Understanding the ‘uncharted territory’ of Biden’s decision to drop out of the race

SALT LAKE CITY — The news of President Joe Biden’s resignation from the 2024 presidential race contributes to what some are calling “uncharted territory.” 

KSL at Night hosts Adam Gardiner and Leah Murray explained what they think the future of the Democratic presidential ticket could be, along with addressing the call some Utah conservatives are making for President Biden to also resign from office. 

‘Uncharted territory:’ Looking towards the Democratic National Convention

Prior to Sunday’s announcement, Biden had the pledged support of almost 4,000 delegates. He won every blue state’s primary caucus, according to AP News. 

Axios also reports that now, since Biden has left the race, “delegates are free to support whomever they choose.”

The endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris by President Biden will likely lend her the support of those delegates. 

Co-host Leah Murray says this freeing of the delegates could add up to “the most exciting election” she will see in her lifetime. 

We’ve never seen such a thing since the precedent was set for primary elections to be “binding,” back in 1972, Murray said. 

“Primaries became binding for parties… Delegates were kind of obliged… whatever the voters voted in the primary, the delegates would have to pay attention.”

The only major comparison this situation merits is when Lyndon B. Johnson left the race in the spring of 1968 — but that was in the spring, Murray said. 

“We are months later than the LBJ exit that no one saw coming back in 1968,” according to Murray. 

A potential problem in this race: there are laws in place in almost 40 states, according to Gardiner, that hinder a replacement from entering the ballot after the primary races. 

Sen. Dan McCay, R- Salt Lake County, says there are measures in place for the new candidate to be on the ballot in Utah, however. 

Correction:

No need to panic. 20A-9-701 anticipates the need to identify a presidential nominee that didn’t file to be on the primary ballot.

I was thinking about the filing deadline for primaries but parties aren’t bound by who filed for the primary in 2023.

My bad. https://t.co/hkn8LQ8XcP pic.twitter.com/TIMbAw4I7a

— Daniel McCay (@danmccay) July 21, 2024

Kamala Harris as frontrunner

Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris will most likely put her as the frontrunner in the weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention, Gardiner said. 

“We’re either going to see if people are going to now [challenge] her… Or whether they are going to unite behind one candidate, give their vote to her.” 

There will be a lot of “closed-door conversations” about Kamala’s campaign, Murray said.

“Delegates and party leaders are going to be thinking about, you know, can she win? Do we do more damage to the party if we pick someone else?”

Responding to conservative calls for Biden to resign

A few conservative Utah leaders, namely Rep. Burgess Owens and Sen. Mike Lee have called for Biden’s full presidential resignation, not just from the race.

Gardiner said it’s a relatively bad idea for people to want Biden to resign — he says it will do more political damage to the Republican party than they think. 

If Biden resigns, “that means Kamala Harris is going to get to to be president for a few months before the election,” Gardiner said. “He’s not going to resign. I don’t think it’s smart to make a correlation between the two. I think politically that does more damage to Republicans than it does to Democrats.”

“We could ask Joe Biden to step down, then Kamala Harris becomes president and then she’s running as an incumbent. That’d be really interesting in another host of ways. I’m not sure I see the urgency… In what I’m hearing from Republicans,” Murray said. 

Murray says it’s likely Biden will be able to manage the remainder of his presidency without the extra burden of campaigning.

“If we say Biden is old and tired — that is the argument — then governing for the last few months of his term is not as onerous a prospect as campaigning would be for the next four months,” she said. 

Governing isn’t the same thing as campaigning, she continued. Running for office is a 24/7 gig while governing can be likened to a nine-to-five job. “Your schedule is much more your own,” she said. 

The race against Trump 

Biden’s departure from the race will add competition to the race, Gardiner said. 

 “I think it’s going to be more competitive with Biden out of the pictures… Biden wasn’t competitive at all. He couldn’t make coherent arguments, or cogent arguments as to why he was a better candidate… Without him, a new up to speed younger candidate is going to be able to push back against [former] President Trump.”