Some folks are jeering at this assertion by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer:
“When I spoke with [Vice President Kamala Harris] Sunday, she said she wanted the opportunity to win the nomination on her own, and to do so from the grassroots up, not top down,” Schumer said. “Now that the process has played out from the grassroots, bottom up, we are here today to throw our support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.”
You’re forgiven for instinctively scoffing, “what process? What grassroots? Everyone else in the party lined up behind Harris within about twenty minutes.”
But it is obvious that out of any Democrat, Harris has the most legitimate claim to the Democratic 2024 nomination, in a situation like this where Biden has withdrawn between the end of the primaries but before the nominating convention.
First, everyone knew Joe Biden’s age and the general sense of the state of health when the 2024 Democratic primary began. Yes, the Biden team tried to keep the public in the dark about just how quickly he was fading, but… we could see him. People may not have known just how doddering Biden was, but no one who had paid any attention to the president in his public appearances in recent months should have expected a quick-witted, sharp, steel-trap memory guy to show up that night.
Second, everyone knew that Kamala Harris was vice president, and that if Biden were suddenly unable to perform his duties – whether from a heart attack, stroke, or falling anvil – she would take over. A vote for Biden in the 2024 Democratic primary was a vote to keep Harris a heartbeat away from the presidency.
If Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer or anyone else wanted to run for president in 2024, they had the opportunity. They chose not to, either because they didn’t like their odds of beating Biden in a primary challenge, or because they weren’t sure they could reunite the party after beating Biden.
About 16.3 million people voted in Democratic primaries in 2024; 14.1 million, or 87 percent, were for Biden. These votes were de facto votes to keep Harris in her position as the substitute if Biden were unable to perform his duties.
Thirdly, after news of Biden’s withdrawal from the race broke on Sunday, any one of those other options could have announced a challenge to Harris – Newsom, Whitmer, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. (Then again, Buttigieg might not have been able to make it to a challenge announcement because the nation’s airports were still snarled with delayed flights.)
None of those figures did so. We can argue about whether the grassroots really had a legitimate opportunity to weigh in, but without a serious alternative who’s willing to run — sorry, Marianne Williamson — the question is moot. (Williamson won 2.9 percent of the votes in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary. The primary electorate has already considered her and chosen otherwise.) Without anyone who’s willing to challenge Harris, the process has played out. It was a very brief process!