House Speaker Mike Johnson says Republicans may challenge replacing Biden as the Democratic Candidate after he announced he would not be running.
In an announcement that stunned the world, President Joe Biden informed the American people that he would be dropping out of the 2024 campaign for his reelection
In the same post, Biden endorses Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee.
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With the election less than four months away, the country is moving into unfamiliar territory with no historical precedent.
While most people assume that the Democratic Party will find another candidate to challenge GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, prominent Republicans have suggested they could challenge replacing Biden with another candidate in the courts.
House Speaker Mike Johnson Suggests Legal Challenges
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) spoke with ABC news anchor Martha Raddatz this morning on ABC’s This Week.
Just hours before President Biden made his announcement, Congressman Mike Johnson suggested that the GOP would challenge any replacement candidate in the courts.
Fourteen million Democrats voted to make Joe Biden the nominee, so it would be wrong, and I think unlawful, in accordance to some of these state rules, for a handful of people to go in a back room and just switch it out because they don’t like the candidate any longer. That’s not how this is supposed to work. I think they would run into some legal impediments in at least some of these jurisdictions, and I think there would be a compelling case to be made that that shouldn’t happen. So I think they’ve got legal trouble if that’s their intention and that’s their plan. So we’ll see how it plays out.”
House of Representative Speaker Mike Johnson, (R-La.)
Experts say that legally blocking another Democratic candidate from taking Biden’s place in the election is a long shot.
Though most people assume that President Biden would be the Democratic candidate, he has not officially been named the presidential nominee by the Democratic Party. Official candidacy is not final until the Democratic National Convention.
The Mechanics of American Democracy
America is not a true democracy, but a republic. Voters cast ballots, but delegates ultimately choose the candidate.
There have been five times in American history where the candidate who won the election lost the popular vote.
Current GOP nominee Donald Trump was one of the beneficiaries of this system in 2016. Trump lost the popular vote by 2.8 million to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — but still won the presidency through electoral votes.
Other presidents who won the White House without the popular vote include Republican George W. Bush in 2000, Republican Benjamin Harrison in 1888, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, and Republican-Democrat John Quincy Adams, in 1824.
Could Republicans Legally Block A Replacement?
Legal experts say its unlikely Republicans would win a legal challenge to a replacement candidate.
Selecting a party’s nominee is also based on a republican system. While the public votes for their party’s candidate in the primaries, the official selection is made by the party’s delegates.
Because the Democratic National Convention hasn’t happened, President Joe Biden was technically not yet Democratic Party’s nominee.
He was however, the nominee apparent with no significant contenders. His withdrawal from the race does leave Democrats in a lurch. From a legal standpoint, that Biden hasn’t officially named the party’s candidate may make legal challenges difficult.
That likely won’t stop Republicans from trying, even if the chances of success are low. With many of the courts now stacked with favorable judges, they will have many avenues to try.
However the legal battles play out will set new precedents regarding political protocols in the event a party’s nominee apparent drops out this late in the campaign.
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Setting new precedents is inevitable, even without legal challenges. The Democratic Party is unlikely to hold another primary with the election just on the horizon. The delegates will be taking an outsized role on behalf of their party in deciding the candidate without direct voter input.
The coming weeks will be critical for the Democratic party to unify under a selected candidate if they have any chance of defeated Donald Trump at the polls in November.
