Joe Biden withdraws candidacy - what happens now?

DW German Joe Biden withdraws candidacy - what happens now? Carla Bleiker • 1 hour • 4 minutes reading time US President Joe Biden will not run in the election on November 5th. How will the Democrats now nominate their candidate? What pitfalls and uncertainties are there? Joe Biden did not perform well in the TV debate at the end of June - criticism of his age and ability to hold office grew For weeks he rejected criticism of his age and declared that despite his 81 years he was fit and not too old for a possible second term in the White House. But now US President Joe Biden announced that he would not actually run again for the Democrats. The voices calling for him to withdraw had become louder and louder. The trigger was his poor performance in the first TV debate on June 27th between him and the Republican candidate Donald Trump. The president has now said that he does not want to seek a second term. This means that the Democrats need a new presidential candidate - three and a half months before the election on November 5th. What usually happens at the Democratic Party convention? In the first half of the year, US voters in many states took part in primaries. This is the process by which the Democratic and Republican parties choose the person who will represent them in the presidential election. The person who receives the most votes in a state wins the votes of the state's delegates. How many delegates represent each state depends on the population. Winning in California, with its almost 40 million inhabitants, gives the Democratic candidates 424 delegate votes, as the AP news agency's delegate tracker shows. Vermont, where fewer than 700,000 people live, contributes 16 delegates. In the primaries, here in Chicago in March, the parties decide who is likely to be their candidate for the US presidential election in November At the Democratic National Convention in August, the Democratic delegates come together and vote on the presidential candidate. In the primaries, Biden won the vast majority of delegates: almost 3,900. Only about 40 delegates are either unbound or went to primary candidates who had no chance of winning. According to party regulations, these 3,900 delegates would normally be obliged to vote for Biden. With his withdrawal, these delegates are no longer bound to him. They are free to decide for themselves who they vote for in the so-called "Open Convention". What happens at the "Open Convention"? Before the convention in Chicago from August 19 to 22, the party leadership will try to find a candidate as quickly as possible who they believe can unite the party. This person must be able to appeal to voters across the broad ideological spectrum of the Democratic Party and persuade them to vote in November. Only if the candidate can motivate enough Americans to do so will the party have a chance of defeating Donald Trump. The person selected by the party leadership and his or her candidate for vice president will vie for the votes of the delegates in Chicago - but so can anyone else. That is exactly what an "open convention" is. If someone believes they are better suited to the presidency than the party leadership candidate, that person can also try to win as many delegates as possible. The only requirement: Anyone who wants to run must collect the signatures of 600 delegates. At the nominating convention, the Democrats officially choose their candidate for the presidential election - in 2016 it was Hillary Clinton Kamala Harris is one of the likely options for the new party candidacy. But she will not automatically take over just because she is Biden's vice president. If a president is unable to hold office during his term, the vice president takes over. But the rule does not apply when it comes to becoming a candidate if the president has decided not to run for re-election. Back to the convention: According to the AP tracker, there are 3,939 delegates who were chosen in the primaries. They all vote in the first round. If a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes, it is clear who will compete against the Republican candidate on November 5th. What is a "brokered convention"? If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round, the convention becomes a so-called brokered convention. The word "broker" can be translated as mediate or negotiate. Now the Democratic leadership, well-known party figures and the potential candidates will speak to the delegates