Imagining a Brokered Democratic Convention if Biden Drops Out

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To the Editor:

Re “It’s Not as Easy as Just Getting Biden to Drop Out,” by Jamelle Bouie (newsletter, nytimes.com, Feb. 24):

Mr. Bouie claims that if President Biden were to step aside as the Democratic nominee and the Democratic Party convention were to spurn Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement, this would likely result in “a divisive nominee — who had neither earned the votes of Democratic voters nor weathered the vetting process of a primary campaign — and a fractured coalition.”

However, the truth is that Ms. Harris has never been vetted in a competitive primary race at the national level. As a presidential candidate, she dropped out of the 2020 primary race before the first contest because her candidacy was not appealing to the primary electorate.

Moreover, Ms. Harris usually polls more poorly than Mr. Biden does among the general electorate. Thus, if Mr. Biden’s polling is still bad enough come July that he feels the need to step aside, the most heroic thing that Ms. Harris could do to defend American democracy against Donald Trump would be to allow the convention to select another candidate with better prospects of defeating him.

Justin Delacour
Romeoville, Ill.
The writer is an associate professor of political science at Lewis University.

To the Editor:

I wholeheartedly agree with Jamelle Bouie that Ezra Klein in his Feb. 16 podcast has “underrated the real odds that a brokered convention would end in political disaster for the Democratic Party.” In actuality, I think such a convention this year would not only be self-defeating and foolhardy for the Democrats, but also would be disastrous for our country.

While I don’t agree with everything President Biden says and does, I consider him very competent in doing an extremely complicated and difficult job. Mr. Biden is firmly rooted in a shared sense of reality, has a keen understanding of what’s doable in light of current circumstances, and is the best candidate available. I also think that Mr. Biden is definitely electable, unless Democrats shoot themselves in the foot.