By the time you’re reading this post, it will be old news, but President Biden announced he would not seek re-election in 2024. At the time of writing, the likely nominee is Vice President Kamala Harris.
While I was hoping for the chaos (and, quite frankly, the sheer political science interest) of a brokered convention, it seems even the Democrats realize that would probably not work well for them.
It’s an interesting situation: Kamala Harris has the opportunity to become President in spite of the fact that she was jaw-droppingly unpopular in the 2020 Democratic primaries. At the same, she’s assuming the mantle barely over 100 days out from the election. She’s going up against a yugely popular Trump campaign, coming on the heels of a triumphant Republican National Convention and President Trump’s survival of an assassination attempt.
That perhaps explains why no other likely Democrat has announced his or her candidacy. While there are notable Democratic figures who have not endorse Harris at the time of writing, there does not appear to be any eagerness to challenge her, either. Doing so would be a Pyrrhic victory: seizing the Democratic nomination from Harris only to go down in flames against Trump. Indeed, it would be seizing a Pyrrhic victory from a Pyrrhic victor, as Harris does not seem likely to win the election.
The Portly Politico 