Now the odds of this are low enough that it shouldn't be keeping any of us awake nights, but there is definitely, absolutely a very slim chance that the 2024 election could end up with a President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Here's how that works. The 12th Amendment describes the process. If no candidate for President receives a majority of Electoral College votes:
....then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice.
But the vice presidential process is different.
The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.
Note the main gist of all this: In the event of a tie or any other instance in which neither ticket receives a majority, the House picks the President - each state delegation getting one vote - and the Senate votes for the Vice President. At present, the current Congress would be the one voting on this, with the House (barely) GOP-controlled, and the Senate, by Democrats.
The Western Journal's Anthony Altomari had this to say in an op-ed about the possibility of a Trump/Harris administration:
That (the EC tie scenario) means that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris could serve together as the president and vice president of the United States.
Republicans and Democrats alike are probably filled with anxiety reading that sentence.
And since the president and vice president can only be removed by impeachment, Trump and Harris would be stuck with each other for four years.
You may think that there’s no way that this situation could ever occur. After all, there’s never been a presidential election where a candidate failed to get the required votes.
However, the possibility of a tie is entirely plausible.
Plausible, but unlikely. But just for s***s and grins, what might a Trump/Harris administration look like?
Now, I don't see much chance that Kamala Harris would stick around for this. I'm not sure what the process would be; she could easily be sworn in as VP and then immediately resign, but that would leave Donald Trump to choose her replacement. The current VP may decide to stay in place just to gum up the works, which, candidly, she could do without even trying; she's certainly been doing a good enough job at that just with her current boss (physically) in place. In this scenario, were I Donald Trump, I'd consider hiring a food taster.
Kamala Harris does seem to already be looking towards her post-Veep future.
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One might think that a Trump/Harris administration would be hopelessly deadlocked, essentially bound up tighter than Dick's hatband. But that may not be the case. Consider how much impact your typical vice president has on administration policies and actions; as in, little to none. Kamala Harris, in this extremely unlikely scenario, would be excluded from anything of consequence.
But then, she's accustomed to that.
These kinds of things are fun to speculate about, but I still think it's unlikely in the extreme - especially when you look at the battleground state polling averages. However, we've been covering a lot of uncharted ground in this election cycle; none of us should be surprised, really, at anything that might happen next.