No, Kamala Harris will not automatically replace Biden as presidential nominee

President Joe Biden announced today that he is withdrawing his candidacy and will no longer seek a second term.

Biden has been the presumptive nominee for months after easily winning almost every primary election in a mostly uncontested race. But he was never officially nominated since that process happens in August. 

In his announcement, Biden said current Vice President Kamala Harris should replace him as the presidential nominee. Some people are wondering if that will automatically happen. 

THE QUESTION

Will Vice President Kamala Harris automatically replace Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee? 

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

No, Harris will not automatically replace Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee. 

WHAT WE FOUND

Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t guaranteed to replace Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee now that he’s dropped out of the race. That’s because party rules allow the Democratic Party to pick another candidate. 

The presidential nominee is decided by delegates at the Democratic National Convention. Delegates are assigned to vote for a candidate based on the results of their state’s primary election.

Democratic Party rules say, “Delegates elected to the national convention, pledged to a presidential candidate, shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.”

Some states also have their own laws about what delegates can and cannot do. But the Supreme Court has ruled that at party conventions, party rules take precedence over state laws. In other words, states can’t tell political parties how to pick their nominee. 

The phrase “in all good conscience” in the Democratic Party rules leaves room for delegates to vote for someone else if their candidate is no longer an option, Elaine Kamarck, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, explained. 

And, if that candidate drops out of the race, there’s no other rule that says delegates would automatically be bound to choosing a specific person to replace them. That’s why Harris will not automatically become the Democratic presidential nominee. 

So what happens instead? 

All of the nearly 4,000 Biden delegates are allowed to cast their votes for anyone they want. This process is known as a brokered convention and it’s how nominees were decided until presidential primaries became the norm.

If no candidate has a majority after the first round of voting, party elders called “superdelegates” are allowed to participate in the next round. 

The delegates continue to vote until someone wins a majority and becomes the next presidential nominee.