Joe Biden Officially Drops Out of the 2024 Presidential Race, Endorses Kamala Harris as New Nominee
After weeks of mounting pressure from fellow Democrats and media pundits, President Joe Biden has decided to bow out of the 2024 presidential race against Republican candidate Donald Trump. He is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the new nominee.
Biden, who was elected to office in 2020, resisted calls for him to step down for weeks but finally relented after the caliber of party officials seeking his withdrawal reached the tippy top (including, reportedly, former President Barack Obama), claiming he had the best chance to win.
Biden announced his decision to bow out of the race in a statement shared to X (formerly known as Twitter) on Sunday, July 21, noting that he plans to address the nation in further detail later this week.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he said. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, 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.”
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
“I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision,” Biden continued. “For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me. I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can’t do — when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.”
In a followup statement shared on X shortly after this announcement, Biden endorsed his Vice President as the potential new Democratic nominee.
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” his statement reads. “My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. 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.”
Harris issued a public statement on X a few hours later confirming her intentions to enter the race. “On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country,” she said. “I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.”
On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country.
I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 21, 2024
Despite handily winning the Democratic primary against challengers Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson, and Jason Palmer with over 14 million votes, which amounted to 87% of the contest, Biden faced enormous pressure to relinquish his delegates at the DNC. Questions about his ability to beat Trump began to surface in earnest after his performance at the first debate with Trump.
However, Biden remained defiant in the face of those calls, even vowing to return from his isolation after being diagnosed with Covid to the campaign trail in the days after Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
Trump officially became the Republican nominee during last week’s convention, which began just two days after the shooting at his rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. J.D. Vance was announced as his running mate during the convention.
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