President Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election Sunday afternoon in a statement, following speculation and pressure from fellow Democrats to step down. In short time after the announcement, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve you 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 country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” read Biden’s statement.
Director of the American Community Project Dante Chinni said that before Biden dropped out, it felt like Democrats needed a reset to have a chance to win in undecided areas of the country.
“It does really feel like this has the potential to be a serious reset for the race,” Chinni said.
Chinni said he could see Harris getting the support of some demographics in Michigan, a key tipping point state in the election, that were not likely to show up at the polls for Biden.
“Harris could definitely help with younger voters where Biden was struggling,” he said.
President of MSU Democrats and political theory and constitutional democracy senior Liam Richichi said Biden’s announcement was a shock to him at first but he “wasn’t 100% surprised” by the decision.
MSU Democrats has not officially released a statement of endorsement but plans on supporting Harris as the Democratic nominee, Richichi said. He said he's “glad to see Kamala Harris stepping up” following Biden’s endorsement of her.
Richichi said he believes Democrats now have a greater chance of beating Donald Trump in the election, and that Harris has “a bit of an edge” over Biden, citing her debate performance in the 2020 Democratic primary.
“She is younger, she is a little bit sharper. She is a former prosecutor, so she is on top of her stuff,” Richichi said. “She knows what to say and when to say it. She's a good debater.”
Chinni said Trump has never had to debate a candidate that “is a very good speaker” in previous elections.
MSU Democrats Communications Director and comparative cultures and politics sophomore Jade Holloway said he wasn’t expecting Biden to support a candidate to replace him and was pleasantly surprised by the announcement.
“I think that his endorsement of the Vice President definitely brought a lot of excitement. I got an instant almost sense of energy and excitement for the campaign again,” Holloway said. “I feel like with all of the division and calling for the President to step down, there’s been, at least for me personally, a sense of exhaustion almost with not really knowing what was going to happen in the coming months.”
Harris said her intention is to “earn and win” the Democratic nomination in a statement.
When it comes to speculation as to who Harris’ VP pick may be, Holloway said he expects her to choose “someone from a swing state or a commonly red state that has a Democratic governor.” His personal hopes for her pick: Kentucky governor Andy Beshear or Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro.
Holloway said Donald Trump’s campaign, of which its main offensive strategy against Biden was bashing his mental ability to perform as President, will have to dramatically shift if Harris takes on the role of the Democratic nominee.
“I definitely think President Biden's decision to make this announcement following the conclusion of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee was very strategic,” Holloway said. "I think that that was something that the White House probably had planned for quite some time, given that the RNC’s main attack on their opponent was Biden's mental competence.”
Chinni said the tables have turned on the Trump campaign when it comes to the issue of age, as Trump will be the oldest nominee in history at 78 years old.
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He predicts Harris’s campaign would focus largely on reproductive freedom in an effort to get the votes of female, moderate voters.
“I think the Harris campaign is going to lean quite heavily into her past as a criminal prosecutor given that her opponent is a convicted criminal..." Chinni said. “With what we've seen in the United States so far, with abortion protections being passed in a majority of states that have had them on the ballot, that's going to be a big thing that the Harris campaign focuses on.”
Chinni said he could also see Harris pulling more voters by prioritizing reproductive rights in her campaign.
“I think [Harris] changes the equation in terms of abortion being a bigger issue,” he said. “Not that (it) wasn't a big issue before, but I feel she's just better, not just because she's a woman, so she can talk about abortion, which is obviously true, but Biden didn’t seem very comfortable talking about it.”
Multiple media reports have cited that Act Blue, the fundraising arm of the Democratic Party, has raised at least $81 million following Biden's dropping out of the race.
Democratic National Convention chair Jaime Harrison released a statement, stating that “the American people will hear from the Democratic Party on the next steps and the path forward for the nomination process.”
“The work that we must do now, while unprecedented, is clear. In the coming days, the Party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward as a united Democratic Party with a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November,” the statement read.
In his press release, Biden said he will speak to the nation later this week regarding his decision.
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