Rick Carignan: Who elected Democratic candidate, voters or party?

To The Daily Sun,

By definition, "Democracy is often said to mean 'rule by the people.'" An example of this is any system of government in which people vote their elected representatives into parliament.

So here's what my research has found. In 2016 Donald Trump Jr. received over 14 million primary votes, the most primary votes in history. In 2020 he received over 18 million primary votes again surpassing his first tally and the most ever for an incumbent president. In 2024 he only received 17 million primary votes, 76% of the Republican primary vote. That was against in my opinion one of the largest and best represented choices of candidates arguably ever for the Republican Party.

On the Democratic side I will resort to solely Wikipedia.

In the Democratic 2020 primary ... 

"Citing a lack of funds, [Kamala] Harris officially withdrew her candidacy on Dec. 3, 2019."

Moving forward, Joe "Biden, whose campaign fortunes had suffered from losses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, made a comeback by overwhelmingly winning the South Carolina primary."

"After Biden won South Carolina, and one day before the Super Tuesday primaries, several candidates dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden in what was viewed as a consolidation of the party's moderate wing."

"Prior to the announcement, polling saw [Bernie] Sanders leading with a plurality in most Super Tuesday states."

This obviously resulted in our current president and vice president.

And here we are in 2024 with Kamala Harris as the Democratic pick for president. " ... female vice president of the United States. Biden ran for re-election in 2024 but would later withdraw from the race and endorse Harris, who launched her second campaign for president that same day."

So did voters elect their candidate or did the affiliated party?

Rick Carignan

Moultonborough