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The Democratic Party’s eleventh-hour move to replace President Joe Biden on the 2024 ticket has energized voters and sparked a windfall of donations. But it’s also drawing criticism that the process has been less than democratic.

Having first staged a primary in which Mr. Biden faced no serious challenger, partly by design, Democratic leaders have now overwhelmingly lined up behind Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of next month’s convention in Chicago.

Why We Wrote This

U.S. President Joe Biden’s late-stage departure from the presidential race has led to complaints that the Democratic Party is imposing an undemocratic outcome on its voters. Will Republican criticism stick?

If, as seems almost certain, Ms. Harris becomes the Democratic nominee, she will have been selected without a single primary vote cast for her. 

Republicans are trying to turn this argument against Democrats, accusing them of bypassing proper democratic processes – a scarlet letter of hypocrisy, they add, from a party that labels former President Donald Trump a threat to democracy. 

But after last month’s disastrous debate, polls showed most Democratic voters concluded Mr. Biden was not up to the job of beating Mr. Trump in November. Democratic leaders who pushed for a new candidate were listening to their voters, not dictating to them, says Julia Azari, a politics professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee. 

The Democratic Party’s eleventh-hour move to replace President Joe Biden on the 2024 ticket has energized voters and sparked a windfall of donations. But it’s also drawing criticism that the process has been less than democratic. Having first staged a primary in which Mr. Biden faced no serious challenger, partly by design, Democratic leaders have now overwhelmingly lined up behind Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of next month’s convention in Chicago.

If, as seems almost certain, Ms. Harris becomes the Democratic nominee, she will have been selected without a single primary vote cast for her or her running mate (unless she taps Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who mounted a lonely challenge against Mr. Biden). 

Before withdrawing on Sunday, Mr. Biden had repeatedly cited the 14 million votes cast for him in state primaries as a reason to stay in the race. “The voters – and the voters alone – decide the nominee of the Democratic Party,” he wrote in a July 8 letter. “Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, not any selected group of individuals, no matter how well intentioned.”

Why We Wrote This

U.S. President Joe Biden’s late-stage departure from the presidential race has led to complaints that the Democratic Party is imposing an undemocratic outcome on its voters. Will Republican criticism stick?

Republicans accuse Democrats of hypocrisy – and some invoke 25th Amendment

Republicans are trying to turn this argument against Democrats, accusing them of bypassing proper democratic processes – a scarlet letter of hypocrisy, they add, from a party that labels former President Donald Trump a threat to democracy. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said Mr. Biden had “succumbed to a coup” from party elites and donors, a phrase echoed by other Trump allies, who lament wasted GOP campaign dollars spent attacking Mr. Biden. 

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas (center, with his son) attend Day 2 of the Republican National Convention, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 16, 2024. Mr. Cotton has called President Joe Biden's departure from the race a ‘coup’ by others in the Democratic Party.

“They have subverted democracy [using the legal system] and are coronating the VP without a single vote,” says Republican pollster Robert Blizzard in a text message, referring to accusations from Mr. Trump and his allies that Democrats leveraged the judicial system against the former president. Mr. Trump was convicted in May of criminal fraud by a jury in New York and faces multiple state and federal criminal indictments. “Democrats have lost a lot of credibility on the threat to democracy argument with voters.” 

Other Republicans are accusing Ms. Harris of being part of a coverup to mislead voters about Mr. Biden’s health. Texas Rep. Chip Roy filed a resolution last to month calling on Biden Cabinet members to use the 25th Amendment to remove the president. “What did Jill [Biden] know and when did she know it? What did the staff know? What did the vice president know?” he asked Politico

Bad debate shifted voter views of Biden

But while the recent shakeup on the Democratic ticket hasn’t followed the standard playbook, it’s in no way a “coup,” say analysts. In many ways, it speaks to how political parties operate – and how they respond to what constituents want. 

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