President Joe Biden and the Florida Democratic Party have boxed out rivals in the upcoming March primary election, critics claim — effectively canceling the Democratic primary in the state.
Three Democratic presidential primary hopefuls — Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., author Marianne Williamson, and “The Young Turks” host Cenk Uygur — all said Friday they’re currently not listed on the ballot in the upcoming primary.
Only Biden’s name will appear in the critical battleground state, which is a violation of the Democratic Party’s own election rules, Williamson and Uygur both claim.
The two have promised an “implementation challenge” if the Florida Democratic Party excludes them to “try to actually get them to follow their own rules and by-laws.”
“Because we are correct,” Uygur reportedly complained in a Friday call. “The FDP is incorrect in how they are applying these rules. That implementation challenge has succeeded before. It will likely succeed in this case if we have to go to it and it’s just flat-out embarrassing for the FDP leadership that they have to be forced to follow their own rules.”
All three long-shot Democratic primary challengers vowed to go to court if they’re not listed on the March ballot.
“We’re not trying to create a conflict here,” Uygur said in a Zoom call on Friday. “We’re just trying to do the bare minimum of getting on the ballot. And we’ve all earned it, and there’s no need for this conflict.”
Uygur said keeping rivals off the ballot is “absurd, ridiculous, counterproductive — done obviously in secret, obviously to help the incumbent Joe Biden, and it needs to be reversed.”
Biden enjoys a commanding 60 point lead in the Democratic primary with 7 weeks to go, but there’s risk of embarrassment in the first round of voting in New Hampshire.
Biden’s name will not appear as an option on the New Hampshire primary ballot, which will be held on January 23rd.
His political allies in the state are attempting to organize a write-in ballot campaign. An upset loss for Biden in the first primary in his 2024 reelection campaign would be unprecedented in modern politics — and could potentially give one of his rivals a surge of momentum heading into Florida.
The Horn editorial team