President Joe Biden waves after speaking to community leaders at the Vote to Live Action Fund's 2024 Prosperity Summit co-hosted by CBC Chair Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., in North Las Vegas, Nev., Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
- Speculation has stirred since the debate with Trump and rose to a fever pitch last week.
Following nearly a month of speculation after a challenging first presidential debate against Republican rival Donald Trump, President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election early Sunday afternoon.
Pressure had mounted in recent weeks as Democratic politicians, donors, celebrities and punditry increasingly called on Biden to step aside.
READ MORE: Biden facing increased calls to bow out
The announcement came in a letter less than four months before November’s election. In it, Biden said, “While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Biden’s letter thanked Vice President Kamala Harris, but stopped short of an endorsement. However, in a separate social media post, the President made clear his endorsement of Harris to succeed him in the Oval Office.
The post read, in part, “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Over 16.6 million votes were cast in the Democratic Primary, with Biden securing nearly 14.5 million of those votes and 3,904 out of 3,949 delegates.
With his departure from the race, delegates to the Democratic National Convention, which begins August 19th in Chicago, will be tasked with picking a replacement.
There are two feasible paths for the selection of a replacement candidate on the ticket. In the first, delegates would vote virtually prior to the convention. In the second, there would be an open contest at the convention itself.
An open convention has not occurred since Democratic President Lyndon Johnson withdrew his name from consideration in 1968.
That same year, his intra-party rival Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on the primary campaign trail. Johnson’s Vice President Hubert Humphreys emerged out of the open convention as the party’s nominee before losing to Republican Richard Nixon in the general election.
A virtual vote this year is a more likely scenario since Ohio requires the Democratic nominee to be named by the end of August to ensure a place on the state’s ballot. Waiting until the convention means the party would narrowly meet the deadline, something Democrats are trying to avoid should there be any challenges.
In addition to Biden’s endorsement, Harris has campaign finance law working in her favor. Some $90 million raised by Biden can be transferred to Harris, since she was a part of the ticket, but cannot be directly transferred to another candidate.
Russ Latino
