DNC Member Proposes Plan For New Nominee If Biden Steps Aside

Democratic National Committee member James Zogby has proposed an alternative presidential nominating process in the event President Joe Biden withdraws as nominee.

The memorandum, submitted by Zogby to DNC Chair Jaime Harrison on Monday evening, would have the DNC meet after July 4 to lay out a one-month campaign schedule ahead of the Democratic National Convention. Harrison has not yet responded to Zogby, Zogby informed HuffPost; spokespeople for the DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under Zogby’s plan, Democrats hoping to replace Biden would campaign for the support of the DNC’s 448 voting members, and would need the endorsements of at least 40 to qualify as a DNC-certified candidate. To ensure a geographically diverse base of support, those 40 DNC members would have to include at least four people from each of the DNC’s designated regions — Northeast, South, Midwest and West. Candidates would need to submit their applications for certification to the DNC’s secretary within a week of the process officially beginning.

The DNC would then sponsor at least two “major televised events for the candidates to appear together to make their cases before Democratic voters across the country,” according to Zogby’s memo.

Finally, there would be an open convention, where the more than 4,700 delegates at the national convention in Chicago from Aug. 19-22 would decide on a presidential nominee, taking as many ballots as necessary for a single candidate to achieve a majority.

Zogby, the elected chair of the DNC’s ethnic council who serves as an at-large member of the DNC, told HuffPost he came up with the idea after hearing from fellow Democrats who agreed on the need to replace Biden — including in