Laura Powell
@LauraPowellEsq
Cackling all the way to the bank?
Let’s take a closer look at the process for filing to run for President and how exactly Kamala Harris purports to take over Joe Biden’s campaign. The basic FEC filing requirements are actually quite simple, which highlights how unusual her recent filing was.
When a candidate runs for any federal office (with an important exception we’ll get to later), he must file a Statement of Candidacy with the FEC. The Statement of Candidacy, also known as Form 2, is just a page or two, and its primary purpose is to designate the candidate’s campaign committee. It must be signed by the candidate.
The FEC then assigns the candidate a candidate identification number, which he retains for any future runs for the same office. If the candidate decides to run for again at any point in the future, he files a new Form 2, using the same identification number. He may also at any point file an amended Form 2 to change information if needed.
Joe Biden ran for President in the 1988, 2008, 2020, and 2024 elections. Sometime prior to 2019 (the records are not all available online), Biden was assigned his current FEC candidate identification number—P80000722—which he used for the 2020 and 2024 campaigns.
Biden's Form 2 filed April 25, 2019, which shows he had already been assigned his candidate identification number prior to that date.
Kamala Harris first filed a Statement of Candidacy for President for the 2020 election. She was assigned an FEC candidate identification number of P00009423.
On Sunday, July 21, Kamala Harris announced she was no longer a candidate for Vice President and was now a candidate for President. Accordingly, she filed a Statement of Candidacy.
However, instead of using her own identification number, she put Joe Biden’s identification number on the form. Or, to look at it another way, Kamala Harris amended Joe Biden’s Statement of Candidacy to change his name to hers, signing her own name on the form. At the same time, Biden’s campaign treasurer filed forms to change the names of the associated fundraising committees from Biden to Harris.
Maybe you’re are thinking that Kamala Harris writing Joe Biden’s identification number on the Form 2 she filed was just an oversight and no big deal. But that’s not how things work. For example, as a lawyer, if I write the wrong case number on my brief, I have to correct it and refile it. Here,
the FEC accepted the Form 2 as belonging to Kamala Harris—even though it bears Joe Biden’s identification number, not Kamala Harris’s. Remember, candidate identification numbers stick with the individual for life. If Joe Biden were, theoretically, to run for President again, he would use the same identification number he has always had, which Kamala Harris is currently also using. There is no precedent for two candidates sharing a single candidate identification number.
After Kamala Harris changed the name associated with Joe Biden’s candidacy to her own, the FEC’s website basically erased Biden’s records. A search for his name did not turn up results as of Tuesday, and records associated with Biden’s candidate identification number showed Kamala Harris’s name instead of his.
(She was even listed as the incumbent!) After I posted on X
about that issue, the FEC changed how the records appear on their website. You can now find Joe Biden in a search, and Kamala Harris’s candidate page now shows her own identification number, with the amended Form 2 she filed under Biden’s identification number merged into her record. At the present time, the FEC page for Joe Biden indicates that the current version of his statement of candidacy was one filed in 2023. ...
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https://twitter.com/LauraPowellEsq/status/1816670605804208413
