Our most recent book is Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Less than 48 hours after Biden's withdrawal, Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee.
The Party Decides held that party elites largely determine presidential nominations. That theory stopped working for the GOP in 2016. But it still works on the Democratic side.
The effort by Mr. Schumer and Senate Democrats to persuade Mr. Biden to step aside was a more pivotal factor than previously known in bringing about the president’s exit from the race, as he found himself with scant support in the chamber that had been his political home for 36 years.
Representative Nancy Pelosi, who appeared on television hinting at her concerns about Mr. Biden and privately made the case that he could not win, has widely been credited as the chief architect of the quiet but intense drive to sideline the president. But behind the scenes, Mr. Schumer and his colleagues — along with Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader, and former President Barack Obama — were also playing a powerful role.
Mr. Schumer was spurred to action after it became abundantly clear that Senate Democrats, Mr. Biden’s closest political allies on Capitol Hill, believed that he was putting them and his legacy at risk should he stay in the race against former President Donald J. Trump, an assessment that helped move the president to his ultimate choice.
The first glimmers of discontent emerged at Senate Democrats’ weekly Tuesday luncheon in early July, their first opportunity since the late-June debate debacle to assemble and candidly share their views. They were not reticent. Multiple senators were up in arms about the president’s showing and demeanor in the face-off with Mr. Trump. Of about a dozen Democrats who spoke, attendees counted just three who were supportive of the president remaining a candidate.
“It knocked my socks off how upset and angry people were, how the overwhelming majority got up and spoke really strongly,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview.This account is based on multiple interviews with those with firsthand knowledge of the events, most of whom insisted on anonymity to discuss details of what are typically confidential meetings.
The Tuesday luncheon came the day after Mr. Biden had released a letter to members of Congress insisting that he would stay in the race and expressing frustration with “elites” who were calling for him to step aside. The missive landed like a bomb on Capitol Hill and fueled a sense of panic at Democrats’ weekly confab in the Senate, where two of the party’s most endangered incumbents — Senators Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jon Tester of Montana — said they could not survive with Mr. Biden on the ballot.
