Their idea goes something like this, according to a memo shared with Semafor that has been circulated to Democratic donors and bundlers as well as officials within the Biden campaign and administration:
- Biden would step down as the Democratic nominee in mid-July, and announce the new system, with backing from Vice President Kamala Harris.
- Potential candidates would have a few days to throw their respective hats in the ring. The Democratic Party then would begin a primary sprint in which the six candidates who receive the most votes from delegates pledge to run positive-only campaigns in the month leading up to the convention.
- The “blitz primary” would involve weekly forums with each candidate moderated by cultural icons (Michelle Obama, Oprah, and Taylor Swift are among the names floated in the memo) in order to engage voters.
- The nominee would ultimately be chosen by the delegates using ranked choice voting before the start of the Chicago convention on Aug. 19.
- It would be announced with plenty of fanfare on the third day of the gathering. The memo imagines the nominee unveiled on stage with Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
According to its authors, the country would be captivated. Donations would pour in. And Biden would be celebrated as a “modern-day George Washington,” the proponents argue.----
How can that be legal? How can Ohio demand a candidate be official before they’ve been nominated? I don’t want Biden to die, but what if he’s nominated on August 7th and dies on August 8th? Does Harris automatically go on the ballot? Does a dead man stay on the ballot?
How? Fascist bullshit, that’s how. It’s basically heads I win tails you lose, except heads is the legalistic authoritarian frameworks abide and we get our choice of shit sandwich in the general and tails is complete collapse of the old republic into the new American unitary executive empire.
That’s always an issue no matter what the deadlines are.
Is it? This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a state requiring a ballot be finalized before the convention.
I meant that the candidate could die or otherwise have to drop out after the ballots are finalized. That is always an issue, in every election.