Maine Democratic Party chair Bev Uhlenhake speaks at the state party convention, which was held in Bangor on May 31 and June 1, 2024. (Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star)
While some of Maine’s delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention have concerns about President Joe Biden’s candidacy, they still plan to vote for him to be the party nominee for the November election.
Not doing so, they argue, would put key freedoms — including LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights — at risk.
Democrats both on the national and local level have been navigating whether and how to align behind Biden following his widely criticized performance in the first presidential debate last month and amid increasing calls for him to step aside so the party can nominate a new candidate.
With nearly 4,000 delegates across the country, Biden has far surpassed the 1,976 delegate votes needed to secure the nomination and on Monday sent a letter to congressional Democrats stating that he is firmly committed to staying in the race.
Under Democratic National Committee rules, these delegates in Maine and other states are bound by “good conscience” to vote for Biden after voters backed him in the state primary. This pledge is not legally binding — there is no practical penalty if delegates were to vote for someone else — though doing so would be unprecedented and, according to politics and elections experts, unlikely given that most delegates are party loyalists.
When asked whether they continue to support Biden, many Maine delegates deferred to the state party, whose communications director Annina Breen affirmed that Maine’s delegates are pledged to and supportive of Biden. Also in response to calls for Biden to withdraw and pathways to back alternative candidates, Maine Democratic Party chair Bev Uhlenhake told Maine Morning Star the state party’s focus is defeating former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
“The most important thing we can do to help protect reproductive freedom, defend our democracy, and make sure our economy keeps growing is to help re-elect President Biden and that’s what we’re going to do,” Uhlenhake wrote in a statement.
Uhlenhake added that the state party is “tuning out the noise,” regarding Biden’s candidacy. Uhlenhake wrote, “We have never taken a win in any election for granted, and our Democratic candidates, organizers, and activists are energized and working to engage voters all across Maine.”
Who can delegates vote for?
The current pledged delegate system has been in place since 1972, when the McGovern-Fraser Commission reformed the presidential nomination process after turmoil in the 1968 convention to establish more open selection procedures and prevent party leaders from hand picking delegates.
“Since then, we don’t have any situation where pledged delegates have gone against their pledge and voted for somebody else in either party,” said Mark Brewer, who chairs the political science department for the University of Maine system.
According to the Democratic National Committee rules, “delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.”
Maine congressional delegation dances around question of Biden’s candidacy
However, if a delegate were to vote for someone else, their vote wouldn’t be thrown out and there is no established penalty for doing so, explained Brewer, who specializes in political parties and elections. Although, he added, “you have to remember that most of these delegates are party insiders, party loyalists, and turning their back on the nominee that they have been pledged to support would be — political suicide is probably a little bit too strong of a word, but maybe not too strong.”
Jim Melcher, a political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, said like Democrats across the country, Maine delegates must consider the potential impact of openly opposing Biden, both on their own political future and on the impression of a united front against the Republican Party.
“I think Democrats are nervous about answering this question because they’re afraid whatever they say might be used against them by Republicans in a general election,” he said. “I suspect a lot of Democrats are fearful, especially those dedicated enough to be delegates, and they don’t want to give the other party anything that they think that they could use in that sense.”
How unprecedented is this?
While delegates voting against the candidate they’re pledged to support would be unprecedented under the current system, there were conversations in 1980 about the potential of doing so.
Former President Jimmy Carter had been widely viewed as a weak candidate and faced a pretty stiff primary challenge from then-Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. Many Democrats thought Kennedy would be the better choice and had discussed the possibility of some Carter delegates switching, though it never happened, Brewer explained.
“We haven’t seen anything like this since then, where there has been open speculation,” Melcher said of the 1980 election. “So that’s the biggest takeaway, that none of this is typical.”
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However, Kennedy had participated in the state primaries and caucuses, unlike the current moment where a potential alternative would likely not have run against Biden. Primary challengers Dean Phillips, a congressman from Minnesota, and businessman Jason Palmer, who each received a handful of delegates, are no longer running.
Brewer and Melcher agreed that, in all likelihood, Biden will be the nominee. However, it is still possible he could concede.
“The fact that he said that he will not drop out is not a 100% guarantee,” Melcher said. “I think, for somebody who’s going to stay in the race, at least for now, that is what he has to say.”
The Democratic National Committee rules committee could also change the pledge rules before the vote, Brewer noted, though he sees that as even less plausible than Biden stepping down.
“If Biden does step aside, then all bets are off,” Brewer said. “The process from that point is totally up in the air.”
Biden could endorse another candidate, though his delegates wouldn’t be bound to follow his suggestion. Because of the amount of money the Biden-Harris campaign has raised, Melcher thinks Biden would be most likely to recommend Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement, in part because of the possibility of having to return some campaign contributions otherwise.
