The Scoop
The two Democrats who popularized the idea of a “blitz primary” to replace Joe Biden are circulating a detailed proposal offering possible answers to three key questions: Who chooses the candidates to replace Joe Biden? How can they campaign? And how will the Democratic nominee be chosen?
The probability of a new, wide open primary still seems remote: President Joe Biden is currently rebuffing pleas from party leaders and members alike that he end the candidacy. If he does step aside, many Democrats see the swift installation of Vice President Kamala Harris atop the ticket as the best alternative.
But others fear the impression a closed process will leave on voters: it would “set her and the Party up to fail,” the new six-page memo, from Georgetown law professor Rosa Brooks and venture capitalist Ted Dintersmith, warns. By contrast, they argue, an open process as “the best opportunity in years, if not decades, for the Democratic Party to reclaim its role as the party of the people — and to reinvent itself as the party of the future.”
Brooks said she and Dintersmith are circulating the memo to top Democrats, and that while some party veterans have dismissed the proposal as farfetched, they’ve spoken to people involved in putting together conventions (including the upcoming one in August) and at the DNC who say they could make it happen. The memo, according to its authors, is intended both as a loose roadmap for Democratic leaders and as a response to critics like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who have raised questions about whether a process like this could work.
In this article:
Know More
The memo, which draws on ideas circulating widely among Democrats, breaks the process of replacing Biden at next month’s Democratic National Convention into three steps: Phase I is the candidate selection; Phase II details how to introduce candidates to the public; Phase III war games the presidential nominee selection process.
All of the options begin with Biden, “in an iconic speech,” announcing his retirement.
The other steps are more complicated. Who, for instance, gets to decide which Democrats make the cut? Members of the Democratic National Committee? Convention Delegates? Pollsters? Or “respected Democratic Party leaders” like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi?
The candidates could then introduce themselves either in traditional televised forums or — as the authors prefer — in a televised series that includes Oprah Winfrey moderating a forum on “Personal Journeys – and Your Big Dreams for America”; Mr. Beast and Zendaya moderating one on “America’s Future…And Issues Facing Youth”; and Kara Swisher and Reed Hastings hosting one on “Technology, Innovation, and the Next American Century.” The memo says that informal outreach has begun to moderators and television networks.
All that would be left is for convention delegates to choose — either through a traditional series of votes, or through a ranked-choice process.
And then, the memo predicts: “Millions of once-disengaged voters re-engage, grateful for a fresh alternative to a Biden/Trump rematch.”
The Options
