President Joe Biden and the former president donald trump They already have enough delegates to be the virtual candidates of their respective parties.
It was a predictable result. Biden had only token opposition in the Democratic primary. Trump had several important rivals, but none of them came close to taking the nomination from him in what will be his third consecutive campaign for the US presidency.
Here’s a look at what that means, what’s changed, and what needs to happen for Biden and Trump to stop being “virtual candidates” and they can be called candidates simply:
“Virtual candidate”: What does it mean?
The Associated Press only uses “virtual” to refer to the candidate once he has obtained the delegates necessary to have a majority at his party’s convention. For Republicans, that number is 1,215. For Democrats it is 1,968.
That essentially ends the primary season, although both Biden and Trump have been aiming their guns at each other for several months now.
Is there a difference in how Democrats and Republicans operate?
Typically, the national Democratic and Republican parties begin coordinating directly with their virtual nominees once their status is secured, although there have been some exceptions.
Last week, the Republican National Committee received new leaders handpicked by Trump. These are the president, co-president and general secretary of the party. Those leaders quickly began firing dozens of CNR employees.
After Trump won the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary but still had rivals within the party, an RNC member who is a close Trump ally proposed a resolution declaring Trump the “virtual candidate”, which would have allowed for some of that coordination earlier.
Trump opposed the measure — although he said it probably would have succeeded — and it was eventually withdrawn.
As for the Democratic National Committee, Biden is the de facto leader of the party, although any official changes would have to be made through established channels. During the 2020 campaign, the DNC restructured his leadership and entered into a fundraising agreement with Biden in April, although Biden was not assured of the nomination until June.
When do virtual candidates become official?
Officially, that doesn’t happen until the candidate wins the vote at the convention. Voting by delegates is, today, largely a formality, but it was not always that way.
A few decades ago, candidates competed in primaries and caucuses, but the winner was not known until delegates and party bosses settled the matter at conventions.
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Source: Gestion
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