But doubts are beginning to creep in as lawmakers, party officials and insiders increasingly call for Biden to step aside, citing questions about his age and cognitive abilities. While most expressed unwavering support, some delegates were nervous about Biden’s chances of winning given his low approval ratings and party divisions. Some openly stated they would prefer another option, such as Vice President Harris. All said they would vote for Biden unless he stepped aside.
“Deep down, I wish President Biden had just decided, ‘I’m older, I have a lot going on, I want to spend some time with my family,'” said Joan Chesley, a pledged delegate from North Carolina who has endorsed Biden. “I wish he could have made that decision.”
Biden has insisted he has no plans to withdraw, but doubts about some of the roughly 3,900 delegates chosen for their loyalty to the president are a new sign of how precarious his position has become.
The uncertainty threatens to cast a pall over the convention, which structures itself as a massive prime-time gathering and typically helps kick off the fall campaign with enthusiastic endorsements for the candidates. For now, delegates are taking a wait-and-see approach, worried that a bitter dispute over Biden’s eligibility to serve as president could do more than undermine Democrats’ chances of defeating former President Donald Trump in November, regardless of who the nominee is.
The biggest task for the delegates this summer, chosen by party activists who pledge to support the winning candidate in state primaries and caucuses, is to nominate the Democratic presidential candidate. According to party rules, the delegates who pledged to Biden will vote for him based solely on their “conscience.” But almost all of them are loyal members of the party and will follow the directions of the national committee or Biden.
But in the week after the debate, Democratic unity behind Biden began to fray, and the party had to mobilize to maintain control of its delegates.
The Georgia Democratic Party emailed party activists, including delegates, urging them to be careful when speaking with reporters and sharing talking points in favor of Biden. “Not all press opportunities are good or helpful,” one email sent after the debate said. In Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, party officials declined to provide reporters with a full list of delegates. Neither the Democratic National Committee nor the Biden campaign have released a national list.
Carl Gentles, 60, a representative and communications executive from Arizona, said Biden campaign representatives had reached out to him and others to assure him that the president was “in it for the long haul and committed to winning.”
Some of the delegates who spoke to The Washington Post spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear that speaking out would jeopardize their status as delegates, and practical considerations have made some delegates hesitant to speak publicly to reporters: They rely on party donors for lodging and travel expenses for the convention, and don’t want that support to be cut off.
One oddity of this year’s convention is that delegates are scheduled to formally choose their candidate in a virtual vote before they arrive in Chicago. The vote is scheduled for Aug. 5, two weeks before the convention, and was originally planned to coincide with Ohio’s unusually early candidate certification deadline. But Ohio law was changed last month, making virtual voting unnecessary.
The fact that officials are choosing to go ahead with a virtual roll call anyway suggests anxiety about Biden’s fate and a desire to get the nominee confirmed quickly.
Biden’s overall position among his delegates appears to remain strong, at least for now. The delegates come from a wide variety of professions and backgrounds. Some are well-known politicians, but the majority are local party officials and activists for whom politics is a passion, not a career. In recent interviews with The Washington Post, most of the delegates made it clear that they continue to support the president and want to remain in the race.
“I’m wholeheartedly supporting Biden,” said delegate Joshua Ferguson, a transgender woman who works as a renewable energy consultant in Kent County, Michigan. “He’s done so much for my community, and I support him 1,000 percent. I’m not worried. I’m not voting for who’s the best on TV. I’m voting for who can pass the best bills, who’s the best in Washington, and Biden is definitely that type of person.”
Kaylee Warner, a 20-year-old college student from Pittsburgh: “I was elected by my community, so of course I’m going to vote with them in mind. They put me in a position to vote for President Biden, so I’m excited to go to the polls and cast my vote.”
Nancy Nichols, 68, a small business owner from Tyler, Texas: “If you’re a Biden delegate, you’re a Biden delegate. That’s it.”
Michael Tijerina, a home care worker in Plano, Texas: “We’re all united and doing everything we can.”
Barbara Faison, 69, a retired county health worker from Sampson, North Carolina: “We’re all so happy to be voting for President Biden.”
Others said they remained loyal to Biden but acknowledged that his debate performance had hurt him.
“Joe Biden has stood by ordinary Americans for over 50 years,” convention delegate Gary Fischer said in Las Vegas. “We’re not going to stop supporting him because of one poor performance.”
Some delegates said it was up to the president to show the debate was an out-of-place evening and not indicative of larger issues.
Westchester County Mayor George Latimer, who defeated Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the Democratic primary last month and is a delegate to the New York state convention, said he felt a “moral obligation” to vote for Biden, but added that he would wait to see how the president performs over the next six weeks.
“If it’s just a one-night thing, that’s it,” said Latimer, 70. “If it turns out this is an ongoing situation, that’s a different story.”
A Biden withdrawal could set off a scramble. Democrats would face a so-called “open convention,” a long-dormant political tradition in which a presidential nominee is chosen on the spot, historically after behind-the-scenes negotiations and maneuvering. It would be the first such convention in decades since the modern primary system was instituted in the early 1970s.
But given the party’s tight control over the convention, activists said it is likely that party leaders, possibly including Biden himself, will soon urge delegates to rally behind a single candidate: Harris.
Cecilia Tabera Webman, a 67-year-old real estate agent and delegate from Miami, said she was so afraid of a Trump win that “I would vote for Biden even if he was silent in the debate.” She said she would fully support Trump, but wouldn’t mind voting for Harris if that were to happen. “I love Kamala Harris. I don’t have a problem with that,” she said. “I’ll support whoever the nominee is.”
KatieBeth Davis, a 40-year-old delegate from Michigan, said she would support Biden “if he’s our nominee.”
“But do I think we can do better? The answer is yes,” said Davis, who describes herself as a progressive activist. “I support a successor election happening, and Kamala Harris taking over, and we’ll see what that looks like.”
Several delegates expressed concern that the very discussion of Biden’s transition was hurting the party’s chances of beating Trump.
“We’re not focusing enough on President Biden’s record and the very real danger and threat that President Donald Trump poses, and to me it feels like it’s getting in the way. It’s not helpful,” said Elaine Petrosian, 55, a first-time delegate from Philadelphia.
Tom O’Brien, 69, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Democratic Party representative and chairman, said he spoke by phone with his state party on Wednesday night and spent several minutes focused on reassuring Democrats that Biden is their nominee, despite his poor performance in the debate.
O’Brien said he doesn’t believe there’s a better alternative.
“If he thought he would be a drag on the race, if he thought he wasn’t the right person for the job, he wouldn’t have run in the first place,” he said. “And he’ll pull out, and I don’t think he’ll do that.”
Aaron Shaffer and Alice Kritz contributed to this report.
