Potential rivals of Harris endorsed her for president
The Six Ways that Biden stepped Towards the Democratic Party Candidate for the Office of the Vice-President in Defending Reelection
President Biden concluded his reelection campaign and endorsed Vice President Harris for the role of the Democratic nominee for president yesterday after weeks of insistence that he would keep going. In response, Harris said she is honored, and she plans to “earn and win” the nomination. Here are six ways in which Biden decided to step aside.
Biden wrote a letter to X on Sunday saying it had been the greatest honor of his life to serve as President. “And 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.”
Biden wrote in the letter that he would give more details about his decision later this week.
Harris still has to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination, but Republicans are already running their campaign as if she has. Trump’s campaign has dubbed her the “enabler in chief,” tying her to Biden’s biggest woes, including immigration and inflation.
Many Democrats are calling Biden’s concession patriotic and selfless, in part an attempt to draw a contrast with Trump. This would be a hard decision for any president, especially for someone who has been around as long as Biden has.
The New York Times reported that Democratic megadonors began discussing how Biden could be replaced before or during the convention.
The Time for Donald J. D. Biden to Become the Top Dog: When the Numbers Can Move Toward a Realistic Voting Future
“I have seen some emails from people in Silicon Valley who said, ‘I’m not going to donate more until I have more confidence,’” Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn founder and Biden donor, told WIRED earlier this month.
One of the most savvy operators in the Democratic Party, Pelosi, appeared to lead the charge. She pays very close attention to the polls and she listens to the swing-state Democrats who had seen a cratering in the numbers in their states and districts. Eventually, Biden got past denial to acceptance.
The Democratic candidate will face a Republican Party newly energized by the victory of its populist wing and an alliance with powerful Silicon Valley investors like Elon Musk—both represented in the ascension of 39-year-old Peter Thiel acolyte J.D. Vance to the ticket as Trump’s vice president and heir apparent.
“As a historical matter, very, very few people do this,” historian Jon Meacham, who has helped in writing speeches for Biden, including his 2023 State of the Union address, told NBC News on Sunday, “and in an era where so many of us privilege power over principle, where a lot of us would rather take than give, I think it’s a moment for the country to consider that the president has given us a lesson: that our own wishes, our own immediate desires, should not always be controlling.”
Nothing like this has happened since Lyndon B. Johnson decided against running for reelection in 1968. Even then, LBJ made the announcement in March, not July. Biden also did it because the writing was on the wall. He was unpopular due to his health concerns and the Vietnam War.
All politicians want to be the top dog, but the numbers can move things — whether it’s polls or money. Both contributed to exert a huge amount of pressure on Biden. Money had started to dry up, and he was slipping in swing states after his disastrous June 27 debate.
Biden indicated in an ABC interview that only the “Lord Almighty,” polls showing his party losing or maybe some combination of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, current House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina could get him to step aside.
This has been one of the worst three-and-a-half weeks of any campaign in history.
The Democrats have been quiet for the last several days but this announcement seems to have rejuvenated them for the first time. It doesn’t mean they’ll win the race, but this has injected them with much-needed enthusiasm — and money. In the hours after Biden’s withdrawal, Democrats donated $46.7 million through ActBlue as of 9 p.m. ET, the largest site that processes Democratic donations. It is the largest day of Democratic donations since the election.
The Republicans don’t have a solid message on how they’ll campaign against Harris now that the campaign has been reset.
They believe that Biden was too old, may not know where he is, not qualified to run the country, and that he and his son are likely corrupt and have enriched themselves.
If Harris becomes the Democratic Party’s nominee, Republicans will be running against a much younger candidate, a former prosecutor who is sure to use that experience to contrast herself with the convicted felon, and potentially the first woman to be president, first Black.
It’s not often that Democrats get to troll Republicans, but soon after Biden’s announcement, many were trying to flip the script, saying the country can’t have a president who would be 83 at the end of his term.
Reality TV after the election: What will it be like for a candidate without a challenge? Comments on a 2016 interview with Keith Harris
If another person challenged Harris, the party could go to an open convention and have multiple rounds of voting. Much depends on the around 4,700 convention delegates that will convene on Aug. 19 in Chicago. One expert told Keith, “It will be reality TV like you’ve never seen.” Here is a closer look at what is happening now.
Many of the big names that are being talked about as a Biden replacement have endorsed Harris.
How exactly voters respond to the Democratic shakeup remains to be seen. A recent NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, conducted before Biden withdrew from the race but after his poor debate performance, showed both Biden and Harris in a statistical tie with Trump.
But that’s when people were thinking of her as a hypothetical candidate. Now that Harris is likely to be the actual nominee, Harris is going to face a whole new level of scrutiny.
But on the flip side, she was not a very good candidate in 2019 when she ran for the Democratic nomination. She struggled to convey her core values, instead saying she saw herself as a problem solver. She has been caricatured by the right as a California liberal, while also facing criticism from the left as being too tough on crime as the state’s attorney general. One area Biden put her in charge of early on was immigration, and she had to struggle with messaging at times.
