I have a strange and possibly inappropriate hypothetical

[jmowreader]

We know Trump has the Coronavirus.

There's a good chance Pence also has it. It would be a bit strange if he didn't have it, since it seems like the entire Trump Administration either has it or is fixin' to get it.

Let's say the worst possible thing happens and it kills both Trump and Pence. Does the GOP get to select new candidates, or does the FEC tell the Republicans, "sorry guys, you missed the deadlines for making changes to your candidates"?

[elleng]

1. Dunno, try this.

(I'll read it tomorrow.)

https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1972&context=fss_papers

[RockRaven]

2. The FEC wouldn't have anything to say about it AFAIK. The RNC has rules which dictate how to

choose the replacement, but I don't know what they are.

It is possible that there might be some variation from state to state, but my impression is that basically because of the electoral college and the fact that the vote you mark on you ballot is actually a vote for an elector (despite the fact that it says "Trump" or "Biden" on the ballot), a vote for Trump is still a de facto vote for whoever the RNC replaces Trump with, even if the RNC also has to replace Pence.

[L.Pharmstrong]

3. This discussion is good

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-happens-if-a-presidential-nominee-can-no-longer-run-for-office/

[demosincebirth]

4. Pelosi?

[canetoad]

5. Nope. Question was Trump/Pence dying

And new candidates being selected by Repubs. Of course, Nancy would be interim president while they sorted out their shit, all of their own making.

[Mariana]

7. I can't even begin to imagine a scenario

in which Speaker Pelosi is a candidate for President on the Republican ticket!

[demosincebirth]

9. Trump, Pence dying. Whose next in line for president?

[Mariana]

11. That's not what the OP asked about.

The OP asked if the Republicans would be able to select new candidates for the election.

[DFW]

6. First of all, the likelihood of both Trump and Pence dying is remote

Besides, we don’t want that, anyway. Pelosi as interim president would be nice, but both Trump and Pence would have to be on respirators before the Republicans would even admit they were incapacitated. McTurtle can manipulate the Senate but not the Constitution, and Roberts, staunch Republican though he may be, will not put up with the Senate trying to take over his turf.

[BGBD]

8. The RNC

Would be able nominate a new candidate, but it's too late to put them on the ballot. Instead, people would still vote for Trump/Pence, but the electors who are selected would cast their votes for whoever the RNC nominated. They would technically be faithless electors, but in reality they would be voting for the nominee.

The thing that would get interesting would be if there were a candidate who the RNC did not back, but could convince a number of electors to back them.

Let's say it happened, and republicans won anyway, and the RNC nominated Marco Rubio, but Don Jr. decided he should be president and openly campaigned for the electors to vote for him. You could end up where nobody gets to 270 because of the split in R electors. It would then get thrown to the house to decide between all candidates getting votes. Somebody would have to get the majority of state delegations, but that might not happen either if some especially Trumpy states went with Jr instead of Rubio. At that point it would be all about who could build a coalition of 26 states to win.

Of course, the odds of all of that happening have to be about as likely as getting hit by a train while your flying.

[LisaL]

10. Pence is highly unlikely to die from covid.

NT