Marpheen Chann speaks at Khmer Maine’s annual dinner on August 30, 2023. (Photo by Peau Khan, courtesy of Marpheen Chann)
Concerned about freedoms at risk, delegates stand by Biden
Thirty two Maine delegates and two alternates were selected at the Democratic Party state convention in early June to attend the national convention in Chicago on August 19-24. The party is expected to vote for its presidential nominee around that time, likely virtually in advance to meet the deadline for the Ohio general election ballot.
While some delegates criticized Biden’s debate performance, they cautioned against backing another candidate.
“For me, I think being frank and clear that President Biden was not at the top of his game during the debate — it’s pretty evident — but I think that a lot of folks calling for an open convention is a little bit premature right now,” said Marpheen Chann, an author and executive director of Khmer Maine, who was selected as a delegate for Maine’s first congressional district. “I think that we can’t judge an entire campaign based on a debate performance.”
Chann said the party cannot afford to be shortsighted, noting that “there’s a lot riding on this election in terms of democracy,” including LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights.
“We could gamble away our chances by trying to do a last-minute switcheroo,” Chan said, “or we can go all in on President Biden.”
While some delegates remain supportive of Biden in spite of worries, others do not have any apprehension, including Forrest Genthner, a pastor at Essex Street Baptist Church in Bangor.
Forrest Genthner and his wife Molly Genthner giving the opening prayer at the Maine State House in March 2020. (Courtesy of Forrest Genthner)
“I have no concerns,” Genthner said. “President Biden will be the nominee and he will be re-elected in November.”
When asked about other Mainers who have shared concerns about Biden’s fitness for re-election, Genthner said, “I think they should be concerned about Donald Trump.”
“I’m concerned about the world my daughter’s going to grow up in,” Genthner added. “I’m worried about the future of our planet. I’m worried about women’s right to choose. I’m worried about rights for our LGBTQ+ Americans. I’m worried about equal justice under law.”
At-large delegate John Hennessy, board president of EqualityMaine, the oldest and largest statewide LGBTQ+ rights organization, similarly mentioned potential threats under another Trump presidency as to why his support for Biden is unwavering.
“Donald Trump has spewed his litany of lies repeatedly about the economy, about ripping away our freedoms, and his attempt to overturn our votes and steal an election,” Hennessy said. “I am worried about the hard-earned rights and freedoms of the LGBTQ+ community if he were to win. President Biden has always supported my community. It is an honor to support him as a national delegate now as we work to re-elect him this November.”
State Rep. Laurie Osher of Orono, another delegate, also said she believes Biden is still the best candidate, given everything he’s accomplished in his presidency. The debate was a “bad day” for him, she said, but it did not make her reconsider her pledge. His track record of winning against Trump is also important to her, Osher said.
“The choice is clear; we elect the Democrat who had a bad day, and maybe has several more bad days,” she said. “But none of them are with the goal to undermine democracy. None of his bad days are with the goal to corrupt our country, to have retribution against our enemies. None of his days are ever as bad as Trump’s every day.”
Superdelegates
Maine’s eight superdelegates — party leaders and elected Democratic officials — are not pledged to support Biden, though they’re expected to.
Under Democratic National Committee rules, if a candidate gets a majority of votes after the first round, then the nomination is secured. But if no one gets a majority on the first ballot, superdelegates come into play.
The Democratic National Committee changed its rules regarding superdelegates more recently to limit their voting to the second ballot, after the divisive 2016 Democratic contest between the eventual nominee, Hillary Clinton, and U.S. Sen.Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Superdelegate votes would be crucial if delegates are divided on which candidate to back.
While some of the superdelegates — such as Gov. Janet Mills — have come out in support of Biden since the debate, others have danced around the question of whether they support his candidacy or whether he should step aside, including the Democrats in Maine’s congressional delegation.
U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, both Democrats, have not responded to repeated requests for comment about whether they believe Biden should remain the party’s candidate. While Golden does not plan to vote for Trump, he thinks Trump will win and said he’s ok with that.
“I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system,” Golden wrote in an op-ed last week.
Beyond Biden
While the focus of the national convention is to select a final presidential nominee, Maine’s delegates also have hopes that extend beyond keeping Biden in the Oval Office.
Chann sees the convention as an opportunity to get voters galvanized to elect Democrats at all levels — in U.S. Congress, locally, “folks all the way down to dogcatcher.”
“I think that that’s the other thing we as Democrats cannot forget,” Chann said, “is that this is about Democrats up and down the ballot and building up the momentum to elect Democrats all over the country.”
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