Biden’s big lead shutting down two contests could seal deal for Harris

President Joe Biden was so widely viewed as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party that two states did not hold primaries earlier this year, and that decision could help seal the deal quicker for Vice President Kamala Harris to get the party’s presidential nomination.

Harris is poised to win the party’s nomination at a virtual roll call of the Democratic National Committee that will be open from Aug. 1 through Aug. 7, but if a challenger is able to amass 300 delegates with no more than 50 from one state by Saturday, the process will be delayed two days. The vice president is expected to win the nomination without a challenge after Biden dropped out and endorsed her to take his spot at the top of the ticket.

Harris’s path to the nomination was made easier in part thanks to two states, Florida and Delaware, which canceled their Democratic primaries, allowing Biden to score the delegates from both states without a single vote being cast earlier this year. The lack of delegates being designated to challengers or uncommitted, due to vote totals, helped give Harris a clear path.

In Florida, the state Democratic Party moved to include only Biden on the ballot, thereby canceling the primary — to the uproar of the challengers to the president. The canceled primary meant that Biden had secured the delegates without a single vote being cast in his favor.

After Biden dropped out, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried announced they were “fired up and ready to elect Kamala Harris this November,” with 236 of the state’s 254 delegates to the convention supporting the vice president.

Florida Republican Party Chairman Evan Power accused the Democrats in the Sunshine State of bypassing the electoral process and selecting Harris via a “backroom deal” rather than a vote of the people.

“Party Boss Fried is once again stepping on the electoral process by picking her new anointed candidate, border czar Kamala Harris, and shutting out the votes of Florida Democrats,” Power said in a statement. “For all the talk about ‘saving democracy,’ the Democrat Party is choosing their candidate in a backroom deal, completely shutting out their primary voters.”

In Delaware, the Democratic presidential primary was also canceled after only Biden qualified to appear on the ballot. With Biden’s decision to step aside, all 34 DNC delegates from Delaware backed Harris, the party announced earlier this week.

“Joe [Biden] recognized that Kamala [Harris] is uniquely qualified to be President on day one, having been in the room for many of the administration’s key accomplishments. Our delegation’s unanimous vote of support is an acknowledgment of that fact,” Delaware Democratic Party Chairwoman Betsy Maron said in a statement. “Our Delaware Delegation is eager to support Kamala Harris at the convention and ready to work as hard for her victory as they would for Delaware’s favorite son.”

The virtual nominating process will occur weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which will be held from Aug. 19-22.