Job of Ohio Democratic delegates just got more interesting
UC expert says delegates often serve ceremonial role but perhaps not this year
USA Today turned to a political science expert from the University of Cincinnati to understand the role that state delegates historically have played at political conventions.
This year with President Joe Biden's announcement that he will not seek the nomination for re-election, delegates in states like Ohio could play a more-than-ceremonial role in picking the next Democratic nominee, UC College of Arts and Sciences Professor David Niven said.
Vice President Kamala Harris already has secured a number of important endorsements, but the delegates ultimately decide.
Former President Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination this month by securing the necessary delegate votes at the Republican National Convention.
Niven told USA Today that Democratic delegates this year could act more like the political kingmakers of generations past.
“In modern conventions, the delegates have been almost entirely symbolic. Their main job has been to fill a seat and to clap like crazy when the nominee appears,” Niven told USA Today.
“This is really a throwback delegate job,” he said, “to when delegates were little kingmakers.”
Niven teaches political science in UC's School of Public and International Affairs.
Featured image at top: USA Today spoke to UC College of Arts and Sciences Professor David Niven about the nomination process to come at the Democratic National Convention. Photo/iStockPhoto
UC Professor David Niven teaches American politics in UC's School of Public and International Affairs. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand
Related Stories
UC professor leads film students to the future
April 6, 2026
As a kid, at the age of 10, Marty Schiff’s dad gave him a Kodak Brownie movie camera, and that led to a lifetime of creating stories on film. He spent his summers with that camera, making eight-millimeter movies, with a camera that taught him how to thread a projector, change the film in a closet, and tell stories with the medium he loved. “I always wanted to go to Hollywood,” Schiff says. So later he did, with $200 in his pocket, and began a career that has spanned acting, directing, producing—pretty much everything with the exception of costumes (“I’m not really good with a sewing machine,” he says).
High Court offers protections for therapy speech
April 5, 2026
Jennifer Bard, a professor in the Donald P. Klekamp College of Law and the UC Department of Internal Medicine, spoke with journalists about the US Supreme Court ruling granting first amendment protections for speech offered during therapy sessions.
Scientists discover how snakes stand upright without limbs
April 3, 2026
Smithsonian magazine highlights a study co-authored by UC Professor Bruce Jayne, an expert in snake locomotion, about how snakes stand upright without arms or legs.