President Joe Biden shocked the nation on Sunday when his office formally announced that he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential election.

While the pressure has been increasing for the president to drop out, the announcement still caused shockwaves as the country faces the possibility of a Democrat nominee that has yet to actually run for office.

Since leaving the race, the president has endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to top the Democrat ticket, as the Sacramento Bee reported.

Now, the nation is faced with the question of who will be her running mate for the general election.

What About Newsom

After Biden dropped out, California Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed Harris as the greatest candidate “to prosecute the case against Donald Trump’s dark vision.”

How Democrats will choose a nominee is as yet unknown, but Newsom and others threw their political weight behind Harris within hours of the president dropping out of the race. However, some Democrats could challenge the vice president for her spot on the ticket.

Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were probable Democratic nominees or running mates.

One issue for a prospective Vice President Newsom: the 12th Amendment.

Legal Holdup

This amendment specifies the process by which Electoral College members who are not running for president vote for a presidential ticket.

The people who are chosen to serve as president and vice president "shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves,” according to the text.

Harris resides at the vice president's residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., but she is registered to vote and maintains formal residency in California.

Legal scholars have concluded that this means the 54 electoral votes cast by California would be null and void if the ticket included two inhabitants of the state.

Expert Take

“If Kamala Harris were the presidential candidate and Gavin Newsom were the vice presidential running mate, the electors couldn’t vote for both of them,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

“So that would then create a dilemma, maybe a crisis, for those electors to decide which one of them they would vote for. It might cost the ticket electoral votes.”

According to Derek Muller, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, for voters “in 49 states and District of Columbia, a Harris-Newsom ticket is not a problem,” said

“It’s only a problem in the state of California. It would prohibit California’s electors from voting for both Harris and Newsom.”