Pelosi privately favors open nomination above Harris endorsement

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reportedly favors an open nomination process rather than selecting Vice President Kamala Harris as the candidate at the Democratic National Convention next month if President Joe Biden steps aside.

According to a report in Politico, four people familiar with private discussions involving Pelosi earlier this month say that she and several other members of the California delegation discussed the political disadvantages of having party elites noncompetitively name Harris as the next party nominee.

These discussions reportedly took place during a July 10 meeting of the California delegation, just shy of two weeks after Biden’s poor debate performance when faced with Trump.

However, the discussions did not involve Harris’s weakness as a candidate. Rather, they emphasized that an uncompetitive selection process would chill voter support in November.

Pelosi, along with current House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have played a large role behind the scenes in encouraging members of their party to publicly call for Biden to drop out of the race. 

The former House Speaker said in an interview two weeks ago that it is “up to the president to decide if he is going to run” but that “time is running short” to make a final decision.

Several questions remain for the Democratic Party about whether Biden should drop out of the race.

Not only is it a question of whether Biden will endorse his vice president to take his place in the general election, but many Democrats also wonder if she will be able to win.

A new poll published Friday found that six in 10 Democrats believe Harris would do a good job as president, but only three in 10 overall believe similarly. 

Furthermore, the Democratic Party hasn’t had an open convention since 1968, following the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy almost three months before the convention. Kennedy, in that election, also had the most delegates from the primaries.