WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that his pledged delegates could vote their consciences — and he’s right, party rules say they can. But historical precedent, as well as the process for selecting delegates, makes it likely that the vast majority will stick with him anyway.
Biden said during his NATO press conference that delegates are “free to do whatever they want” at the Democratic National Convention, including nominating another candidate. Shortly after, he whispered into the microphone, “That’s not going to happen.”
On both counts, Biden’s assessment is likely accurate: DNC rules technically allow for “good conscience” to guide delegate decisions, but they rarely abandon their pledged candidate. The delegate screening process also makes it unlikely that many would break from Biden unless he withdrew.
“I didn’t take that as, ‘Oh, I’m going to let the delegates decide someone else,’” said Adam Peters, a 36-year-old Democratic representative from Iowa who is sticking to his pledge to support Biden. “I think he was just implying that if people are that concerned, we’ll see what happens on the floor — but at the end of the day, he’s the nominee.”
At least 3,896 delegates have pledged to Biden, after he won nearly every primary. But that “pledge” isn’t an ironclad agreement. The DNC’s rules encourage delegates to vote for the candidate they’ve pledged to support, but don’t specifically require them to do so. Instead, the rules say: “All delegates to the National Convention who have pledged themselves to a presidential candidate must in good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.”
In other words, the delegates Biden won in the primaries are only bound by their conscience to vote for Biden when it comes time to select a candidate. Mass defections, however, would be unprecedented.
Democratic Party rules also allow Democratic candidates to review and modify the slate of delegates pledged to them, ensuring that the slate is made up of loyal supporters.
Brenda Ann Palmer, a Louisiana Rep. and retired school board employee, said she appreciated Biden’s response to the question about representatives.
“He wants us to stand behind him, and he wants us to vote our conscience, and he’s not going to tell us to vote for him,” Palmer said, adding: “I haven’t changed my mind, I want him to be the nominee.”
Massachusetts Rep. Mary Richards, who continues to support Biden, echoed that sentiment. “I interpreted it as, ‘We can make our own decisions,’” she said.
There is another group of delegates who may be less loyal, although there are fewer of them and party rules limit the power they have in selecting a nominee. Automatic delegates — or “superdelegates” — are not tied to a candidate and include Democratic members of Congress and other top Democratic leaders.
Following the 2016 primaries, the DNC scaled back the role of automatic delegates, meaning that in competitive primaries, they typically do not vote in the first round of voting. Instead, the first round is reserved for pledged delegates, although superdelegates may be allowed to vote in the first round if a candidate is “certified by the DNC Secretary” to have won a majority.
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Associated Press Editor Rob Yoon contributed to this report.