Is Harris the Democratic nominee now? Answers to key questions about Biden’s decision to exit the race

By Jack Forrest and Danya Gainor, CNN

(CNN) — President Joe Biden on Sunday announced he will not seek to be reelected as president in 2024, and he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee.

But the 81-year-old’s decision — with just over 100 days until the election — has given rise to many more questions about what comes next for the rest of his presidency and for the presidential race.

Is Biden still the president?

Yes. Biden’s announcement exclusively pertained to his role as the Democratic candidate in November’s presidential election. It has no bearing on his current role or term as president, which he said he intends to serve out in its entirety. Biden will remain president until his successor is sworn in on January 20, 2025.

In announcing his decision, Biden wrote, “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

Despite Biden’s statement, some Republicans are urging him to resign effective immediately. Notable lawmakers questioning Biden’s ability to serve as president and calling for his resignation include House Speaker Mike Johnson, House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik and the chair of the Senate GOP campaign arm, Montana Sen. Steve Daines.

But, again, there is no indication as of Sunday evening that Biden has any intention of stepping down early.

Biden endorsed Harris. Does that make her the Democratic nominee?

No. Following his announcement, Biden endorsed Harris, his vice president, to be the Democratic presidential nominee.

Harris said in a statement that she was “honored” to receive Biden’s endorsement and intends to “earn and win” the nomination for president in her first public statement since Biden’s stunning announcement.

A number of prominent Democrats quickly threw their support behind Harris, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who ran for president in 2020; top House progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Biden campaign co-chair. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also endorsed Harris, as did the entire Tennessee delegation to the DNC.

But none of this automatically makes her the nominee.

How will the Democratic nominee be chosen and who will it be? 

CNN’s Zachary Wolf and Ethan Cohen have laid out how the complex process to replace Biden will likely play out now that Biden is no longer the Democrat’s presumptive nominee.

Individual delegates will now select the party’s nominee during the Democratic convention in Chicago next month — or, potentially, during a virtual roll call. But because Biden won nearly all of the delegates during the primary process; they were approved by the Biden campaign and pledged to vote for the president. This means that while the delegates can vote however they like, it will largely be Biden backers who will be picking the nominee.

That doesn’t mean that a candidate who isn’t endorsed by Biden couldn’t attempt to secure the nomination. Some Democrats are calling for an “open process” to replace Biden, which would see other candidates in addition to Harris join the race.

Under party rules, candidates must meet certain requirements to be nominated, including gathering hundreds of signatures from delegates from several states; being a “bona fide Democrat”; and having “established substantial support for their nomination as the Democratic candidate.”

While this determination is to be made by the DNC national chairperson, the party has not yet released more details on how exactly the process would work.

Who else could be the new nominee if not Harris? 

While Harris received Biden’s endorsement, the names of many prominent Democratic lawmakers have been unofficially floated as alternatives who could go against her for the party’s nomination. Most of those individuals, however, have not announced or otherwise signaled that they intend to vie for the role.

On Sunday night, however, sources close to Sen. Joe Manchin, independent of West Virginia, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Manchin is considering re-registering as a Democrat and throwing his hat into the ring. Manchin had called for Biden to bow out of the race Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

How will the new presidential nominee’s running mate be chosen?

The Democratic Party elects a vice presidential candidate in largely the same manner as the vote for president, although there’s typically not a full vote. In practice, whoever the presidential nominee chooses as their running mate is typically accepted by the delegates.

What happens to the money raised for Biden’s reelection?

Biden’s reelection efforts had raised a total of $240 million at the end of June. Those funds are split across the DNC, allied committees and Biden’s campaign committee itself. The latter alone holds $95.9 million as of the end of last month, Federal Election Commission data shows.

Many campaign finance experts say that, should Harris become the nominee, any money remaining in the campaign’s bank accounts would transfer to her political operation because she already is part of the ticket.

But some Republican lawyers disagree, arguing that under some interpretations, Biden and Harris must be formally nominated by their party before any money could be shifted.

“If President Biden is committed to passing the torch to his vice president, and wants to be able to seed her campaign with the current Biden for President campaign war chest, he’ll first have to become his party’s legal nominee,” veteran Republican election lawyer Charlie Spies wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month.

If Harris does not become the nominee, the Biden-Harris campaign could transfer the entire pot to the Democratic National Committee, according to the FEC. The committee would then be empowered to financially support another prominent Democratic nominee, and distribute the cash to candidates further down the ticket along with their allied committees. The DNC would encounter FEC limitations on spending and contributions, should it choose this route.

Another option the campaign has is to transform into a political action committee, spending Biden’s funds on independent expenditures such as advertising campaigns for a new presidential candidate. But it would not be allowed to coordinate those spending activities with any of the candidates it supports.

Has this ever happened before?

While no US president has been pressured out of a reelection campaign due to concerns over his mental fitness, it is not unprecedented for an incumbent president to abandon his reelection campaign — but it is rare.

This is the first time a one-term US president has dropped out of a reelection run in decades. It recalls former Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman’s decisions not to seek full second terms in 1968 and 1952, respectively. Biden’s decision notably comes months closer to Election Day, and it is the latest such decision in history.

At least five other former presidents have also rejected the possibility of a second full term.

CNN’s David Wright, Zachary B. Wolf, Ethan Cohen, Fredreka Schouten and Alex Leeds Matthews contributed to this report.

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