March 14th over 275,000 Georgia Democrats voted to nominate President Joe Biden for a second term. As concerns mount over President Biden’s mental state in the aftermath of his disastrous debate performance, Georgia Democrats are left wondering what happens if Biden eventually steps down.
Only one other Democrat qualified to challenge Biden, Marianne Williamson of Washington, DC, who earned a meager 2.9% of votes in the primary. Biden secured all 108 pledged delegates. Should Biden withdraw from the campaign, those delegates along with the 16 unpledged “super-delegates” will vote for a replacement at the Democratic National Convention in August.
In the modern political landscape conventions are largely treated as a formality. Though there have been closely negotiated conventions as recently as 1968, the last time a major party hosted a brokered convention – one in which the nominee was a serious question – was in 1952. Because the voting age at that time was 21, the youngest voter to have experienced a brokered convention is 92 years old today.
Anonymous leaks from inside the Biden White House show the potential for a scandal brewing. He has been described as “often bright and focused but sometimes confused and forgetful.” If staffers and party leadership were concerned about Biden’s mental health but concealed this from voters before the primary, they effectively undermined the rights of Democratic voters to have a voice in choosing their nominee.
Representative James Clyburn, D-S.C., a Biden campaign co-chair, has circulated an option for a “mini-primary” to replace Biden but the White House and Democrat Governors continue to rally behind the 81 year old President.