Pelosi Won. The Democratic Party Lost.

[LymphocyteLover]

150. Biden got the nomination in 2020 because he was seen as the most experienced and was popular with Black people because

of being Obama's VP, so he won South Carolina by a large margin. Then the Covid pandemic struck and kind of curtailed the primary so the party congealed around Biden and he rolled to the nomination. I don't think he was chosen because of "seniority". There was a bit of a fluke with Covid, but I think Biden was polling well in the other states next on the calendar and he made sense at the time.

I don't understand people being upset with no separate primary to get Harris. That was always impractical given the timing of when Biden was forced out. Also she was chosen with Biden as part of his primary.

Other people could have tried to get the nomination after Biden dropped out but Harris worked for the endorsement and won them. She also made more sense for getting the Biden war chest.

Should Biden have dropped out of contention for re-election? In retrospect yes, but I think he felt good in 2023 and saw the threat of Trump and was thinking that incumbents have better odds of winning than after a primary. Obviously that didn't work out. I think the Oct 7th attacks really took a lot out of him as well as the war in Ukraine, like drained him. Just really bad luck for us.