President Joe Biden announced he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris the top contender for the Democratic nomination. Biden’s decision not to seek re-election comes after the states held their presidential primaries and his campaign raised tens of millions of dollars.
President Joe Biden announced he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris the top contender for the Democratic nomination. Biden’s decision not to seek re-election comes after the states held their presidential primaries and his campaign raised tens of millions of dollars.
What happens now that the presidential primaries are over, but the winning candidate has decided not to seek office? And if Harris becomes the official nominee, can she use the money that the Biden-Harris campaign raised? Penn State News turned to two experts to discuss the historical precedent and what election and campaign finance laws say about the sudden change to the Democratic ticket.
Robert Speel, associate professor of political science at Penn State Behrend, studies American elections and voting behavior, state and urban politics, Congress and the presidency, public policy and ethnic and racial politics.
Speel: There were no primary elections prior to the 20th century, so I assume there were presidential candidates who let it be known they would welcome the nomination but dropped out some time before the convention during the 19th century. And even during most of the 20th century, presidential primaries were not that important, held by only 10–15 states, and served only to demonstrate potential candidate popularity to the national convention delegates, who were mostly still chosen by state party leaders at a state convention.
