When President Joe Biden ended his run for a second term and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in his place, he threw major media outlets, Republicans and members of his party into a frenzy of speculation.
In the days following Biden’s announcement, anyone with skin in the game was asking: Does Harris have enough of her party’s support to secure its presidential nomination?
Chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party Alicia Andrews says it’s a no-brainer. “The vice president has been an integral part of the Biden-Harris team,” Andrews said. “We recognize that she’s had three and a half years of on-the-job training. And if we're honest with ourselves, people have been saying, ‘We want a different choice.’ Now, we have given them a different choice.”
Andrews said each of Oklahoma’s 41 Democratic National Convention delegates individually confirmed they would nominate Harris for president in Chicago next month.
That makes Oklahoma one of more than 30 states with delegations who’ve pledged to support Harris. She’s likely to become the Democratic Party’s official presidential nominee when it comes together to vote at its late August national convention in Chicago.
Andrews, a delegate herself, said she and the others could technically change their votes at the convention, but that rarely happens, especially when no one challenges the presumptive nominee.
Committees, conventions, delegates and why they matter
American politics relies on partisanship, so party delegates play a critical role in the process. The nature of how a party is organized, from the national to state and local levels – by chapters established by funders and grassroots organizing – means there is often a diversity of ideas and priorities within political parties.
So, anytime there is a candidate that might represent a party at the highest level, there is also a need for that party to reach a consensus on who they nominate.
The Republican National Convention this month in Milwaukee and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago starting Aug. 19 are relevant because they bring party members from around the country together to elect their respective presidential nominees.
Each party has chapters in every state, and they all have their own rules on who can become a delegate and how to choose them. The main requirement, of course, is that they are registered to vote with the party they intend to represent.
Oklahoma has 41 Democratic delegates and 43 Republican delegates. Each party has its own formula for calculating the number of delegates each state gets using factors like population size, number of registered voters and their turnout.
Beyond Andrews, who is a delegate by virtue of chairing the state’s Democratic Party, folks headed to Chicago on behalf of Oklahoma Democrats include some who were also preselected because of their active role in the party and others who had to campaign and be elected internally.
“It’s a democratic process,” Andrews said. “We have representation of all types of people that live in our state, and every state is that way.”
House Minority Leader, Rep. Cyndi Munson, and a freshman lawmaker heading into his second term after an uncontested victory in the July primary, Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval, are two of the five Democratic delegates who double up as elected officials. Both are first-timers to the event, which happens every presidential election year.
Munson’s position as a national board member for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee earns her a spot as a delegate. But elected official or not, and most delegates aren’t, Munson says all delegates are people who are heavily involved in local party politics and their community.
“Our county parties and our state party, you know, they carry a lot of the load, especially in a state like Oklahoma, where you go into rural areas and there are still some very active Democratic parties,” Munson said. “They create a space for registered Democrats to engage and be involved in the political process.”
And that leads to party members knocking on doors for candidates, volunteering at local food banks and engaging otherwise apolitical people with the process too.
While Munson can only speak officially for Democrats, she pointed out Republicans do things much the same way, with some differing rules.
Alonso-Sandoval said that for him, the value of running and being elected a delegate is two-fold.
“These past two years have been a crash course for me in politics within the Democratic Party and politics in general,” Alonso said. “Before choosing to run, I didn't really identify with any specific party, So, the goal for me is to make sure I am actively participating within this party and learning about it.”
The Republican Party of Oklahoma sent at least three state-level elected officials to their convention as delegates earlier this month: Sen. George Burns from Pollard, Rep. Jon Echols from Oklahoma City and State Superintendent of Education Ryan Walters.
All 43 GOP delegates cast their vote for Former President Donald Trump this month, and many have already come out in support of Trump’s pick for Vice President J.D. Vance, a Senator from Ohio.
And while the Republican nomination wasn’t a surprise, Biden dropping out and Harris replacing him in the Democrats’ bid to hold the Oval Office was to some – especially because Harris gained enough support to win the nomination faster than some pundits expected.
Munson, who leads Democrats in the Oklahoma House, said Harris has brought a palpable excitement to Democratic voters – and donors – in the state.
“It's great for Oklahoma, especially Oklahoma Democrats, because there's just been so much energy around her announcement,” Munson said. “We have seen those who donate to Democratic candidates and incumbents give to what we're trying to do in Oklahoma because we have our own Donald Trump-type politician that we are always battling in state Superintendent Ryan Walters.”
She said excitement only goes so far, however, and that if Democratic Party members in Oklahoma want to see change, they should translate that energy into enabling people to vote, not just for their presidents and governors but state and local representatives too.
“Democracy is in our hands,” Munson said, explaining that what each party does to pick its presidential nominee only matters if voters participate in every election they can. “It's up to us, we have to just own it and believe it and understand it.”
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