WASHINGTON (RNS) — Wading into a furious debate over the future of President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, a group of activists and religious leaders has published a letter saying Democrats should respect the “democratic process” and suggesting that if Biden leaves the race of his own accord, the party should hand the candidacy to Vice President Kamala Harris.

The signers of the letter, which was provided to Religion News Service Friday (July 19), include the Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, although he stressed he was only signing on in his personal capacity. Other signatories include LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund; the Rev. Freddie Haynes, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas; and the Rev. Mark Thompson, an organizer, commentator and TV and radio host, with others also planning to sign on.

Pressure for Biden to give up his pursuit of the Democratic nomination has mounted in the aftermath of the widely panned presidential debate performance last month, in which Biden appeared at times confused and unable to communicate his points. Many Democratic senators and members of Congress have called on Biden to step aside as donors have reportedly threatened to pull their support.

An AP-NORC poll unveiled this week found that two-thirds of Democrats believe Biden should leave the race.

But Barber, a Disciples of Christ minister who personally endorsed Biden in 2020 and preached at the president’s inaugural prayer service, joined his co-authors in expressing frustration with the turn against Biden, framing it as unfair and undemocratic. 

“We join together to state clearly that we support the process that produced the ticket that has been democratically nominated to represent the Democratic Party,” the letter reads. “And we are troubled by anti-democratic efforts within the Democratic Party to subvert the established processes to achieve someone’s idea of the most electable ticket.”

The Rev. William Barber addresses a crowd at a demonstration organized by the Poor People’s Campaign outside the U.S. Capitol on June 29, 2024. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

The letter’s signers, mostly well-known advocates for liberal social policies, contend the biggest failure of the June 27 debate wasn’t “Trump’s lies nor Biden’s poor performance,” but rather “the fact that neither candidate was asked anything about voting rights, living wages, or the realities of poverty in America.”

The letter acknowledges that Biden’s debate performance “was not simply one bad night,” noting the president “is aging and has said as much.” But, they contend, “the only age that matters in the Constitution is the age you have to be in order to run for office,” and point out there is no age at which a president is required to leave office.

“If younger candidates wanted to run, they should have joined the primary,” the letter reads. 

The letter says Biden could, if he chooses, resign, or his cabinet could invoke the 25th Amendment, the constitutional provision that allows cabinet members and the vice president to remove a commander-in-chief who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

But short of such action, the authors contend, Democrats should “trust the process.”

The authors suggest that if Biden were to leave the ticket, the party should not attempt to nominate someone other than Harris. The vice president has also been championed by Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, a prominent Biden ally, and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, according to Politico.

“Our democratic process does not … include a provision to replace a Presidential candidate because of polling numbers,” the letter reads. “It does not include a provision by which concerned donors can override the choice of primary voters. Nor does the process we have in place suggest that, should Biden decide to step down, an open convention should be able to by-pass Vice President Harris. If a President becomes unable to serve, the Vice President succeeds them.”

The letter concludes: “We cannot buy into the lie that elections are dependent on candidates whose personal performance is the defining issue. No, democracy depends on people showing up to vote for the issues that matter to us.”

The letter echoes sentiments expressed by several Democrats who have rushed to Biden’s defense in recent days, many of them members of the party’s left flank, who see Biden as an imperfect choice, but still the candidate best suited to pass progressive policies they support.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic socialist from New York, hosted a roughly hourlong livestream Thursday night outlining her own objections to replacing Biden, expressing her concern that the shift is driven by wealthy donors. Likeminded lawmakers, referred to as “the Squad,” have also thrown their support behind Biden, as has Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Barber, who oversees the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, was quick to defend Biden after last month’s debate. Standing before a raucous crowd gathered for a Poor People’s Campaign rally outside the U.S. Capitol, he suggested age and disability shouldn’t bar someone from seeking the Oval Office.

“In my tradition, Moses stuttered, but he brought down Pharaoh,” Barber told the demonstrators. “Jeremiah: depression, but he stood up for justice. Jesus was acquainted with sorrow. Harriet Tubman had epilepsy. People getting caught up on how a candidate walks — well, let me tell you, I have trouble walking, but I know how to walk toward justice.”