President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race just a month before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago bears striking similarities to the earlier convention in Illinois.
Biden’s decision not to seek his party’s nomination paves the way for another candidate to win the Democratic nomination, with Vice President Kamala Harris, who received the president’s endorsement on Sunday, appearing to be the front-runner.
The election will already be historic because it is likely that no Democratic candidate will appear on the primary ballot, the first time this will happen since many states began holding primaries in the 1970s, but Biden’s belated decision bears a striking resemblance to what happened in 1968.
That year, with the nation deeply divided over America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson announced in late March that he would not seek reelection, resulting in the delegates he had won in state primaries being lost to Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
President Joe Biden will not seek reelection after weeks of doubts and calls from Democrats for him to step down.
Humphrey did not enter the race until late April, and his name did not appear on the ballot in the 13 states that held primaries. According to Steve Kornacki of NBC News, Instead, he collected delegates at state conventions, used the so-called “favorite candidate” and won delegates from successful state-based campaigns.
With Biden out of the running, Harris could become the first presidential candidate from either the Democratic or Republican party since the 1968 election to appear on the ballot without running in that year’s primary.
As for the Democratic National Convention that year? It was held in Chicago, the site of this year’s convention.
Humphrey eventually won the first-ballot nomination, defeating Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern, but lost the 1968 general election to Richard Nixon.
Prior to 1968, the last time a sitting president had dropped out of a race so late was in 1952, when President Harry Truman chose not to run for reelection. It was also the last time a nominee was not decided on the first ballot at a party convention; Adlai Stevenson was nominated on the third ballot at the convention.
Stevenson lost that election to Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Whether history will repeat itself in Chicago remains to be seen, both in terms of potential upheaval and a contested nomination process, but Harris has already garnered support from big donors and top brass within the Democratic Party, including the president himself.
Biden’s delegates will be announced by the president before the convention and will be free to vote for any candidate. If Harris or any other candidate does not receive a majority of delegates in the first round of voting, a second round of voting will take place in which Democratic superdelegates will also vote until a candidate is chosen.
