Biden Withdraws From Election, Endorses Harris
President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race Sunday, and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to replace him at the top of the ticket.
The historic announcement puts the Democratic Party into uncharted waters, with the next steps up to the party’s national committee, which will have to decide how to select a new candidate. Here’s a look at how that process would work.
Though Harris is seen by some as the front-runner, she was not endorsed in statements from two of the party’s most influential leaders, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, who both applauded Biden’s decision but pointedly didn’t endorse his vice president.
Obama said he was confident “the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”
Biden’s decision came after weeks of pressure from other Democrats after his poor performance in the June debate with former President Donald Trump.
The last time an incumbent president withdrew from an election was in 1968, when Lyndon Johnson announced he wouldn’t run for re-election. Ironically, that year’s Democratic convention was in Chicago, just as this year’s will be.
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