Alabama delegates who will vote at the Democratic National Convention this month have been selected and finalized by the national party despite protests by state leaders.

The selection by the national party means 36 of the delegates selected by the Alabama Democratic Party earlier this year won’t be allowed to cast a vote.

“Another group has tried to usurp the role of the Alabama Democratic Party by appointing all delegates to the Democratic National Convention,” Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Randy Kelley stated in a press release last week.

“This illegal, self-serving group sought to appoint delegates to the Democratic National Convention instead of allowing people of Alabama to vote on them.”

Alabama’s delegate selection plan, like those of other states, allowed presidential candidates rights of review for each delegate candidate pledged to them.

Before President Biden dropped out of the race, his campaign approved a list of delegates that was markedly different from the list elected by the state’s democratic party. Of the 34 district delegates, the Biden campaign only approved 13 names. The campaign also approved five of the nine Party Leaders and Elected Officials (PLEO) positions on the state party’s list, two of the 11 at-large delegates, and one of four alternates, according to lists provided by the Alabama Democratic Party.

The Democratic National Committee did not respond to requests for a list of delegates.

In the event a delegate was not approved, the Biden campaign selected a replacement.

“Nowhere in history, nowhere in the rules, nowhere in laws does a presidential candidate or any other group appoint delegates,” Kelley stated in the release.

Kelley said he believes there was an effort to deny the Alabama Democratic Party the ability to pick its own delegates because the state party is about 70% Black.

With Vice President Kamala Harris now the presumptive nominee, the delegates selected by the Biden-Harris campaign will ultimately be the ones voting at the convention next month, according to the Democratic National Committee.

Kelley said he intends to challenge that decision, telling AL.com that “we’re going to bring it before the credentials committee if we can and we’re going to have some legal recourse to it….we’re gonna fight it and make it known.”

However, the window for any challenges has expired.

Challenges about the selection for district level delegates should have been filed with the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee in March, while challenges about the selection of at-large delegates and PLEOs should have been filed with the Conventions Credentials Committee in late June.

Alabama’s delegates have already unanimously endorsed Harris as the nominee. Kelley said the Alabama party also backed Harris, joining with the Association of State Democratic Chairs.

Friction between the Alabama Democratic Party and the national party is not new. Five years ago, then-U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, backed by the Democratic National Committee, joined with a faction of the state party to approve new by-laws and replace longtime Chairman Nancy Worley, a Reed ally, with state Rep. Chris England.

Control flipped back in 2022 when the State Democratic Executive Committee elected Kelley as chairman with the backing of Reed and the Alabama Democratic Conference.

Kelley told AL.com that he believes Jones played a role in denying the state’s delegate selection.

“I guarantee you he had a hand in it. I’ve heard he had a hand in and I suspected he did.”

Jones told AL.com that while he did not have any involvement in Biden’s initial decision to deny a number of delegates, he did help the campaign decide who should serve as replacement delegates.

“The only role that I played was offering up some names of potential delegates. And it was also a number of other people…that the campaign contacted to get suggestions on delegates,” Jones said.

The former senator said ongoing disputes between the state party and the DNC likely played a role in the situation.

“I don’t think that the DNC had any confidence that they were going to get a delegation that was truly reflective of the Democratic Party,” Jones said, pointing to the 2023 move by the State Democratic Executive Committee to eliminate the party’s youth, LGBTQ+ and disabled caucuses despite a DNC mandate.

Jones was selected by the Biden campaign as a PLEO, but was not on the original slate voted on by the state party.

“It ought to be a time when we are working together to energize Democrats across the state, and especially in the second congressional district, to try to get another member of Congress, and instead, the chairman and the vice chairman of the party want to continue to complain about something that, in the long run, doesn’t mean that much,” Jones added.

The Democratic National Convention will be held in Chicago from Aug. 19-22. The Alabama Democrats said they still plan to bring the delegates they elected to the convention.