Answers to Timely Election Questions
Because of our expertise in election and campaign finance law, Campaign Legal Center has been receiving numerous press inquiries about two aspects of party nominations. We thought the answers to these questions are of interest to a wider audience, so we are sharing them with you here in my newsletter.
May delegates to the Democratic National Convention vote for a candidate other than the person to whom they are pledged?
The call of the Democratic convention does not formally bind delegates to vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged, but rather states aspirationally, “All delegates to the National Convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.” Thus, if a candidate withdraws after the primaries are concluded, delegates pledged to them are free under party rules to vote for another person — and that would also be the case even if the candidate to whom they are pledged remains in the race. See Rule C7e on page 19. (The Republican Party rules by contrast require delegates to vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged for the first ballot.)
In the event of a withdrawal by a party nominee, what happens to the funds in their campaign committee?
Federal candidates’ campaign committees can make unlimited transfers to national party committees. Therefore, if a candidate withdraws from the race, then all of the funds in that candidate’s committee may be transferred to that candidate’s national party committee, which could then spend the transferred funds to elect the new party nominee.
That is not true of transfers to other candidates, though — even to a candidate’s successor as nominee. Transfers to other candidates’ committees are strictly limited to $2,000 per election. In order for the withdrawing candidate’s committee to get the funds into the campaign account of a successor candidate’s campaign, the withdrawing candidate would have to refund the money to the original donors, who could then contribute to the new candidate’s campaign.
Because President Biden and Vice President Harris share an authorized campaign committee (pursuant to an allowance under the federal campaign finance laws for the president and vice president to run together as one ticket), if President Biden were to cease being a candidate and was succeeded as the nominee by Harris, she would maintain access to all the funds in the committee and could use them to advance her presidential candidacy.
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Trevor, thanks for posting this, helpful information. Can you (or someone from the team at CLC) provide a brief refresh on how big a deal it is that, according to your report, if the VP were to become the nominee she can continue to use the hard money the campaign has already raised, whereas for any other nominee besides her and President Biden the money would have to be transferred to the national party committee (or refunded and re-solicited as hard money)? I assume there is a reason hard money is advantageous to the campaign - otherwise why would that be the first bucket into which large donations are allocated - but I'm not clear on the specific limitations that differentiate national party committee expenditures from expenditures by the campaign committee.