BILLINGS — President Joe Biden announced his exit from the presidential race on Sunday and has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee.
MSU Billings Political Science professor Paul Pope said much is still up in the air regarding the nomination but Montana will be impacted by the change.
With 15 years as a political scientist under his belt, Pope described President Biden’s announcement as unprecedented.
“We’ve never seen this before. This is a game-changer. It shakes everything up,” said Pope. “Biden, unfortunately, even though he has a long history serving this country since the 1970s, yeah, he reached a point where his performance and his abilities were obviously problematic.”
The Clintons have also endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination but Pope said that’s not guaranteed until the Democratic National Convention.
“I mean, she’s a vice president. She has a good record. No one has a perfect record, of course, but she has a good record. She’s polling well. So the chances are good for her., But again, it’s no guarantee,” Pope said.
Pope said Trump’s base of voters has remained relatively stagnant, even despite the recent assassination attempt on his life.
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“I doubt there was any impact. In fact, Trump didn’t even get a good bump in the polls,” said Pope. “Anybody that the Democrats put up that’s even a little bit more exciting than Biden, more energy, that’s going to hurt Trump. Every bit of that is going to be taking away from Trump’s ability to win this race.”
It’s a decision that will have a direct impact on the races in Montana.
“Who’s on the ticket at the top on the presidential ticket has an impact on the down ballot, the House, the Senate, governors, race, sometimes even legislatures,” Pope said. “There might be Republicans that, just hypothetical here, might be Republicans here that might vote for Republicans within the state, but then vote for whoever the Democrat president is because they don’t like Trump or vice versa.”
Without an official democratic nomination, Pope said things are still up in the air.
“Right now, this is the Wild West. We knew more of what was going to happen in the future with Biden on the ticket. Know what kind of this open-ended question that it is likely to be, but we don’t know for sure to be Kamala Harris,” said Pope. “I’m more worried about what happens if Trump loses because he has a very large number of supporters on his side that have very overtly threatened violence if he loses, you know, regardless of the election outcomes, you know, good, safe election, which it will be.”
