the process. Courts aren’t likely to grant them standing, but delay, obstruct, appeal, and get the Supremes to do their bidding.
As I understand it, those delegates are only required to vote for their candidate for either the first or first and second ballots. After that, they are free to vote for anyone. So it may take a couple ballots for Harris to be nominated.
My understanding (and I may be wrong) is that if a candidate exits the race, delegates which had been pledged to that candidate become free to vote as they choose.
In which states is this a possibility, realistically? Are they going to challenge in all 50 states? I don’t care if Harris is not on the ballot in Ohio, it just doesn’t matter in the electoral college, in fact I hope they try it. Can’t be a good look politically.
Nominating a party’s candidate is fundamentally a political process, not a legal process. As long as the Democratic Party follows its own procedures regarding how their selection is done, I don’t see how the GOP would have a legal leg to stand on, on attempting to “challenge” it in the courts.
There may be a different issue regarding the campaign funds which Biden had raised, and whether they can be easily transferred to Harris’s campaign.
Not saying it’s going to decide the election, it’s just another jab at Trump. Harris says, "In his acceptance speech at the RNC Trump said he was the one protecting democracy. Now he and his supporters and trying to keep me off the ballot in many states. What is Trump afraid of? "
I am not sure this is the best place for this but the Mods have been shuffling and closing so many threads I am losing track. I think this is a good place for this. If not, let me know:
I posted earlier that donations to dems had plummeted (in a different, now defunct thread). Things have changed since Biden stepped down:
Democrats greeted President Biden’s departure from the presidential race with an avalanche of cash, donating more than $50 million online on Sunday and making it the single biggest day for online Democratic contributions since the 2020 election — with hours to go.
It should be Harris-Shapiro IMO. Help lock down PA with their popular governor who is a good speaker in a similar style to Obama about aspiration and coming together. Also he has governed in a way that will appeal to moderates who may think Harris was much more on the left of Biden.
As for Biden himself I think it is a damn shame it has come to this. In my opinion a fine president with a set of legislative accomplishments that outshine two-term Bill Clinton as a Democratic president and fighting back against Russian aggression at a time when one party is in love with Putin. However father time beat him in the end. I just hope he gets a good send off at the convention because in a way he has been the consummate party man who waited so long to become the head of the party and now it was ingloriously taken away from him. Right decision in the end because at his age I think he has the capacity to be president but campaigning to stay president is a second job and the cake was baked about his age concerns. The big tragedy was he didn’t lead the party in 2016 because ultimately even if a diminished Biden still had a chance of beating Trump in 2024, a fiery Biden of 2016 on the heels of the popular presidency of Barack Obama would have prevented Trumpism from ever becoming a thing.
The white working class exodus in 2016 wouldn’t have happened and generally a lot of swing state moderates would have stayed on the Democratic side if he was the nominee in 2016. But while Obama and his people were wrong then in choosing another horse they are right now.
While some states may have such laws on the books, they are unlikely to be enforceable. The Supreme Court in Democratic Party of United States v. Wisconsin ex rel. La Follette found that that, “the National Democratic Party and its adherents enjoy a constitutionally protected right of political association … This First Amendment freedom to gather in association for the purpose of advancing shared beliefs is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment from infringement by any State.”
Sad but true. We have a woman neighbor friend (Wisconsin) who agreed with Hillary on everything, but couldn’t articulate why she was hesitant to vote for her. It was clear to us that’s its underlying misogyny.
The big issue with Shapiro is Michigan. Harris needs both (most likely), and you have to calculate how much Shapiro helps in PA against how much having a Jewish VP will hurt in a state where the Gaza/Israel war is driving large numbers of Democratic voters away from the party. I believe Shapiro has been pretty vocally pro-Israel in the conflict.
I don’t think Whitmer is interested in VP (and I can’t blame her), and there are issues with having two women on the ballot, but I would argue that Michigan (being to the right of PA) is more critical that PA (because you need both, and if you get MI you probably have PA).
Unless Harris is able to open back up the secondary path that Biden had: AZ, NV, GA. But I have some doubts that she can.
I watched the Legal Eagle segment. States have a legal interest in how elections are conducted, and primaries are elections. They have generated a number of laws to control how delegates vote based on the results of primaries.
I didn’t soak up all the details, but some of the laws are untested, others have been through lawsuits. The Supreme Court even ruled on one case, saying that the states’ interest regards election integrity, and that the party controls their own selection process. However, we can all see how binding precedent is to this Court.
And understand logic and reasonableness don’t apply to today’s GOP. They will try anything, knowing this Court is loaded right wing activist.
I mean, who would have thought the Court would find for Presidential Immunity?
I predict (for what it’s worth) (nothing) that the Dems will take ALL the swing states, and maybe some that are currently leaning R.
Biggest Electoral College blowout in decades. Take it to the bank.
Of the nearest river. And throw it in.
This is based on hearing for months that the double haters, those who disliked Trump (because crooked) and disliked Biden (old) equally finally got handed a candidate who was neither, so I assume these undecided voters will flock overwhelmingly to Kamala.
Or do you think they were full of shit? There’s a chance that they were Trump voters all along who were ashamed to admit how they were inclined to vote, so invented an excuse to tell pollsters. In which case, forget my prediction.
I kinda do. We saw that in 2016 and 2020. Folks saying “I really don’t want to vote for Trump but XXX is just so old/criminal/whatever”. I have no doubt they will come up with some reason why Harris is even worse than Trump.
Right. IMHO that’s why the election doesn’t swing on those voters. They are already locked in despite any public denials / lying to pollsters and such. Where Harris has an advantage over Biden, and where the election will be decided, is with minorities, especially Black people and women in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Milwaukee. A fair number of people in those groups who showed up in 2020 but were planning to stay home this year might now be energized enough to show up.