Democrats are motivated by money and power. So, as President Joe Biden faces calls to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, the Democratic Party faces a tricky situation regarding campaign funds.
According to sources, Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democrat’s top choice to replace Biden, but is it for one reason and one reason only?
If Harris were to replace the 81-year-old president in the race against former President Donald Trump, she would inherit $240M in campaign funds.
However, if the party decides to put someone else in the race, say, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), then those funds would not be transferred.
This seems to be the only reason Harris is favored among Democrats to replace Biden— because it certainly isn’t because of her outstanding poll numbers.
Many prominent Democrats are waiting in the wings to take the ailing 81-year-old’s place, but the quarter billion Biden-Harris have raised is non-transferrable, campaign finance sources told The [New York] Post. Even if Biden wanted to, campaign finance sources say giving the money to another candidate — like California governor Gavin Newsom or Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, whose names have been mentioned as possible replacements — would prove sticky. Only Biden and Harris are named in the federal paperwork for the campaign which donors gave money to, which amounts to the lion’s share of the money raised. Via the New York Post.
Harris’s approval rating has been well underwater since she refused to visit the southern border despite being Biden’s border czar.
Just three in five Democrat voters said they would vote for the vice president, with only 25 percent of independent voters saying they would cast their ballot for her, according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll.
If Biden and Harris both decide not to stay in the 2024 race, instead of trying to transfer the money to another candidate, the campaign can also reimburse the donors.
A few Democrats told the outlet that it would be a “tragedy” if Harris were to be on the 2024 ticket, adding that the party would be “stuck with a candidate “no one wanted.”
They said that if the Democratic Party hadn’t been so focused on playing “identity politics” by making a black woman vice president, and instead “focused on performance politics they would be in a terrific situation.”
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