Even without a primary challenger, Joe Biden is expected to face a series of hardships moving forward.
By OMRI NAHMIASDemocratic U.S. presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden at the 11th Democratic candidates debate of the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign in Washington, March 15, 2020(photo credit: KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS)
WASHINGTON - Bernie Sanders' decision to suspend his presidential campaign on Wednesday will be a huge relief for the Biden campaign. Not because of Sanders' very slim chance of winning. The Vermont Senator practically lost his presidential bid a month ago, on Super Tuesday.But as Biden will remember from the 2016 presidential campaign, Sanders has enough political power to drag the Party through a long and ugly battle all the way to the Party's convention in August.Sanders gave Biden a carrot and a stick. On the one hand he is withdrawing from the race, allowing the Democratic Party to come together behind the Former Vice President at a time of a national crisis, when Biden is playing the experienced Washington politician card. By dropping out of the race now, Sanders decided that it is more critical for him to help to defeat Trump in November than to win the ideological battle within the Party.On the other hand, the Jewish Senator made it clear that his name will appear on the ballots to win more delegates to get influence over the Democratic Party's platform, which could turn out like a fly in the ointment for Biden later this summer.Still, even without a primary challenger, Biden is expected to face a series of hardships moving forward. First, given the lack of campaign events, the Former Vice President will find it hard to stay relevant and to deliver a compelling message. While Trump is managing the coronavirus crisis from the Oval Office and answering questions on live TV for approximately an hour every day, Biden's ability to affect the conversation is minimal. Simply put, while Trump is present in Americans' lives, his Democratic rival is conspicuously absent. If social distancing remains in effect into the summer, Biden will face a severe challenge.Another major challenge that Biden and Democrats are going to face is the dispute over a vote by mail. Some 35 states are currently allowing either universal vote-by-mail or "no excuse" vote-by-mail while the others require a reason to vote absentee. However, a transition to universal vote-by-mail in all 50 states at such short notice is complicated and would require states to act immediately to ensure a seamless voting process. It's unclear, for example, how well equipped they are to handle the influx of ballots that is expected.While Democrats believe that universal vote-by-mail is their best chance of winning in November by increasing turnout among young and minority voters, Republicans remain suspicious of this method.House Democrats tried to push, as a part of the stimulus package, a measure to require "at least 15 consecutive days of early voting for federal elections." President Trump pushed back against the Democrats attempt to pass this legislation, and other provisions that would have given $4 billion to states to help facilitate absentee ballots and allow same-day registration and online registration."The things they had in there were crazy," Trump told Fox News. "They had things, levels of voting that if you ever agreed to, you would never have a Republican elected in this country again."The president has taken a number of opportunities to voice his desire to see the vote taking place in person with a photo ID for each voter. During times of coronavirus, it seems like the real battle between Democrats and Republicans is not necessarily going to be around ideas this coming November, but about the technical process of how to facilitate the vote.
