There is plenty of time in Arizona, at least technically, to get a new Democrat on the ballot if President Joe Biden were to abandon his bid for re-election. Ballots won’t be finalized until late summer and the first ballots won’t go out until September 21.
But so far, Arizona’s top politicians have not called on the president to resign.
Biden, 81, sought to allay fears Thursday night about whether he is up to the nation’s highest office, but his attempt backfired shortly after taking the debate stage. Biden flubbed his words — at one point declaring that “we finally defeated Medicaid” — and often stood behind the podium with his mouth open.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump dodged questions about whether he would accept the 2024 election results, spread falsehoods about immigration and abortion and disputed allegations that he had sex with a porn star, reminding the left of how high the stakes are for voters in November.
The response was quick. Democrats across the country began chatting about whether it was time for Biden to go. Opinion makers, including the editorial staff of The New York Times, called on the president to end his bid. The Republicans took a victory lap.
“I think this is all bullshit,” said DJ Quinlan, former executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party. “This is literally something that exists among liberal handwringers and the media.”
How can a new Democratic candidate get on the ballot in Arizona?
As far-fetched as Biden stepping aside may be, there is a process for how Democrats can create a new presidential pick. Biden would need to suspend his campaign by late summer to allow Arizona’s election to proceed smoothly in the coming months.
State law requires the chair of the political party to choose presidential electors, a process that has already taken place. Their names must be submitted to the Arizona secretary of state’s office by Aug. 9, one of several mandatory steps leading up to the Nov. 5 election.
That’s 10 days before the Democratic National Convention begins on Aug. 19. Those voters are bound to the candidate who wins at the national convention, Quinlan said. In this case, they would be bound to Biden unless he frees them to vote as they wish. Biden is already facing calls to free his Iowa delegates.
Arizona’s general election will be held on Sept. 21, a month after the Democratic National Convention ends. That’s the same date that tellers in Arizona’s 15 counties will begin mailing ballots to overseas and military voters, according to the election calendar published by the Arizona Secretary of State.
Biden’s campaign strongly disputed that the president would abandon his re-election campaign, pointing out that he had raised $14 million in campaign funds by the day of the debate.
“There are no conversations about that at all. The Democratic voters chose Joe Biden – nominated. Joe Biden is the nominee,” Michael Tyler, Biden’s campaign communications director, said Friday aboard Air Force One. Tyler also noted that Biden spoke with more force during a rally in North Carolina on Friday.
“Folks, I don’t walk as smoothly as I used to. I don’t talk as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth,” Biden said in Raleigh.
Gov. Katie Hobbs: ‘Compare him to the alternative’
Nationally, some of the party’s biggest stars rallied behind Biden.
“Bad debate nights happen. Believe me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has spent his life fighting for ordinary people and someone who only cares about himself,” former President Barack Obama wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Biden has earned the vote of confidence from Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and also from his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, who declined to debate Republican Kari Lake during her 2022 campaign for governor, declined to give Biden a score on his debate skills and did not directly answer a question on 12 News about whether the president should step aside. Instead, she focused on Trump.
“As the president has said, don’t compare him to the almighty, compare him to the alternative — and by that standard, the choice in this race is clear,” Hobbs said.
Some Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans in Arizona told The Republic on Friday that they were shocked by the president’s debate, but few appeared willing to call for Biden to leave the race.
Perhaps most importantly, the congressional delegates still support this idea.
Joshua Polacheck, a candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission and a Democratic National Convention delegate, watched the 90-minute showdown with some of his fellow delegates during a viewing party in Phoenix. The audience would have preferred a different debate format, but Polacheck said the contrast between Biden and Trump on substance and values was clear heading into November.
“We have no wool over our eyes. Biden was not Kennedy in 1960,” Polacheck said. “But Trump wasn’t Reagan in 1980.”
Biden also got a boost from a Democratic state lawmaker who is a veteran of presidential campaigns.
“President Biden may not talk the talk, walk the walk or debate the way he used to, but he is telling the truth and surrounding himself with good people to govern our country,” said State Rep. Junelle Cavero, a political consultant and Arizona delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
“Democratic voters will never forget what Biden has accomplished — on student debt, immigration reform, organized labor, the economy, and his commitment to restoring abortion rights. Rational voters understand that Trump will take away all those rights.”
And during a debate night, a voter noted that Trump and Biden are about the same age.
Ylenia Aguilar, a 41-year-old Phoenix resident and candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission, said at a Biden-hosted party in Phoenix that she hoped to see a positive message from Biden on stage. With the advanced ages of both Biden and Trump in mind, Aguilar said the most qualified candidate should be elected in November.
Quinlan, the former executive director of the state party, said voters are more nuanced than they get credit for and can see the clear difference between Biden and Trump.
“He is an honest man who has always tried to do what is right for the country,” he said of Biden. “And the other guy is a convicted felon.”
Reporters from the Republic Fernando Cervantes Jr. and Sabine Martin contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Can Democrats Replace Joe Biden? How It Would Work in Arizona
