With President Joe Biden ending his reelection bid, delegates to next month's Democratic National Committee will now play a more important role in selecting the next nominee for the White House.
Steve Kerrigan chairs the Massachusetts Democratic Party, which is scheduled to meet Monday night to discuss the situation. Kerrigan said things are suddenly much different for delegates who were previously pledged to Biden.
Steve Kerrigan, Massachusetts Democratic Party: Now that he is not a candidate, those delegates are released and can vote for whomever they'd like. And, as has always been the case, the one with the most delegates in the end gets the nomination — if you get over 50%.
I would suspect that this campaign is not nearly over, and that others may poke their head up and offer themselves in service to the party and to the country. And I think that's fantastic.
Adam Frenier, NEPM: Steve, I understand some other state committees have fully pledged their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. Is it possible the same may take place in Massachusetts?
We have a set of rules that require a certain number of hours of notice to call a meeting to do such a thing. We haven't done it yet, mostly because we wanted to check in with all of our delegates first. And then it's really up to the state committee if we want to call a special meeting, which I suspect someone will raise that concern ... and then we could endorse.
But we haven't yet, only because other states do it through an executive committee or empower the chair and a few others to make such a decision. We empower our members who are elected by their peers and their constituents and their communities to make those decisions.
For the delegates, obviously, this has been quite a last 24 or so hours. They thought that they would be going to Chicago to endorse the president. Now that's changed. What have you been hearing from them as you've been speaking with them?
I've communicated with, you know, close to 100 of our delegates, either through phone calls or texts or emails. I'm yet to encounter one who is not supporting the vice president. I haven't talked to all of them, for sure. People are expressing excitement and an enthusiasm. Some, of course, are echoing the sadness that I conveyed about our friend and fantastic President Joe Biden. But they understand he's given marching orders too, and that is to get to work to make sure that we defeat Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in November.
And our delegates are excited to do just that. They view this as an opportunity to reinvigorate the campaign and go out there and show the American people what the Democratic Party and our candidates have to offer, versus what Donald Trump and J.D. Vance have to offer. And our delegates are very excited for that conversation.
And finally, Steve, prior to the president exiting the race, there had been some divisions in the Democratic Party — those who wanted him to stay, others who wanted him to exit the race. From this point going forward, can this be a moment where party unity can be created in order to go ahead and try to take on Donald Trump in November?
I think we are all unified around that. You know, we're the Democratic Party. We are a very big tent, so we have a lot of opinions and a lot of thoughts. We're somewhat like a large family who gets into a station wagon, and everybody has their own idea about how we're going to get to the destination we're going to. And oftentimes that leads to arguments and fights. But in the end, we all know where we're headed and what the task is at hand. And that's what Democrats are going to do this fall.
The stakes of this election remain, as they were before, incredibly high because of what a second term of Donald Trump means to America and the world. And Kamala Harris — and anybody else who chooses to put their name in for nomination — understand that, as do our delegates and Democrats. And, I would venture a guess, independents and Republicans all across the country understand that.
And so, we're going to take every opportunity to let folks talk it out, have those conversations, talk with each other and to their families and to their friends. But in the end, I have all the confidence in the world that we will be working in unison to help defeat Donald Trump on November 5.
