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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   3658 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 26, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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Do the big two American parties have back-up candidates? I am assuming that Trump wins the GOP nomination and runs against Biden. What will the parties do if one of them kicks the bucket? They are both old enough that this is a real possibility.

Does it matter if this happens before or after the DNC/RNC officially names their P/VP candidates?

I would assume that Kamala Harris would be the backup Dem.

The only way it would be Harris is if Biden dies after winning the election, at which point it would be generally expected that 'his' electors would choose Harris in December. If either candidate dies between the conventions and the election, the DNC or RNC can choose a new candidate, and again the expectation would be that states would make sure that said chosen candidate could run.

If Biden dies before the election the exact order of events depends on when in the primary calendar it happens, but I'd expect that Gavin Newsom would become the candidate. If Trump does, the field will be much more open, it's hard to say what would happen now or what the RNC would do.

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