Senior Democratic operatives who didn’t put their names on it are circulating a memo making the case for VP Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee if the President steps aside.
Ultimately only Joe Biden has the power to drop out and to choose to head off chaos by anointing Harris, but he listens to people, and they listen to people, and you might know those people. If so, and if you find this convincing, you should make this case.
The authors of this memo are senior operatives within Democratic political institutions that will not be taking a position regarding this crisis. We have no professional or personal ties to Harris. We simply want to defeat Trump. We are writing this in our personal capacities because we believe that we need to cut through the chaos, identify which options are realistic and which are fantasies, and advocate for the only real path forward. The stakes are too high to do anything else.
If President Biden drops out, the choice is clear for Democrats. We can unite behind his elected successor immediately, or we can invite an extended period of chaos and an open battle for the top-of-the-ticket.
It’s worth stating the obvious: Kamala Harris is the only potential successor who has been nominated and won as part of a national ticket. As Vice President she has spent the last four years one heartbeat from the Oval Office. Voters reaffirmed their support for Joe Biden in the 2024 primary knowing that Harris would be his successor in the event that he is unable to complete his duties. And while polls obviously have significant limitations given the name recognition disparities, she currently wins any poll of alternate Democratic candidates by a wide margin.
In an alternate timeline where Biden declined to run for reelection, an open primary would be welcome and appropriate. That is not the world we live in. Democratic voters in every state have already cast their primary ballots, and they voted for Joe Biden with the full knowledge that Kamala Harris is his running mate. Democratic voters who pulled the lever for Biden in the primary did not scrutinize the politics, identities, or affiliations of their Biden delegates, and they have in no meaningful way consented to delegates making a different choice. At this point in the nomination process, Kamala would be the closest thing we have to a democratic selection were President Biden to withdraw. A move to entrust that nomination not to those voters, but to convention delegates, would be enormously high-risk.
In all fairness, the memo seems intended to head off the sort of chaos that some in the Democratic Party want if Biden withdraws. An open contest months before an election would be an unmitigated disaster.
However, these Democratic operatives would have much more credibility if they would put their names on the memo. If they have no affiliation with Biden or Harris, and they believe that the party needs to change nominees, they need to own their position. Democrats slinking around in the darkness are making the situation worse.
If Biden would step aside, Vice President Harris is the only logical choice to be the nominee, but we aren’t there yet, and this sort of campaigning, not being done by Harris, may only harm the cause of bringing this party back together.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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