(The Center Square) – While President Joe Biden is facing pressure to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, in key swing states like Georgia it could be a rocky road to another candidate.
Presidential candidates must be replaced with another candidate at least 60 days before the election, in Georgia. This year, that’s Sept. 6.
It’s eight weeks away, and is roughly two weeks after the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The convention is likely where the party would officially decide to replace Biden.
Yet, other swing states like Wisconsin and Nevada have no or only a very slight possibility that the Democrats would be able to place another candidate on the ballot.
In Wisconsin, only death would allow for that, while any effort in Nevada would likely face great legal challenges, as The Heritage Foundation reports.
“We are monitoring the calls from across the country for President Biden to step aside, either now or before the election, and have concluded that the process for substitution and withdrawal is very complicated,” said Mike Howell, executive director of The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project. “We will remain vigilant that appropriate election integrity procedures are followed.”
Georgia is one of a number of states the foundation identified as the ground level for a potential legal war if Biden is pulled. Ahead of the convention through the primaries completed, he’s already secured enough pledged delegates to be the presumptive nominee.
“Three of the expected six most contested states have some potential for preelection litigation aimed at exasperating, with legitimate concerns for election integrity, the withdrawal process for a presidential candidate,” Howell said.
All of this comes as more media pundits and politicians, on both sides, call for Biden to drop out every day.
Many Republicans are pointing to the many gaffes Biden has had in the last few weeks.
“Biden’s memory fails again,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement on social media, fact-checking Biden stating that he called the governor during an emergency in the state.
It’s not just Republicans though. High-profile Democrats are joining them in calling for Biden to step down.
On Wednesday, long-time Biden supporter George Clooney published an opinion piece in The New York Times calling for Biden to drop out. He’s one of two notable names from Hollywood, a place filled with longtime Democratic allies, to make the call. Director Rob Reiner did so earlier.
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney said.
He pointed to Biden’s age as the cause, not any of the excuses Biden’s campaign has been using.
“Our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw,” Clooney said. “This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate.”
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., told CNN in an interview Tuesday that he finds the future of the Democratic party “very worrisome.”
“Donald Trump is on track I think to win this election, and maybe win it by a landslide and take with him the Senate and the House,” Bennet said.
He pointed out the polls, which now have the former president up across the board.
“This race is on a trajectory that is very worrisome if you care about the future of this country,” he said. “Joe Biden was nine points up at this time the last time he was running. Hillary Clinton was five points up. This is the first time in more than 20 years that a Republican president has been up in this part of the campaign.”
Other Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and far-left member of “The Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez affirmed their continued support of Biden even after his debate performance.
Schumer, when asked if there would be a challenge at the convention, he said “I’m with Joe.”
Biden and his team has given no sign that he plans to drop out of the presidential race. Even if he does, the next nominee will face challenges around the nation to secure their place on the Nov. 5 ballot.
By Elyse Apel | The Center Square
Elyse Apel is an apprentice reporter with The Center Square, covering Georgia and North Carolina. She is a 2024 graduate of Hillsdale College.
