A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
As President Biden and many other top Democrats are throwing their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, Republicans are warning there may be some obstacles in the way of a smooth transition from Biden to Harris as a presidential nominee.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Here is House Speaker Mike Johnson on CNN on Sunday morning.
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MIKE JOHNSON: I think they've got legal hurdles in some of these states, and it'll be litigated, I would expect, on the ground there, and they'll have to sort through that.
MARTÍNEZ: That was before Biden announced he would not seek the nomination. And Harris garnered the support of enough delegates to replace Biden as the nominee, but the idea of legal challenges has not completely disappeared. Democrats are trying to fend off those challenges by moving forward with a plan to hold a virtual nomination vote early next month. NPR political correspondent Sarah McCammon joins us now. So first, let's start off with this idea that Democrats cannot swap out a candidate at this point. Is that a risk for Harris?
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: In short, it's not. Since Biden announced his plans over the weekend, Republicans seem to be backing away somewhat from this idea that there will be a serious legal challenge to the new Democratic nominee. I spoke to Zack Smith with the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, which has been raising this possibility for several weeks now.
ZACK SMITH: By having him drop out before the convention, giving someone else to officially receive the party's nomination, that may have been an attempt by those on the Democratic side to head off some of these potential legal challenges.
MCCAMMON: Election experts I've been talking to seem to agree that at this point in the race, with Biden dropping out voluntarily before the convention, Democrats are free to pick a new nominee, and they tell me any legal challenges would probably be resolved by the courts quickly.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Now, Democrats say they're moving forward with a virtual vote in early August. What's the goal there?
MCCAMMON: Right. Last night, DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison told reporters that delegates will select a nominee through an electronic roll call vote by August 7. Now, this was already in the works because of some concerns that Democrats were holding their convention too late to comply with ballot deadlines in some states. Democratic Party officials say this has become even more important now with Biden dropping out. And as of last night, the Associated Press is reporting that Harris has secured the support of enough delegates to become the party's nominee.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, so even if there's no issue with selecting a nominee or getting that person, Harris or another Democrat, on state ballots, we've been also talking about the fact that there could be some campaign funding challenges for Democrats with replacing Biden. So, Sarah, what are you hearing about that?
MCCAMMON: Well, the argument from some Republicans is that Harris cannot use Biden's campaign funds. Charlie Spies is a former counsel to the Republican National Committee and to the chairman of the Federal Election Commission.
CHARLIE SPIES: There's not a lot of precedent here, but I think they've got a legal problem by having Harris use the Biden committee as her campaign committee.
MCCAMMON: Other experts, though, argue that because Biden and Harris share the campaign committee, there should not be a problem. The head of the FEC told NPR that this is a complicated situation, and challenges are likely.
MARTÍNEZ: Are likely - OK, got it. So how might those challenges play out?
MCCAMMON: So I asked Rick Hasen about this. He's an expert on election law and a professor at UCLA Law School.
RICK HASEN: I can tell you that the Federal Election Commission moves very slowly. We're still getting resolution of some issues from the 2016 campaign, and so I don't expect that there would be any quick-term resolution of these issues before the election.
MCCAMMON: Which means Harris can probably spend the money and, if there's a problem, pay the fines later.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. We had questions. NPR's Sarah McCammon had answers. Thank you, Sarah.
MCCAMMON: Thanks, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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