Biden Will Step Aside in the 2024 Race. What Happens Next?

A "Kamala 2024" sign is placed outside the US Naval Observatory, home of Vice President Kamala Harris, on July 21, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)
A "Kamala 2024" sign is placed outside the US Naval Observatory, home of Vice President Kamala Harris, on July 21, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)
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Biden Will Step Aside in the 2024 Race. What Happens Next?

A "Kamala 2024" sign is placed outside the US Naval Observatory, home of Vice President Kamala Harris, on July 21, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)
A "Kamala 2024" sign is placed outside the US Naval Observatory, home of Vice President Kamala Harris, on July 21, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images via AFP)

President Joe Biden said on Sunday he would withdraw from the 2024 presidential election race, putting the United States into uncharted territory.

Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee.

Before Biden's decision was made, Reuters spoke to Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think-tank, a Democratic National Committee member and author of the book "Primary Politics" about the presidential nominating process, who explained how the process could work. Reuters also spoke to legal experts and Democratic Party officials.

Q: WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

A: Biden has spent the last several months accruing nearly 4,000 Democratic delegates by winning primary elections in US states and territories.

Those delegates would normally vote for him to be the party's official presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention, which is to take place Aug. 19-22, but the rules do not bind or force them to do so. Delegates can vote with their conscience, which means they could throw their vote to someone else.

By stepping aside, Biden is effectively "releasing" his delegates, potentially sparking a competition among other Democratic candidates to become the nominee.

Within hours of Biden's announcement, Harris' allies were working the phones - calling delegates and party chairs to get their backing, sources told Reuters.

Q: WHO COULD REPLACE BIDEN?

A: Several candidates could step into the fray.

Harris is at the top of the list, but she has had her own problems after a rocky start as vice president and poor polling numbers. The US Constitution dictates that the vice president becomes president if the president dies or becomes incapacitated, but it does not weigh in on an inter-party process for choosing a nominee.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker have all been floated as possible replacements. Up until now they have been Biden supporters working to help get him elected, and Whitmer has said she supports Harris.

Q: HOW WILL A NOMINEE BE CHOSEN?

A: There could be a free-for-all of sorts between the Democratic heavyweights vying for the job.

According to Ballotpedia, there are expected to be some 4,672 delegates in 2024, including 3,933 pledged delegates and 739 so-called superdelegates - senior party members.

In order to secure the nomination, a candidate would need to get a majority - that is, more votes than all the others combined.

That's what Harris' allies are trying to do right now - secure the pledged support of 1,969 delegates, and shut down any competition.

If no one achieves that, then there would be a "brokered convention" where the delegates act as free agents and negotiate with the party leadership. Rules would be established and there would be roll-call votes for names placed into nomination.

It could take several rounds of voting for someone to get a majority and become the nominee. The last brokered convention when Democrats failed to nominate a candidate on the first ballot was in 1952.

WHAT HAPPENS TO BIDEN'S CAMPAIGN CASH?

The Biden-Harris campaign had $91 million in the bank at the end of May, but experts on campaign finance law disagree on how readily the money could change hands.

Because Harris is also on the campaign filing documents, many experts believe the money could be transferred over to her if she is on the ticket. There is some debate about whether Biden would need to be officially nominated first as the party's candidate before a transfer could be made.



‘We Need Everything’: Gazans Ponder Mammoth Task of Rebuilding

 An aerial photograph taken by a drone shows Palestinians walking through the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
An aerial photograph taken by a drone shows Palestinians walking through the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
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‘We Need Everything’: Gazans Ponder Mammoth Task of Rebuilding

 An aerial photograph taken by a drone shows Palestinians walking through the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
An aerial photograph taken by a drone shows Palestinians walking through the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive, in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)

As bombs rained down and entire neighborhoods around her were pulverized, Shayma Abualatta found the only way to cope with the trauma of Gaza's 15-month-long war was to make sure she did all she could to get an education.

Now the 21-year-old, who is studying computer science and computer engineering, wants to use what she learned to help rebuild a land where the most basic lifelines have been severed and where everyone needs everything.

"I want to stay in my country, to stay where I am, to stay with my relatives and the people I love," she said.

As a fragile ceasefire takes hold in Gaza, Palestinians are beginning to think cautiously about rebuilding - a Herculean task when the entire 2.3 million population is homeless with many displaced multiple times.

During the conflict, Abualatta said the only way she could exercise some control over her life was to keep studying. But for the first three months of the war, she could not even bring herself to open her laptop. The first time she did, she cried.

"I felt like it was such a blessing to have the opportunity to achieve something," she said in a phone interview from central Gaza, where she had fled from air strikes in the north.

The Israeli military has laid to waste to much of Gaza in its campaign to eliminate Hamas in retaliation for the group's Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Gaza health authorities say at least 47,000 people have been killed in the conflict, with the rubble likely holding the remains of thousands more.

As well as freeing 33 of the 98 Israeli and foreign hostages still held by Hamas, the ceasefire deal requires Israel to allow 600 truckloads of aid into Gaza every day for six weeks.

"We need the border crossings to open without restrictions," Abualatta said. "We need everything."

Electricity is one of her main concerns. Every day she walks from the tent where she now lives to a local charging point where she can get online. With peace, she hopes more solar panels can be brought into the territory.

"We just need to clear the rubble and set up tents over them," she said. "We will start off the with tents and develop them slowly."

That might prove easier said than done.

SCALE OF CRISIS ‘UNIMAGINABLE’

The scale of the humanitarian crisis is "almost unimaginable", Alexandra Saieh of charity Save the Children, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, "multiple pressing crises are unfolding, and they are deeply interconnected".

Save the Children said it would prioritize sending food, water and medicine for children.

"The race is on to save children facing hunger and disease as the shadow of famine looms," Saieh said.

The United Nations says removing 42 million tons of rubble in Gaza could take more than a decade and cost $1.2 billion.

Fuel to power water desalination plants is also essential, said Vincent Stehli, head of operations at aid group Action Against Hunger. But repairing water networks would require items such as metal pipes that Israel currently bans entering Gaza.

Stehli said aid groups "cannot wait 10 or 15 years," until the rubble is cleared. "Reconstruction has to happen. Recovery has to happen to some of the key installations," he said.

Abualatta agrees. When her Gaza-based university suspended online classes, she sought out University of the People (UoPeople), a tuition-free, completely online university, and began taking computer science courses.

She expects to graduate next year.

UoPeople has raised $300,000 to pay for scholarships for students in Gaza, Shai Reshef, the university's president, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"If we get more money, we will get even more of them, as many as we as we have money for," he said.

But he said students could not wait till their schools and universities were rebuilt to get an education.

"What do you do with the kids? With the students? Teach them online," Reshef said.