He stunned Joe Biden in a U.S. territory 5,000 miles off the coast of the U.S. mainland in a remarkable upset in the president’s march toward the nomination. Now, as Democratic delegates meet in Chicago, Jason Palmer is out to prove he’s more than an answer to an obscure political trivia question.
He even aspires to play the role of smuggler who can help Vice President Kamala Harris avoid the same kind of chaos within the party that has historically doomed the Democratic slate of candidates.
When the entire party establishment rallied behind Biden, Palmer was a lone voice saying the incumbent president didn’t have what it took. Now, four months after his stunning victory over Biden in the American Samoa primary, Palmer isn’t taking credit for forcing Biden’s ouster. But he is urging Harris to learn from Biden’s loss and let him be a “bridge” to other disaffected factions within the party.
“The truth is I was probably like that butterfly flapping its wings and somehow, in another part of the world, a change happens,” Palmer told DailyMail.com over drinks at the famed Billy Goat Tavern in downtown Chicago. “But I don’t think I caused it. But I was an early butterfly that saw that this was going to be necessary.”
The Pacific Rim’s headline-making furore came after Palmer defeated Biden despite never having set foot in the territory. Instead, he held just three Zoom sessions and, as he has now revealed for the first time, hired two staffers from Michael Bloomberg’s own successful Samoan upset in 2020, beating Biden by 51 votes to 40 in a territory of 50,000.
Non-trivial pursuit: Corporate investor Jason Palmer scored a stunning upset by defeating Joe Biden in the American Samoa primary. Now he wants to show he’s no mere footnote
In retrospect, Palmer’s stunning victory, which earned him a series of media appearances, was an early indication that Biden was vulnerable even as other leading candidates faltered.
For Palmer, a 52-year-old Baltimore investor with no political experience, the need for change became clear in October 2023, when Biden returned from a trip to Israel. He spoke in Chicago, a city steeped in politics, at a bar and grill that has been frequenting journalists and politicians since 1934.
“He exhibited a lot of those same patterns, like freezing in mid-sentence and looking like a deer in the headlights in October. And that was one of the reasons I said, this is not going to work. There is no way he can be the presidential nominee and stay in the White House for another four years.”
“And I said, there’s nobody else in this race. Somebody has to be there, even if I’m just a little person trying to take a stand here, to serve as a foil, so that Joe Biden realizes … Now, ultimately, it wasn’t me. It wasn’t Marianne Williamson or Dean Phillips that actually made a difference. It was the debate, right? That’s what happened. But you know, I wasn’t going to let this year go by without doing my best to make a difference in this election.”
He may have been a Cassandra in the spring. But Palmer isn’t sure the party he belongs to takes him seriously.
“The truth is, I still think the DNC isn’t sure that Jason Palmer is just a Danger! “A question for a real man who wants to make a difference.” He then added, “I am a real man who wants to make a difference.”
Palmer defeated Biden 51-40, arguing that the party should nominate another candidate in 2024. The territory was presented along with other states at Chicago’s Navy Pier during convention week
Palmer had already included Vice President Kamala Harris in a list of possible Biden replacements — months before party leaders actually helped him pull it off
Palmer received a series of national TV interviews after he stunned the nation by defeating Biden in the American Samoa primary
Neither the Biden nor Harris campaigns have tried to make a deal with him over Congress or his endorsement, he says. In fact, they barely let him into the massive rally that begins today at the United Center in Chicago.
“They didn’t offer me anything. It took until the very last minute to actually get the accreditations so that me and my team could actually come to the convention,” he said. “I didn’t hear back until Friday if I could come to the convention.”
That’s despite an extraordinary turnaround that left party figures including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioning Biden’s viability after his disastrous debate against Donald Trump. Palmer, who endorsed Harris weeks ago, had included her in a list of more vibrant candidates he believed should replace Biden.
“Right up until the end, I was asking a lot of good friends and people who were in the Democratic elite, don’t you think Kamala would be a better candidate? And even right up until the end, people were saying, ‘We can’t rock this boat. We have to fully get behind Biden.’ But once the change came, look at the joy it unleashed and the passion and energy we’ve had for too long for a candidate like Kamala?” he said.
Palmer, who worked for Microsoft and has poured more than $700,000 into the effort, isn’t done yet. He sees his role as a “bridge” to those who haven’t followed his lead in rallying behind Harris. None of his efforts have been officially endorsed.
He leads a group called TOGETHER!, which aims to get young people from both parties elected while promoting civility in politics.
Palmer sat down with DailyMail.com at the establishment steeped in the traditions of big-city journalism and Chicago politics. But his convention schedule was full, and he opted not to have a burger at the restaurant that famously Saturday Night Live’s “Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger” sketch. Palmer was scheduled to meet with the financial backers of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a candidate Harris could make or break in key battlegrounds — before finally sitting down with delegates from American Samoa who had traveled to Chicago.
He had also just met with a group he calls “ceasefire delegates” — those who won by pushing a “non-committed” challenge to Biden and who have spoken to the Harris team about the war in Gaza.
“There is a group of ceasefire representatives who are trying to take a stand … And I’m also going to a Kennedy event later tonight,” he said. “For some reason, I want to meet with all the rebel factions within our party. Because I think we have to bring everyone together and do whatever it takes to achieve maximum unity so that we can defeat Donald Trump. That is not something that can be taken for granted.”
“And if that means doing everything I can to get Kennedy involved, then I will try to help.”
“I’m curious about Kennedy, just as I was curious about the ceasefire,” he said, after reports that Kennedy wanted to meet with Harris to discuss a cabinet post.
“I don’t think they should buy him off, but they should hear what he cares about and listen to him. He hasn’t felt heard this whole time,” he added.
After Biden’s debate flop, Palmer went home and wrote an essay calling for him to “pass the torch,” but delayed its publication, only to see mainstream media outlets like The New York Times demand the same thing. Some of Biden’s allies picked up on his earlier arguments that Biden should be like George Washington and relinquish his power.
Now he hopes to prevent his party from derailing at the party convention, even though Harris managed to eliminate nearly all of Biden’s opponents after he left office.
When it’s all over, Palmer has one more item on his political checklist: a visit to the island territory where he became the first challenger to defeat an incumbent president in a primary in 44 years.
“It’s going to be a vacation with family, maybe some friends. I got to visit American Samoa and thank all the people who voted for me,” he said.