The Biden Campaign: 6 Political Takeaways from Biden’s Decision to Step Against the Republican Candidate in a Swing State
Speculation quickly fell to contenders in must-win swing states such as Shapiro, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, or Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, where Harris has already traveled frequently in this campaign.
Shapiro, 51, is a popular pick in Democratic circles because he’s generally well-liked, has handled thorny issues competently and is from Pennsylvania. The state of Pennsylvania has seen more ad money than any other state. The Blue Wall consists ofPennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and the Trump campaign is aware of that. According to the polls, they have a narrow lead over their rivals in Pennsylvania, but they have been targeting the state more than any other swing state.
Beshear, 46, is a popular Democrat. He’s won praise from both sides of the aisle for how he’s worked with both parties, but he’s in a Republican presidential state.
Kelly is from a swing state. He can help Democrats by showing that he can raise money, and he also could help blunt Republicans’ immigration attacks since he is from a border state. He isn’t from a swing state with as many delegates as Pennsylvania or North Carolina, though.
A Conversation with General Retarded Senator Biden: What he learned in his 15-year run for the presidency and what he did in 2020
This is all Biden has ever known. He was the senator from Delaware for seven years and later was the vice president. He ran for the presidency at some point in his life. He was dropped out of the 1987 campaign in disgrace after a plagiarism scandal and only got a small number of votes for his 2008 campaign before being picked by Barack Obama as his running mate.
He has always wanted to be president and has been told by plenty of people in his life that he couldn’t do a lot of things. In 2020, he defeated Trump, and Democrats credit him with saving democracy. The path forward was narrowing or notexistent at this point.
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Can Psychotherapists Identify the Moments of Emotions in the U.S. Elections? The Case for a Mini-Prime
It has been a roller coaster in U.S. politics recently. Keeping up with the headlines can feel extremely stressful, especially with the election looming in just four months. According to psychologists, people feel heightened negative emotions in a political climate. If you are suffering from long-term symptoms such as sadness, worry or hopelessness, it is time for an intervention. According to psychologists, there are some strategies to help.
Gov. Beshear told MSNBC that he was endorsing her candidacy. “The vice president is smart and strong which will make her a good president,” he said.
While some Democrats are advocating for an “open process” in Chicago, there seems to be little appetite for a contentious battle for the nomination to take on former President Donald Trump, and any potential challenge seemed likely to be nominal.
“A lot of people would like to see a mini-primary. That’s the process to find out if you have the strongest candidate, whether it be Kamala or someone else, to get behind,” longtime Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia told CBS on Monday.
I mean, the Democratic Party has moved to the left. But let’s see if she comes back. Someone can change their position or direction at will. And I would like to see that direction change,” he said.
But Harris did not keep the $6,000 from Trump. A spokesperson told the Sacramento Bee in 2020 that she donated the money to a “nonprofit that advocates for civil and human rights for Central Americans” in 2015, by which point she had been reelected and was launching her bid for the Senate.
“These are not ordinary times. And this will not be an ordinary election,” Harris wrote in a solicitation text to supporters on Monday asking for $20 donations.
Sean Cooksey, the chair of the Federal Election Commission, said on NPR’s Morning Edition that there are valid arguments to be made about Harris being ineligible for those funds.
On Sunday, Cooksey shared on X a portion of federal campaign finance regulations, which states that if a candidate is “not a candidate in the general election,” all contributions made to that candidate for the November election “shall be either returned or refunded to the contributors or redesignated… or reattributed… as appropriate.”
But he may have to consider his interpretation if the Trump campaign files a complaint with the FEC, or a request for an advisory opinion, on Biden’s efforts to hand over his campaign war chest to Harris.
Given the abbreviated timeline for those complaints to be heard — there are roughly 100 days until the presidential election — Democrats’ efforts to do could also be challenged in court.
“We’re ready, and we’ve been ready,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said on X. “Kamala Harris will not be able to outrun the Harris-Biden record or her radical leftist record from the California days.”
Republicans will highlight Harris’s liberal immigration positions and argue that she covered up for Biden’s mental acuity. “You lied about it every day,” senior Trump campaign official Chris LaCivita said on X.
Donate Back to the Democrats: Spending Time To Veterate a Candidate in a State That Slips away from Biden
Mark Kelly has twice won statewide races and he could put back on the map a state that Democrats think has slipped away from Biden after he left the race.
With just four weeks until the convention, Democrats will have little time to vet a potential running mate and voters won’t have to wait long to find out: the running mate is historically announced in the days prior to the convention.
I was staring at the ones I was running against. I’ve contributed to most of them — can you believe it?” He said so. I give back to everyone. I have given to Democrats. I’ve given to Hillary. I have given to everyone because that was my job.
He acknowledged that history on the campaign trail in 2016, saying at one rally, “I’ve got to give to them, because when I want something, I get it. When I call, they kiss my a**.”
Trump has financially supported plenty of Democrats in his lifetime — in fact, as NPR has reported, most of his political donations went to Democrats until around 2010.
