Biden drops out of presidential race, endorses Kamala Harris as his successor
Biden’s abrupt decision, under pressure from Democrats, creates the party’s first open convention in decades
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President Joe Biden speaks to supporters during a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin
President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he will be stepping aside from the presidential race, creating a vacuum in the Democratic Party less than one month before the Democrats’ nominating convention. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his preferred successor.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden said in a statement released Sunday afternoon. “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 said he would speak to the country later this week about his decision.
In his official White House statement, Biden praised Harris for “being an extraordinary partner in all this work,” and in a subsequent tweet he endorsed her to be the Democratic presidential nominee this year.
“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,” Biden wrote.
Biden is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday — in one of his first major events after his expected recovery from COVID-19. Harris will also join the meeting, a decision made last week.
Biden’s political fortunes cratered after a disastrous debate performance three weeks ago, which raised alarms about his age, mental acuity and ability to run a full-fledged campaign against former President Donald Trump. Most national and battleground state polls have shown Biden trailing Trump; a new EPIC-MRA poll in Michigan found Biden down seven points to Trump.
Harris doesn’t fare much better than Biden in the public polling, but Democrats view her as being more able to run a vibrant campaign and focus on base-ginning issues such as abortion that could rally core Democratic Party voters. Polls show Harris performing better than Biden with younger, progressive voters, but the vice president underperforms with older voters that made up a key part of Biden’s support.