Coronation or open convention?
Democrats have less than one week to decide whether they will proceed with a virtual roll call to elect Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee after President Biden’s campaign suspension just four months before the November election — but that hasn’t stopped them from taking their sweet time.
As late as Friday, the DNC rules committee was forging ahead with plans for a virtual roll call on Aug. 7 to avoid any legal challenges from Republicans on state ballots to nominate Biden as the nominee before the convention begins on Aug. 17.
The rules committee is next slated to meet on Wednesday — but its final decision isn’t due until Friday.
The remote call would mitigate issues coming from state ballot deadlines. Ohio’s state ballot deadline to name a nominee comes in the first week of August, and the convention will be too late to put Harris or another candidate on the ballot without legal risk.
Biden dropping out of the race on Sunday has raised questions on whether the virtual roll call will proceed in early August, as doing so would force Democrats to endorse Harris without an open convention at the DNC.
With a virtual roll call, delegates would not have the opportunity to openly contest Harris as the nominee at the convention.
In a Friday rules committee call before Biden’s dropout, former White House counsel Dana Remus — who is advising the DNC on the legal issue — argued that a virtual roll call would be best to avoid litigation from the GOP.
“How significant of a risk? Well, it’s hard to say,” Remus said on the call, according to Politico. “People certainly disagree, and reasonably disagree — but it is a risk, and if we can avoid it, we should.”
One member of the rules committee, who remained anonymous, expressed doubt that the virtual roll call could still happen with Biden out.
“It would be hard for it to move forward” with the virtual roll call vote upon Biden’s suspension, the member said, per Politico. “For all intents and purposes, it’d need to go to an open convention.”
Ohio Democrats have already pushed their ballot deadline to Sept. 1, but some party members are afraid that the new deadline could be challenged by Republicans in the state and want to avoid any potential risk.
Harris has already been endorsed by Biden and other prominent Democrats. All her likely challengers have thrown their weight behind her, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
But there is still room for others to throw their names in. Former President Barack Obama did not endorse Harris, instead saying he’s confident the party will pick an “outstanding nominee.”
DNC chief Jaime Harrison issued a statement Sunday vowing to have a “transparent and orderly process” to replace Biden, indicating there could be an open convention.
Chris Demsey, founder of activist group Delegates Are Democracy, argued that a virtual call still makes sense if no candidates come forward to challenge Harris in the coming days.
“The DNC is leading an open process — literally any Democrat in the country could put their name forward at this time and win over 300 delegates to get onto the Convention ballot. The fact that we are not seeing credible candidates step forward as of yet is a testament to the strength of the Vice President’s candidacy,” Demsey told The Post.
“If no candidates emerge, a virtual roll call makes sense as it eliminates any doubt about ballot access in Ohio.”
Maryland DNC delegate Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi agreed that Democrats should still go forward with a virtual call since there haven’t been major outcries against Harris.
“Chris is right. In our state our delegates had a chance to support anyone they wanted to on our Zoom. We had 145 folks in our meeting and EVERY SINGLE PERSON supported Harris,” she told The Post in a statement.
Laszlo Mizrahi also said, “the rules committee of the DNC will be meeting in the days ahead and I do expect we will have an online vote to be completed prior to Aug 7th.”
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon also predicted Harris will be the nominee, given the lack of competition being presented.
“I think a lot of Democrats who would prefer another candidate will support Harris because it’s the easiest and quickest thing to do. And remember, we’ve only got 106 days left until the election, so I think even Democrats have questions about Harris will support her, because they just want to get this thing done with and roll on to November,” Bannon told The Post.