(Ken Silva, Headline USA) When Joe Biden promised to “restore democracy” on the 2020 campaign trail, Democratic voters presumably thought he would push for fair and open elections.
But Biden apparently had something different in mind.
Florida’s Democratic Party announced that the sitting President will be the only candidate in the state’s upcoming primaries, scheduled for March 19. And if there’s only one candidate, that means that the “uncontested” race won’t even be on the state’s ballot.
In its statement, the Florida Democratic Party said the party’s actions were part of a “standard process,” and that “it is not uncommon for an incumbent President to be declared the automatic winner of a presidential primary,” according to the Washington Post. The last time it happened was in 2012, when President Barack Obama ran for reelection.
Florida’s move has Biden’s challengers— Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., Marianne Williamson and Cenk Uygur—up in arms.
“Americans would expect the absence of democracy in Tehran, not Tallahassee,” Phillips reportedly said. “Our mission as Democrats is to defeat authoritarians, not become them.”
Foreign-born Uygur, who is likely ineligible to serve as President but nevertheless is a candidate, made similar statements. Uygur is the founder of the far-left news media outlet, The Young Turks.
“This is about all three of us being excluded in a way that was absurd, ridiculous, counterproductive, done, obviously in secret, obviously, to help the incumbent Joe Biden,” Uygur said Friday, according to The Hill.
“The number one problem with what the Florida Democratic Party is doing is not how it affects me Marianne [Williamson] and Dean [Phillips]. It’s how it affects the Florida Democratic voters. They are robbing them of their voice. They’re saying the democracy is not important, that you should not participate in the process.”
An upstart group called No Labels has suggested that it might launch a third-party campaign featuring Phillips, who is not running again for Congress.
It is undemocratic and unAmerican for the Florida Democratic Party @FlaDems to cancel its Democratic primary and keep Democrat @DeanBPhillips off the ballot.
The @DNC party establishment is rigging the primary system to eliminate competition — and this is why a No Labels Unity… pic.twitter.com/TKgN94Vnmk
— No Labels (@NoLabelsOrg) December 1, 2023
The seemingly rigged Democratic primaries led to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcing in October that he’ll be running as an independent.
A Kennedy campaign insider reportedly told Mediaite that “Bobby feels that the DNC is changing the rules to exclude his candidacy, so an independent run is the only way to go.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
