No, the Democrats are not dumping President Biden: The idea of the party dropping Joe Biden as their standard bearer and running someone else instead doesn’t appear logistically or practically possible.
Joe Biden Isn’t Getting Dumped
The idea that Democrats will dump President Biden from the presidential ticket, and go with someone else instead, is bandied about in the media nearly every day. Political observers look at the 80-year-old president, whose approval ratings are abysmal and who is tied or nearly tied with former President Trump in most polls, and decide that the Democrats should ditch him and find someone else.
“Five Democratic alternatives if President Biden exits the 2024 race,” was a story in The Hill in September. “Chris Powell: To prevent Trump’s return, dump Biden,” a Hartford Courant columnist wrote earlier this month.
About 80 percent of this comes from the right, and people who want Biden out of office and propagate conspiracy theories that the Democrats are planning to “switch out” Biden shortly before election day and replace him with someone else.
“Gavin Newsom is positioning himself to replace Biden,” a columnist from The Telegraph recently wrote. A Deccan Chronicle columnist wrote about the possibility that Michelle Obama will replace Biden on the ticket.
Once again, this is all fantasy land. The Democrats are not going to “dump” President Biden, or involuntarily remove him from the top of the ticket. There isn’t anyone with the power to do that, who has expressed any interest in doing so.
If Biden were to suffer some type of health episode that incapacitates him, or he were to voluntarily opt out, then he could or would do so. If that happened, Vice President Kamala Harris would either immediately ascend to the presidency or likely succeed Biden as the Democratic standard bearer.
But the involuntary removal from the race of a healthy Biden simply will not happen. Biden is running effectively unopposed for the Democratic nomination in 2024, with the full support of the Democratic National Committee, party apparatus, and every major elected official in the party. None of those people have indicated their indication to try to force Biden out of the race, and there’s no indication that they have any plans to do so.
Ted Cruz, in a podcast episode earlier this fall, laid out a scenario in which “Democrat kingmakers” would intervene in August of 2024 to replace Biden on the ticket with Michelle Obama.
“Michelle Obama – number 1, you don’t infuriate African-American women which is a critical part of the constituency that Democrats are relying on to win,” Cruz said on the podcast. “But number 2, you avoid the problem, if you pick from any of the four [of possible candidates Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren ] the other three are pissed … Michelle Obama, because she was first lady, has the ability to kind of parachute in above all four and say hey, we’re not picking among any of you.”
Michelle Obama, of course, has been clear for her entire time in public life that she does not want to run for office or be president.
And again, it’s not clear who these “Democrat kingmakers” are, or what procedure they would use to remove Biden from the ballot, especially after Biden has emerged victorious from the primary season, and after the Democratic convention has already happened and Biden has officially become the nominee. And besides- the deadlines for candidates to get on the ballot in most states are in October and November of this year. No one who hasn’t declared by then would be eligible to make the presidential ballot.
There isn’t anyone with the power to remove a presidential candidate who doesn’t want to be removed. The Republicans likely learned that lesson in 2016, when Donald Trump made it clear that he had no intention of withdrawing from the presidential race after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape.
Author Expertise and Experience
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Stephen has authored thousands of articles over the years that focus on politics, technology, and the economy for over a decade. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
From the Vault
