What happens next for the Democratic Party to select a nominee to replace President Joe Biden for 2024? It's all spelled out in political party rules. But whether that rulebook will change at next month's Democratic National Convention remains to be seen.
Dozens of delegates representing Hawaii are heading to Chicago next month for the DNC. It was set to nominate Joe Biden for president, until Sunday.
"I’ve got to work with my DNC delegates,” said Derek Turbin, chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, “and make sure we're united and unified behind a strong Democratic candidate.”
According to party rules, right now that's Kamala Harris, with committed votes signed sealed and as good as delivered from state-by-state caucuses and primaries earlier this year that pledged to a Biden-Harris ticket.
"If he [Biden] doesn't release us,” said Michael Golojuch, a Hawaii delegate to the DNC, “there are not enough delegates in the automatics and the Uncommitted to change the outcome.”
That goes for Hawaii and across the nation, where Biden-Harris have pledges from 83 percent of the convention's nearly 4,700 delegates from all states and territories. Those were binding promises made months ago.
Of Hawaii's 31 party delegates in Chicago, 15 are heading there “pledged” to Biden-Harris, and only 7 are “uncommitted.” Hawaii's remaining 9 “automatic” delegates -- known colloquially as superdelegates like the governor and members of Congress – can vote however they wish but most have already endorsed Harris.
The majority of delegates, from Hawaii and nationwide, who are heading to the convention pledged and committed to the Biden-Harris ticket can't change their vote without a specific technical move by Joe Biden.
"We have yet to get word from the campaign if he's releasing us, and by that, that means that we're no longer pledged to him or his candidate, who is now Vice President Harris,” Golojuch said. “Is he going to hold us, bind us to him, which he can? It's his call. We're pledged to him."
National Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison explained Sunday: “The work that we must do now, while unprecedented, is clear. In the coming days, the party will undertake a transparent and orderly process. governed by established rules and procedures of the party."
“Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people,” Harrison said.
If there's a change to the rules about pledges, it all has to be formalized at the convention, and that's not until later in August.
"It's my understanding that if they went to an open convention, it would be something that we voted on the first night we got there,” Golojuch said. “We're still very much in the wait-and-see kind of game plan right now, with hearing what the campaign wants to do, hearing what we’re required of the DNC bylaws, because these are interesting times."
“I don't think that an open convention is a good idea,” Turbin said. “We have got to come together, support the nominee and make sure we're unified and together supporting that nominee, through the convention and through the presidential race."