SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Not long after President Joe Biden announced he was ending his reelection campaign did more questions emerge, including what happens to his delegates.
All 3,800 of them are essentially free agents now. ABC10 spoke with one representing the state of California.
Biden is out and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris is in.
“The issue won’t be settled until the national convention next month and ultimately the delegates will decide,” said Andrés Ramos.
Ramos is the chair of the Democratic Party of Sacramento County. He’s heading to Chicago in August for the Democratic National Convention.
According to DNC rules, delegates like Ramos are under no obligation to follow Biden’s wishes to support Harris. When asked, Ramos said he’d support her.
“I intend to support Vice President Harris as our nominee,” he said.
Ramos says he believes party leaders will shore up support for Harris ahead of the delegate count, taking a lesson from the last time Democrats had an open convention in Chicago in 1968.
“The last time an incumbent president announced that he was not going to run for re-election it ended up being a chaotic mess and went down in history as one of the most chaotic conventions in history. I am certain that the Democratic Party does not want a repeat of that,” said Ramos.
Ramos says he believes Democrats will avoid a contentious convention fight this time. As for the general election?
“No one is guaranteed, right? Any candidate has to make their case to the American people and against Donald Trump. It's going to be a full, knockout brawl election,” he said.
The DNC begins August 19. It’s where Democrats will decide who officially becomes the nominee and – if it’s Harris – who will be her running mate.
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