On November 5th, 2024, the United States will elect a new president. The road to these elections has been nothing short of dramatic, with unprecedented twists and turns at every juncture.
There have been court cases, an assassination attempt, and last-minute changes to the presidential nominees. This article is about the latter—the Biden dropout and the Walz step-in.
Here’s how the new democratic ticket is shaking up the elections:
Biden Out, Walz In
Following a widely criticized performance at the Presidential Debate, US President Joe Biden officially withdrew his candidacy on the 21st of July. Vice President Kamala Harris was endorsed to step up as the official presidential nominee, which came with the enormous pressures of choosing a running mate.
On August 6th, Kamala Harris selected Tim Walz as her running mate. Tim Walz is popularly described as the folksy, turkey-hunting governor of Minnesota who recently made headlines for calling Donald Trump and J.D. Vance “weird.”
In choosing a white, male Midwesterner as a running mate, Harris has balanced the Democratic ticket in much the same way Joe Biden did when he selected her in 2020. Across the Atlantic, however, little is known about how the potential vice president could shape US foreign policy.
Walz’s cautious globalism
The Harris-Walz ticket doesn’t lean too heavily into a traditional Atlanticist approach (a focus on domestic politics) nor are they using a particularly robust foreign policy background. As Democrats, experts predict they would likely follow former Obama and Biden administrations in strengthening ties between the European Union and the United States.
Walz also represents a great choice by amplifying the experience of small-town rural America; a group that is skeptical of military interventions and focused on strengthening the position, concerns, and complaints of the middle classes.
On the issue of Ukraine, Walz has shown support in several instances, and it is likely that a Democratic victory would largely signal continuity with Biden’s approach to the conflict. Voters have, however, raised concerns over Biden’s ambitious announcements of unending aid to Ukraine. Political analysts predict that Governor Walz’s history of opposing wars and supporting diplomatic initiatives may lead Harris to prioritizing a negotiated outcome.
On Gaza, Walz aligns with the mainstream Democratic support for Israel, but did call for a “working ceasefire” in March, following Harris’s own line. During the state primary, he acknowledged constituents with anti-war rhetoric, describing these voters as “civically engaged” and demonstrating a willingness to understand their position by diverging from more hardline pro-Israel Democrats.
Walz’s views on China are slightly more complex. The Governor is said to have close personal ties to the country. He was an English teacher for a year in Guangdong and has since traveled to China nearly 30 times, including for his honeymoon.
But he has also rebuked Beijing while in Congress, serving on a committee monitoring human rights violations in China and meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2016.
Teacher, veteran, realist
During his tenure in the US House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019, Walz’s foreign policy positions demonstrated his cautious, common-sense instincts, in line with the realist camp within the party. He ran for Congress in 2006 in opposition of the Iraq war, supported diplomacy in Syria in 2016, endorsed the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, and consistently advocated for war powers reform.
Walz’s background lends itself to securing votes from independent, swing, and undecided voters. He is a working-class politician with a rural background, a military veteran, public school teacher, union member, football coach, and the first nominee on the Democratic ticket since Jimmy Carter who has not attended law school. Indeed, Walz is more about common-sense and moral values than expertise, and his foreign policy may well be too.
Biden had to step aside voluntarily
The main event that led to the last-minute switch-up was President Biden’s performance at the debate, which was largely perceived as a threat to a democratic win. What’s important to note is that he could not be forced to step down from the race because he won the vast majority of the Democratic delegates and had clinched the nomination in March through the party’s primary process. He had to step aside voluntarily, which he has now done.
His decision to step aside before the Democratic convention, which begins on Aug. 19 in Chicago, could bring some chaos, according to Derek Muller. “It’s politically messy before the convention, but it’s not legally messy,” says Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame specializing in election law.
There was no legal impediment to Mr. Biden’s decision to give up the nomination. Still, the decision about who would replace him on the ticket was left to the thousands of Democratic delegates initially allocated to the president.
President Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, as the nominee, and several top Democrats also quickly announced they’d back her nomination.
Former President Barack Obama nodded to the uncertainty of the moment soon after he stepped aside from the campaign. He released a statement that praised Biden and his “outstanding track record,” but did not immediately endorse Harris.
“We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead,” Obama’s letter said. “But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) affirmed that it would hold a virtual roll call to formalize Mr. Biden’s nomination between Aug. 1 and 7, but has not yet updated its plans.
Conclusion
The Republicans and Democrats have equally had their fair share of drama. Court cases, assassination attempts, changes to the ticket—the pageantry of the US elections is out in full force, but the stakes have never been higher. With several critical issues on the global agenda, the US elections will determine the future of Americans and people’s lives worldwide. Biden’s sudden exit from the election race was prompted by a widely criticized performance during the debate, leaving room for Kamala Harris to contend for the top job. In her selection of Tim Walz for Vice-President, the Democrats have a well-balanced bid.
