After weeks of defiance, US President Joe Biden has conceded the inevitable and withdrawn from the 2024 presidential election, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to run in his place. Biden’s withdrawal at this stage in an election year is, as you will no doubt have read, unprecedented.
So what happens now?
Is Kamala Harris the nominee now?
Though politically significant, Biden’s endorsement does not guarantee that Harris will become the Democratic Party’s nominee. The Democratic National Convention, to be held in Chicago on August 19, will decide. It will be the first “open” convention since the notorious convention of 1968, also held in Chicago. Incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson, leading a party divided over America’s war in Vietnam, had barely scraped through the New Hampshire primary and had withdrawn from the race. Hubert Humphrey was eventually nominated as the Democratic presidential nominee over anti-war senator Eugene McCarthy, amid rioting and brutal police tactics.
It was in response to the controversy over Humphrey’s victory — he had entered none of the state primaries or caucuses — that the nomination process was changed to what we see today. From then on — and from 1972 in the case of the Republican Party — the delegates who pledge support for one presidential nominee or another had to be selected by voters through a series of state-based primaries or caucuses.
Hence the difficulty facing the Democrats this time around. As an incumbent, Biden won every state primary and caucus earlier this year (he lost the territory of American Samoa). Around 3,896 delegates were pledged to support him. And he can’t simply hand them over to Harris.
All these delegates are now “unpledged”, and will be required to decide at the convention.
Who has endorsed Harris so far?
Apart from Biden, former president Bill Clinton, and former Democratic nominees Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have all thrown their support behind Harris, along with three Democratic governors and a raft of representatives and senators. So far, former president Barack Obama has offered no specific endorsement, while former speaker Nancy Pelosi has previously urged an “open” process if Biden dropped out.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who looks like a president in a ’90s movie and has been open about his ambitions for top office, did not mention Harris at all in his note of thanks to Biden. He has since endorsed her. There was, however, time during the intervening silence for “sources close” to Newsom to insist he had nothing whatsoever to do with a “polling memo” that shows him in a good position to win the presidency, and which found its way into the media in the near-immediate aftermath of Biden’s announcement.
Democratic Party rules allow for up to around 15 candidates to run, though presumably a messy battle for the role is the last things Democrats want after the last three and a half weeks (yep, it’s been less than a month since that debate).
What have the Republicans had to say?
Rising, as ever, to the dignity of his position, freshly confirmed Republican nominee Donald Trump greeted the news of Biden’s withdrawal by taking to Truth Social (for the uninitiated, it’s X but for people even more sycophantic towards Trump than Elon Musk) to post:
Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve — And never was! He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his basement.
All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t … We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly.
Trump followed up with a phone call to CNN where he described Biden as the “single worst president by far in the history of our country”, while his campaign released an attack ad aimed at Harris’ record on the US border. Trump clearly had a different estimation of Harris in 2011 and 2013, when he contributed to her political campaigns.
What has Harris said?
Saying she was “honoured to have the president’s endorsement”, Harris has said her “intention is to earn and win this nomination”. Though she hasn’t commenced her attack on Trump yet, an ad from her campaign to secure the nomination in 2020 has started to recirculate:
What has Anthony Albanese said?
Last October, when Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was on a state visit to the US, there was a mass shooting (itself something of a statistical inevitability), which prompted Harris to praise Australia’s gun control regime: “Gun violence has terrorised and traumatised so many of our communities in this country. And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way — as our friends in Australia have demonstrated,” she said at a joint press conference.
“I know Kamala Harris well. She’s a good friend of Australia as well,” Albanese told the ABC this morning. “Of course, we will wait and see what comes out of the Democratic Convention. And that is, of course, a matter for the US.”
And what of the Bidens?
Meanwhile, Biden will spend the next six months likely fighting calls from opportunistic Republicans calling for him to stand down immediately, along with a general sense he is now a lame duck. And spare a thought for his wife Jill, who next month will grace the cover of Vogue alongside the phrase “we will decide our future”. In other news, we in the bunker offer our congratulations to Thomas E. Dewey after his victory over Harry Truman.
What does Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race mean for the 2024 US election? Who should the Democrats nominate — and can they beat Donald Trump? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
