“We have the time to have a condensed certification process like what’s laid out here and then have real town halls to introduce these candidates,” Walters said of his plan, which he wants to disseminate widely. “I just think it would be an exciting opportunity to create a new narrative.”
However, Biden has repeatedly said he will stay in the race, saying Thursday he would only step aside if his advisers told him “there’s no way he can win.”
Walters, who served as governor of Oklahoma from 1991 to 1995, served on the rules committee for the 2008 Democratic nominating convention. He was elected by the Midwestern states to serve on the current DNC executive committee, a group of about 45 people who run the broader party affairs.
He said he drew up the plan with another DNC member, James Zogby, who on July 2 proposed a similar mini-primary process that would end with a vote by delegates at the convention.
Walters and Zogby both argue that Biden cannot win the general election and should step aside. They say he must decide on his own how to proceed and that this plan would not force him to drop out.
“I think Joe Biden no longer has a path to victory and therefore Joe Biden is not the right candidate if we want to win the election,” Walters said.
“It is entirely his choice, but this cannot go on much longer because the drip-drip-drip is painful for him, painful for the party and painful for the future of the country,” Zogby said. “The dynamics are not going to change.”
“The primaries are over and in every state the will of Democratic voters was clear: Joe Biden will be the Democratic Party’s nominee for president,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement. “Delegates have been pledged to reflect the sentiment of voters and over 99% of delegates have already committed to Joe Biden heading into our convention.”
The DNC’s rules committee plans to meet Friday to set a ballot for convention delegates, offering them the option of supporting Biden or voting present, according to people involved in the planning. The committee is expected to set a date for that vote in early August, when a virtual meeting of convention delegates will be held to officially make Biden the nominee, weeks before the convention.
“I would be surprised if they continue down that path,” Walters said. Zogby argued that even if that vote is a given, the rules committee could still change course if Biden announces he will not be the nominee.
Others have pointed out that DNC members have the power to appoint a new nominee even after Biden is nominated, just in case. he steps aside or is incapacitated.
Democratic strategists have privately argued in recent days that “sooner is better” if Biden decides to step aside to avoid a disturbance at the convention and allow time to vet a running mate. Many senior Democrats have also argued that the easiest path forward in that scenario would be a quick selection of Vice President Harris as the new nominee, though some have also argued that there should be a process to make clear that she was selected broadly by the party.
Because Harris is already on the candidate list, she can immediately take over Biden’s campaign funds and operations, while other nominees must quickly set up new operations.
Zogby said he has communicated with about 15 other DNC members who supported his previous plan for a quick and open nomination process to replace Biden. Under the new proposal from Walters and Zogby, the convention’s rules committee would announce a new process once Biden steps aside.
Candidates have 10 days to obtain 40 endorsements from the approximately 450 DNC members, most of whom are elected by their state party.
“[T]The 40 recommendations must consist of at least seven DNC members from each of the DNC’s four geographic regions,” Walters’ proposal said.
There would be another 10-day period during which the national party would hold televised town halls for the approved candidates to make their pitches to the convention’s approximately 4,672 delegates. That group includes some party officials — superdelegates — who are not allowed to vote to nominate on the first ballot.
“Since a majority of delegates is needed to win the nomination, it is likely that more than one ballot will be needed,” the document reads. “The excitement generated by this process and the attention it receives would likely give the eventual nominee a huge boost.”