Galvin, Healey differ in messaging on Biden

BOSTON, Mass. (SHNS)–Secretary William Galvin and Gov. Maura Healey have a similar message, but with different points of emphasis: the length of the campaign trail that lays ahead is up to President Joseph Biden.

For Healey, her recent calls for Biden to reevaluate his candidacy and make a fresh personal decision have notably followed her prior outspoken support for the Delaware Democrat.

But Galvin said that he believed Biden has decided to stay in the race, and the state’s chief elections overseer reaffirmed his own personal commitment to supporting the president at the Democratic National Convention scheduled for Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.

“I think Biden’s going to be the candidate unless he decides otherwise, and he’s going to have to make that decision very, very soon. And I think he has, from his actions, he’s already made it,” Galvin told the News Service on Tuesday.

The Biden campaign has reached out regularly, said Galvin, who will serve as a delegate in August.  Since the June 27 televised debate — which raised questions about Biden’s age and competency — he has heard from them twice.

During the first call after the lackluster debate, Galvin said “it was pretty obvious to me … they were trying to check, take temperature of people. And I affirmed, I said I was elected as a Biden delegate, that was my intention.”

Galvin has served as a delegate at every Democratic National Convention since 1996, recently as a party leader and elected official (PLEO) superdelegate elected by the state committee.

And his support for the president is based on his pledge, the Brighton Democrat said.

“Remember, it goes back to the voters. The voters in the Democratic party voted for Biden. And that’s how the basis of his delegate selection was made. And when you take a pledge, you’re representing those people, you have to commit yourself to that and you have to keep that commitment,” Galvin said.

House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz — also a PLEO delegate to the convention — said Wednesday that “the debate performance was obviously not good,” but Biden’s “record of achievement” indicated he “can be a great president going forward, as well.”

“Joe Biden, the president, obviously won the nomination here in Massachusetts. Massachusetts voters, Democratic Massachusetts voters, voted for the president,” Michlewitz told reporters at the State House. “So my job is to, you know, adhere to the voters and go forward into Chicago with a vote for Joe Biden if, you know, if we get there in August.”

Biden won the Massachusetts presidential primary on March 5 with 81.6 percent of the vote (533,096 votes).  Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips garnered 4.5 percent of the 662,609 votes cast, according to official results , author Marianne Williamson received 3.1 percent, and 9.2 percent of ballots (60,236) were cast for “no preference.”

One reason that Galvin does not forecast an August surprise goes back to how vigorously he says the delegates were vetted.

For starters, delegates in most states, including Massachusetts, pledge support to a candidate. While not statutorily binding, the pledge is binding as far as party rules extend. The campaign provided additional oversight.

“I can tell you for a fact that the Biden campaign vetted very carefully. They had an approved list of candidates for these various caucuses. … So there aren’t a lot of votes on the table out there that are available to change, at this point,” Galvin said, adding that, beyond his promise to vote for Biden, he “had to be identified by them as their choice to be the delegate.”

It would not be easy to switch candidates at the convention, he said.

“A lot of this discussion has failed to acknowledge the fact that Biden has the votes to be the nominee. Will he lose a few, could he lose a few, could a few people either not vote for him or vote for somebody else? They can. But he’s not going to lose enough not to be the nominee,” Galvin said.

He drew a parallel to the 1976 Republican National Convention, when Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged President Gerald Ford for the GOP nomination. Ford was weighed down at the time by issues like inflation and his pardon of former President Richard Nixon.

“It was a real down-to-the-wire fight. And I think Ford actually only won the nomination by less than a couple hundred votes. But he won. And that’s the point. The idea that somehow you’re going to challenge an incumbent successfully, that’s not going to happen,” Galvin said.

The secretary viewed the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump as an overshadowing news event that has “sort of shifted the focus even further away.” And Biden continues to campaign, “showing over the last few days … clearly he has no desire to withdraw from the contest,” Galvin said.

Biden was campaigning in Nevada on Tuesday, where temperatures soared well over 100 degrees.

