Here’s how Democrats could replace Biden

Panicked Democrats might be ready to shove President Joe Biden to the side. But they need him to take the first step.

Within minutes of Biden’s poor debate performance concluding on CNN, the network’s commentators were openly discussing the possibility of replacing Biden on the ticket.

For apoplectic Democrats, the good news is that there is a way to do it before November.

While the party technically does have a system for nominating a fresh candidate at the convention in the event of a candidate declining a nomination, the entire process is a creaky one that hasn’t been considered in decades.

There’s no mechanism by which other party leaders can throw Biden off the ticket, according to the Democratic National Committee’s rules. Instead, if anyone in the party wants to replace him, it is through throwing it to an open nominating process on the convention floor.

Biden won around 95 percent of the nearly 4,000 delegates in this year’s primaries — who are pledged, but not committed, to backing Biden.

That means there’s no legal requirement that they vote for Biden in the roll call. But Biden’s campaign has had a role in choosing these delegates at state conventions across the country — and at least half of them would have to spurn him in order to deny him the nomination.

But if Biden agreed to decline his party’s nomination, it would kick off an open and unpredictable process of picking his replacement.

Other names — from Vice President Kamala Harris, to Govs. Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer and JB Pritzker, to numerous others — could be placed in nomination. The candidates, who could span the Democratic Party’s geographic, ideological and generational wings, would be working to sway the thousands of Democratic delegates to support them on the first ballot.

The pledged delegates aren’t the only ones who have a say. The Democratic Party has stripped “superdelegates” — elected officials and party leaders who can vote for anyone they please — of most of their power since the contentious 2016 primary. These superdelegates would be free to vote if no candidate won a majority of delegates on the first ballot. An open, contested convention would give more than 700 party insiders a major role in picking the new nominee.

Biden’s wishes could also become hugely important. He could try to influence the process by endorsing Harris, his vice president. And she would have an argument in her favor since she is already on the ticket.

But if such a scenario occurred, Biden and Harris would have to persuade them. Biden’s delegates don’t automatically go to her but a Biden endorsement could be enough. But there’s no guarantee, and Harris’ poor poll numbers might give some Democrats pause.

Even if Harris coasted to the nomination, she would need a vice presidential candidate of her own, and there would still be a fight among the party’s future stars to be her running mate.

Any of Democrats’ rising stars would be a possibility, though Newsom would be particularly unlikely. Unless either changed their residency, a Harris-Newsom ticket would be ineligible for California’s 54 electoral votes — and there’s no realistic path to a Democratic victory without them.

From the moment he declared he would seek a second term, Biden and his team have insisted he is running for reelection. And Biden won every primary and caucus — capturing more than 85 percent of the aggregate vote — with the exception of far-flung American Samoa.

But the immense pressure of a poor debate performance — and further sags in polling numbers — could change all that.

If Biden is going to drop out, the clock is ticking. Even though the Democratic convention isn’t until mid-August, the DNC is moving up its nomination process.

Ohio law requires the party’s candidates to be determined by Aug. 7, and the DNC has decided to upend the traditional convention roll call to ensure their candidate is on the ballot there.

That deadline is only 40 days away.