President Joe Biden announced Sunday afternoon he is withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote in a statement posted on X. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Here’s what we know:
Did Biden make an endorsement?
Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” Biden wrote on X. “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.”
On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 21, 2024
I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination.
In a statement, Harris said she intends to “earn and win” the nomination.
“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,” Harris said. “We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”
It was not immediately clear whether any other Democrats would challenge Harris for the party’s nomination.
When will we know more?
Biden said he will address the nation “later this week” to provide more “detail” regarding his decision, but did not specify a day or time.
Why was Biden urged to leave the race?
In the days before Sunday’s announcement, more than one in 10 congressional Democrats had called publicly for Biden to quit the race. The wave of public and private pressure from Democratic lawmakers and party officials escalated after his poor performance in a June 27 televised debate against Donald Trump, 78.
Biden’s failure at times to complete clear sentences took the public spotlight away from Trump’s performance, in which he made a string of false statements, and trained it instead on questions surrounding Biden’s fitness for another 4-year term.
Days later he raised fresh concerns in an interview, shrugging off Democrats’ worries and a widening gap in opinion polls, in which he said he would be fine losing to Trump if he knew he’d “gave it my all.” His gaffes at a NATO summit — using Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name when he meant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and calling Harris “Vice President Trump” — further stoked anxieties.
Earlier this week, Biden was also diagnosed with COVID-19 for a third time, forcing him to cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas.
When is the Democratic National Convention?
The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to be held Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.
Delegates typically choose their nominee early in the convention, although Democrats were considering a virtual nomination vote for the first week in August.
Will this impact Texas ballots?
Biden’s name hasn’t been submitted for the Texas ballot yet, so his departure from the race will not affect finalizing and printing ballots for the Nov. 5 election, according to officials.
State law gives the Texas Democratic Party until Aug. 25 to submit the names of its nominees for president and vice president.
Has something like this ever happened?
A party’s presumptive presidential nominee has never stepped out of the race so close to the election. The closest parallel would be President Lyndon B. Johnson who, besieged by the Vietnam War, announced in March 1968 that he would not seek another term.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
