President Joe Biden Withdraws from 2024 Re-Election Bid
Biden announced the news in a written statement earlier today.
Earlier today, President Joe Biden announced he would be withdrawing his candidacy for re-election to lead the executive branch of the United States government. The decision comes several weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois - where Biden had the pledged support of 3,905 of the 3,949 delegates. The incumbent President’s full statement can be read here.
Biden’s decision comes three and half weeks after the June 27 debate with former President Donald Trump. Biden’s lackluster performance in that setting ignited calls for him to withdraw from the race. Before today’s announcement, around three dozen lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate publicly called on the President to step aside. Nevertheless, the ultimate decision rested entirely on Biden. It has no true precedent throughout the nation’s history either.
The White House clarified that Biden’s exit wasn’t informed by a new medical development. For the last several days, the President has been at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware after testing positive for COVID-19. He is expected to make a public address on his decision sometime later this week after he finishes treatment and tests negative once more. A written statement today allowed the party time to quickly assemble the process to replace their nominee at the top of the national ticket.
Biden has reaffirmed he will continue to serve through the remainder of his current term as President of the United States. His four-year term will conclude in January 2025. He initially launched his re-election campaign in April 2023 and swept nearly every primary contest earlier this year against low-profile challengers. Despite that overwhelming support, his debate performance last month intensified worries that he no longer had the mental and physical stamina for the rigors of the campaign and to serve another four years in the office.
Biden’s political career will be bookended by some notable superlatives. He entered the national stage as one of the youngest individuals to ever be elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1972, he was 29 years old when he was elected to represent Delaware - notably turning 30 before officially being sworn into office. When he later became President in January 2021, he was the oldest person to ever hold the position - 78 at the time. Moreover, he served as Vice President between January 2009 and January 2017 alongside Barack Obama, the first Black man to be elected President.
While Biden will only serve one term as President, he will still go down as one of the most consequential individuals to hold the office. Under a Democratic trifecta for his first two years, he and the U.S. Congress passed a wide array of legislation that had a direct impact on the lives of the American people. In his first year in office, the passing of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) provided the resources to widely distribute the COVID-19 vaccine and provide local and state funding to invest in a variety of projects to handle the global pandemic.
Historic achievements were also made with Biden’s signature of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IIJA was a bipartisan deal struck investing billions into rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. This was the largest investment in these projects since the creation of the National Highway System under President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s! Meanwhile, the IRA was a party-line vote from Democrats that marked the most comprehensive actions to address climate change anywhere in the world.
In foreign policy, Biden oversaw the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan - ending the war after twenty years. He has also continued to provide military and humanitarian resources to Ukraine and Israel during their ongoing regional wars. He pushed for a renewed focus on Asia and the Indo-Pacific with achievements including the AUKUS deal, the creation of a new security pact between Japan and South Korea, and the launch of an economic initiative gathering fourteen nations together.
Following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Biden passed the first gun safety bill in over 30 years. He signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex and interracial marriages. He also passed the PACT Act, which provides additional resources for veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits. His administration is going through the process of reclassifying marijuana as a less-addictive substance. He also proposed the SAVE plan which restructures the process in which borrowers repay their student loans. He has also forgiven billions of dollars in student loans for people enrolled in the public service program - more than any of his predecessors.
Biden made a significant push into diversifying the federal judiciary. To date, he has overseen the confirmation of over 200 federal judges - two-thirds of whom are women and two-thirds are people of color. He nominated the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court - Ketanji Brown Jackson. He has also gotten confirmed more Black women for service on appellate courts than all of his predecessors combined!
Joe Biden’s legacy was already secured long before he announced his campaign for President in 2019. His tenure leading the country has been phenomenal. And now, he chose to make an incredibly selfless act to protect the country he loves so much. He deserves celebration and admiration for all that he has achieved and will continue to deliver for the next several months.