The Spire

Ashwin Prabaharan ’26

Staff Writer

On July 21st of this year, Vice President Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for the Democratic party’s nomination for president. This followed presumptive nominee President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race amid widespread calls from Democrats across the board, including key party allies, to step aside and let the party put up a new ticket for the general election. The nail in the metaphorical coffin appeared to have come from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who continues to hold considerable influence among the party’s rank and file. After announcing his withdrawal from the race, President Biden subsequently endorsed his Vice President, effectively guaranteeing her his more than 3,000 delegates to the party’s national convention in August. Within several days, state delegations from across the nation pledged their numbers to Kamala Harris, and the Vice President had the nomination sewn up on August 6th after a virtual roll call of the convention’s delegates. On August 23rd, Kamala Harris became the official Democratic nominee for President for the 2024 election, having selected Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. The ticket has been leading current opinion polling in many battleground states and now has the edge in predictions for November.

Leaving aside questions of competence, policy preferences, and political aptitude concerning the Vice President amid her ascension to her party’s ticket, a bright light must be shone on the process by which she achieved her nomination. President Biden, for all his faults and political vulnerabilities, won every state primary held by Democrats, and that translates to nearly 4,000 state delegates and more than 14 million votes. He was interrogated by political pundits, issue groups, and most importantly, the voters. America, specifically Democratic voters, had the opportunity to judge for themselves the potency of a second Biden administration, and in their wisdom, they exercised their democratic choices as party members and cast their ballots in their respective primaries for the president. In the modern Wilsonian presidential selection system that emphasizes the roles of amateur party members over elites, the popular vote-based primaries decide the delegate allotment of a state to the party’s convention, rather than state leaders summarily making the decisions as done thoroughly before the second half of the 20th century. This system, above all else, cemented the voters as primary decision-makers for the nominee selection process. In every election since 1968, primaries have chosen the party’s nominee, and through the process, the voice of the electorate spoke bravely and loudly. Though the role of elites and party leaders cannot be discounted, the voters still decide, and their ballots selecting delegates to the convention still matter the most. President Biden went through the primary process, and the voters, convinced by his political prowess, selected him as their party’s standard-bearer. 

Vice President Kamala Harris did not submit herself to the grueling scrutiny that comes as a result of the primaries, and as such was shielded from answering challenging, difficult questions that would have forced her to contend with the most pressing issues of the day as understood by the party’s membership. By summarily taking the helm of the party and ascending to nominee status without receiving her nomination from the voters themselves, Vice President Harris’ nomination is tantamount to defrauding her party’s rank and file. President Biden cannot be faulted for endorsing his own vice president, but to naturally assume that equates to the transferring of his hard-earned delegates to Vice President Harris is simply irresponsible and frankly a slap in the face to the 14 million Americans who voted in their state primaries. After the Vice President announced her candidacy, President Biden should have called for an open, competitive nomination process that welcomed any and all candidates to fight for the nod and effectively present their candidacy to the party’s voters. Opening the selection process during the convention, as a nod to the spirit of the primaries, would have strengthened the democratic bona fides of the party’s nominee and engendered a greater commitment to that competitive, open spirit of selection.

With the Democratic party as an example this year, both major parties should take the Vice President’s ascension as a cautionary tale for future nomination cycles. Upholding the democratic spirit of the selection process and guaranteeing voters the opportunity to decide for themselves is a paramount obligation of both parties, one that could spell potential institutional disorder for the country if not properly obliged.

Featured image courtesy of Washington Post

Copy Edited by Charlotte Collins ’26