USAupdated 1h ago2 min read
Photo · 24 July 2024Joe Biden Endorses Kamala Harris After Dropping Out of 2024 Presidential Race
7 Western Mainstream2 Other1 West AsianPhoto: The Biden White House / US federal government, Public domain · Cropped for layout
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President Joe Biden drops out of the 2024 presidential race. He endorses Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee.
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10 outlets told this the same way.
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Biden exits, Harris steps in
President Joe Biden ended his 2024 presidential re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor at the top of the Democratic Party ticket.
Biden wrote, "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," and he said he would address the nation later this week.
Harris said, "I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda," after Biden backed her.
Biden told his senior team he had changed his mind about continuing his campaign at 1:45 p.m. ET, and the tweet announcing his decision was sent at 1:46 p.m.
The 2024 election timeline shifted again as the Democratic Party prepared for its mid-August convention in Chicago, where it will officially name its candidate for president.
Legal and delegate mechanics
Harvard Law School professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos said Harris would have "the keys to the account right now" and that "any complaint about that is not going to be resolved by the FEC" before the election. Stephanopoulos explained that Biden was only a presumptive nominee because the convention had not happened, and he said the ultimate bar for becoming the Democratic Party nominee is "an outright majority of delegates" voting for you at the convention in August. Biden dropped out before Democratic delegates formally nominated him, which meant he could release his delegates so they could vote for another candidate.
The 19th News reported that Biden earned 3,896 delegates in the 2024 primaries and that a candidate needs 1,976 delegates to become the Democratic nominee this year. The 19th News said the Democratic National Convention is set to take place August 19-22 in Chicago, Illinois, and it said the party would deliver a presidential nominee by August 7 of this year.
Party unity and campaign stakes
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer initially praised Biden’s leadership without backing Harris, but Schumer and Jeffries later held a joint press conference from Capitol Hill. Schumer said, "Vice President Harris will soon be our nominee," and he added, "We are brimming with excitement, enthusiasm, unity." Trevor Potter said, "A major party’s presumptive nominee stepping down months before Election Day is not an ordinary event, but it is also not a crisis," as it described the process of swapping Biden for Harris.
Jaime Harrison said, "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." Harris is positioned to assume control of the Biden campaign’s infrastructure and apparatus, including its substantial $240 million war chest, while it also described how delegates are prepared to deliver a candidate to the American people.
