On July 21, President Joe Biden announced that he is ending his re-election campaign.
Biden, 81, could not reverse growing sentiment within the Democratic Party that he was not strong enough to serve and was very vulnerable to losing to former President Donald Trump in November. Biden backed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the nominee.
On X, Biden posted in a letter “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. 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.”
In a separate post, he added, “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.
Biden added that he will speak “later this week” to the nation about his decision to leave the race.
At least two other potential presidential candidates reacted on social media. According to NBC News, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on X that Biden “has been an extraordinary, history-making president—a leader who has fought hard for working people and delivered astonishing results for all Americans.” And Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer stated, “My job in this election will remain the same: doing everything I can to elect Democrats and stop Donald Trump, a convicted felon whose agenda of raising families’ costs, banning abortion nationwide, and abusing the power of the White House to settle his own scores is completely wrong for Michigan.” Openly gay Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has been suggested as another possible candidate.
The last incumbent president to abandon a re-election bid was Lyndon Johnson, whose expansion of the Vietnam War in the 1960s split the Democratic Party. However, Johnson’s announcement came in March 1968—eight months before that election. Biden’s decision comes four months before the general election, and will provide an added dimension to the Democratic National Convention, which will take place next month in Chicago.