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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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Are people thinking that Democrats won't allow the convention to nominate someone other than Biden? Or that delegates will vote for Biden?

Both.

Due to various party rules and past reforms, the Democratic Party's delegates elected during the primary season are considered Pledged Delegates. Delegate rules vary by state to state, but generally pledged delegates have to vote for whoever won them in the primaries, at least in the first vote.

The issue on a procedural level is that the convention is won by the first candidate to reach a majority of the delegates in the round of voting. Due to functionally running unopposed, Joe Biden won 3,896 of the 3,903 pledged delegates.

In order for the convention to even get to a second round of voting, nearly half of all the Biden-faction delegates would have to be (a) able, and (b) choose to be faithless electors, when doing so would open them up to great personal and professional political risk to their prospects of Democratic Party members in the party hierarchy, particularly if the mass-defection failed to be a majority.