Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Randy Kelley said Tuesday that Alabama Democrats were wrongly denied the ability to choose their delegates to this year’s Democratic National Convention.

Kelley, at a news conference in Montgomery, said the Biden-Harris campaign allowed only one candidate for each of 34 district delegate slots, which were on the ballot for Democratic voters in the March primary.

Alabama’s delegate selection plan, like those of other states, allowed presidential candidates rights of review for each delegate candidate pledged to them. In a Dec. 6 email, the Biden campaign notified Kelley that it had approved only one delegate candidate for each slot.

Kelley said that meant many good Democrats who had worked hard for the party were unfairly denied a spot on the ballot.

“We were asked to recruit delegates for the Biden-Harris campaign, and we recruited 115 people to run,” Kelley said. “However, the campaign struck 81 persons who had properly qualified to run for delegates pledged to President Biden. Some of the delegates were delegates four years ago. This was done without consultation with our state party or myself, the chairman of the party.”

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.

Kelley said he sent Biden a letter about the dispute but said he does not think the president is aware of it.

Zack Buckner of Montgomery qualified to run as a delegate in the 2nd Congressional District and paid his qualifying fee. He said he did not find out he was disqualified until he saw a ballot.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if I had lost in an election,” said Buckner, who was a delegate for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 convention. “But I was taken off the ballot. And that’s what’s unfair about this, along with others. We were just taken off the ballot.”

Buckner said the dispute could potentially hurt Democrats in November because many of those disqualified from seeking delegate slots worked hard for the party and might now be less willing to devote their time to those efforts.

“Those people that were struck were the people that work hard every day,” Buckner said. “The grassroots people that were on the ground, getting the vote out and all that other stuff.”

Kelley said he is speaking out now, months after the disagreement surfaced, because he said he has been unable to get answers.

“We’ve talked back and forth with the national party,” Kelley said. “But we hadn’t got answers. So that’s why we’re having this press conference to make the public know about it. As long as it’s swept under the rug then this kind of behavior is going to continue to happen.”

AL.com sent emails to two contacts at the Biden-Harris campaign Tuesday afternoon and has not received a response.

Joe Reed, a longtime party leader and chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference, the party’s most influential Black organization, said it is unacceptable and unprecedented for people outside Alabama to decide the state’s representatives at the Democratic National Convention, scheduled for Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.

“Nowhere you will find where delegates were appointed by an outside committee and unknown hands,” Reed said.

“There were some delegates in the state of Alabama, both Black and white, good, solid Democrats, worked their hearts out for the Democratic Party,” Reed said. “And they were denied the right to be delegates. It is rotten and it’s wrong. It’s wrong, wrong, wrong.”

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.

This year, in addition to the 34 elected delegates allocated by Congressional district, the State Democratic Executive Committee expected to choose more delegates at a meeting on June 8. Those were to include seven Party Leader and Elected Official (PLEO) delegates, 11 at-large delegates, and four at-large alternates.

But in a May 24 email, the Biden-Harris campaign designated their approved candidates for those 22 slots, again with just one candidate for each slot.

Only 55 SDEC members came to the June 8 meeting, not enough for a quorum to allow the meeting to proceed.

Kelley said the party is trying to redo the delegate selection process. He said ballots have gone out to members of the State Democratic Executive Committee. Kelley said those ballots include the 81 candidates who were struck from the ballot before the March primary.

Kelley said he did not know when the disagreement over the slate of delegates will be resolved.

“I think the main thing is exposing it,” Kelley said. “Because this thing here has been low-profile, under the radar.”