“So if he were thinking about it, I think he’d be in a nice cool room. Not in Nevada. So I think it’s probable that he’s not going to withdraw,” the secretary said.

In an interview with BET News set to air in full Wednesday night, Biden said he would reevaluate his decision to run “if I had some medical condition that emerged.”

“If somebody, if doctors came to me, and said, you got this problem and that problem. But I made a serious mistake in the whole debate. And look, when I originally ran, you may remember it, I said I was going to be a transitional candidate. And I thought that I’d be able to move from this, pass it on to someone else. But I didn’t anticipate things getting so, so, so divided. And quite frankly, I think the only thing age brings is a little bit of wisdom. And I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country. … But there’s more to do, and I’m reluctant to walk away from that,” the president told BET News.

Biden added, “And by the way. If you take a look at the presidents who have won, at this stage of the game, the last seven or eight presidents, five of them were losing at this time, by significant margins. The point is, we’re just getting down to game time now.”

If Biden dropped out of the race at this late juncture, Galvin said it would pose “a very challenging situation.”

Gov. Healey, previously an outspoken Biden surrogate who seemed to pull back her fullthroated support from the president after his recent debate performance, did not immediately mention Biden’s name on Tuesday when asked about whether she continued to feel he was the best candidate to go up against Donald Trump.

“Well, let me say a few things. I think the focus here needs to be on Donald Trump. And what Donald Trump has done, what he says he’s going to do. Because if there’s one thing we know about the former president, it’s that he does do what he says he’s going to do,” Healey replied, adding that Trump is pitching “a very dark vision” that she does not feel “most Americans are down with.”

Healey went on to praise Biden for his accomplishments over the last three years, including making infrastructure funding available to states. She noted the country’s strong economy under Biden’s tenure, and how the president has protected access to abortion.

But the governor also reiterated that the president needs to re-think whether he is still the best man for the job — without answering the question herself.

“I think that President Biden has done an incredible job. I’ve also said that I think President Biden should carefully evaluate whether he is the person who is best positioned to be the person to defeat Donald Trump,” Healey said at Sagamore Beach. “Defeating Donald Trump is my top priority because, again, I lived through the time as attorney general here in the state, and I know what it is he has plans to do.”

A survey of Massachusetts delegates within the past week by MassINC Polling Group, for CommonWealth Beacon, found 62 percent of Bay State delegates support Biden and 15 percent said the president should exit the race.

The Democratic National Committee made plans in recent months to hold a virtual roll call that would name Biden the party’s nominee before the convention actually begins in Chicago.

The virtual nominating process was on track to start as soon as July 22, the New York Times reported , until it was delayed on Wednesday until August.

Before the delay was announced, Healey on Tuesday told reporters she felt the DNC should not fast-track Biden’s nomination process.

“I understand there’s some conversation right now with the DNC about that,” Healey said Tuesday when asked whether she agreed with party leadership’s plan to accelerate the timeline. “I think they ought to take more time with it, and you know, interesting discussions are underway about that.”

The DNC told members Wednesday that virtual balloting would not take place until August, CBS News reported.

DNC Rules Committee co-chairs Leah Daughtry and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wrote, in a letter obtained by CBS News , that the pre-convention process was necessary to avoid ballot access challenges in certain states.

“So, on Friday, we will propose a framework for how best to proceed. Next week, we will follow up with a second meeting to consider and adopt specific rules for that purpose. No matter what may be reported, our goal is not to fast-track. … None of this will be rushed,” Daughtry and Walz wrote Wednesday.

Healey is an “automatic” delegate to the convention, according to a party spokesman.

Her sister, Tara Healey, serves as treasurer of the state Democratic Party and is also a delegate to the convention, falling in the same PLEO superdelegate category as Galvin and Michlewitz.

Tara Healey did not reply to an email from the News Service on Tuesday about whether she felt Biden remained the best candidate for Democrats to field against Trump, and whether she would be supporting the president at the convention in August.

Other PLEO delegates this year include Lt. Gov. Kimberley Driscoll, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Senate President Karen Spilka, Sen. Marc Pacheco, Sen. James Eldridge, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty.

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