What happens next if Biden drops out of the presidential race

President

Joe
Biden
is
under
siege
from
within
his
own
party,
as

more
Democrats
—

in
private
and

in
public
—
urge
him
to
end
his
reelection
bid
in
the
wake
of
his
damaging
debate
against

Donald
Trump.

Biden’s
efforts
to
shore
up
confidence
in
his
candidacy
have
failed
to
close
the
growing
rift
between
him
and
his
party.
And
while
he
has
so
far
roundly
rejected
the
calls
to
step
aside,
Biden
said
Tuesday
that
should
a
“medical
condition”
emerge,
it
could
force
him
to
rethink
his
decision
to
stay
in
the
race.

On
Wednesday,
Biden,
81,

tested
positive
for
Covid-19.
His
doctors
say
his

symptoms
are
mild.

Realistically,
the
only
way
to
replace
Biden
at
the
top
of
the
Democratic
ticket
at
this
stage
in
the
campaign
cycle
is
if
he
agrees
to
drop
out
voluntarily,
or
if
he
dies
or
suffers
a
“disability.”

After
breezing
through
the
primary
virtually
unopposed,

Biden
has
won
almost
all
of
his
party’s
4,000-plus
delegates,
who
are
selected
in
large
part
because
of
their
loyalty
and
support
for
their
chosen
candidate.
Those
delegates
are
set
to

vote
for
their
presidential
nominee
in
a
virtual
roll
call
in
early
August,
before
the
Democratic
National
Convention.

If
Biden
ends
his
campaign
before
voting
begins,
the
pledged
delegates
could
cast
their
ballots
for
a
new
candidate.
According
to

the
DNC
rules,
If
no
candidate
won
a
majority
on
that
first
ballot,
then
the
more
than

700
“superdelegates”
could
join
in
subsequent
votes.

The
voting
would
then
continue
until
one
candidate
won
a
simple
majority
of
delegates.

If
Biden
were
to
die,
resign
or
suffer
a
“disability”
after
the
convention
adjourned
on
Aug.
22,
then
the
Democratic
National
Committee
chair
—
currently
Jaime
Harrison
—
would
confer
with
top
congressional
Democrats
and
the
Democratic
Governors
Association
about
a
replacement,
per
the
party
rules.

Harrison
would
then
report
to
the
committee,
which
“is
authorized
to
fill
the
vacancy.”

The
mounting
pressure
on
Biden
to
drop
out
has
put
a
spotlight
on
Vice
President

Kamala
Harris,
who
many

pundits
and
experts
view
as
the
likeliest
choice
to
replace
him.

“The
vice
president
is
the
logical
choice,
obviously,”
said Meena
Bose,
director
of
the
Peter
S.
Kalikow
Center
for
the
Study
of
the
American
Presidency
at
Hofstra
University,
in
an
interview.

Bose
noted
that
Harris,
59,
has
already
been
vetted,
when
she
joined
Biden’s
campaign
in
2020.
What’s
more,
the
fundraising
war
chest
that
the
Biden
campaign
has
amassed
in
the
current
election
cycle
would
transfer
to
her
if
she
took
over
the
ticket.

Harris,
like
Biden,
has
struggled
with
low
approval
ratings
throughout
the
last
four
years.
And
Republicans
are
already
deploying
attacks
against
her,
accusing
her
of
failing
in
her
job
as
the
administration’s
“border
czar”
—
even
though
she

was
not
given
that
task.

Other
high-profile
Democrats,
such
as
California
Gov.
Gavin
Newsom
or
Michigan
Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer,
have
been
floated
as
potentially
stronger
alternatives
to
Harris
if
Biden
were
no
longer
in
the
race.
But
almost
all
of
those
figures
have
already
said
they

would
not
run
for

president
in
2024.

There
is
also
a
risk
that
leap-frogging
the
vice
president
in
favor
of
another
candidate
could
spark
a
bitterly
contested
party
convention,
something
Democrats
surely
want
to
avoid
—
especially
after
the
Republican
convention’s
display
of
near-total
unity
behind
Trump
this
week.

“Time
is
really
tight
and
it’s
difficult
to
mount
a
campaign
for
anyone
other
than
the
vice
president,”
Bose
said.

With
Harris,
it’s
“not
like
you’re
just
anointing
some
stranger,”
said
Christina
Bellantoni,
the
director
of USC
Annenberg’s
Media
Center
and
a
former
longtime
journalist
in
Washington.

“You
could
make
the
argument
that
she
could
carry
on
the
legacy,
that
she
is
the
obvious
next
choice,
all
of
those
things,”
she
said.