Biden drops out of presidential race and endorses Harris to be nominee

President Joe Biden announced Sunday he is dropping out of the 2024 race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s new nominee, after mounting calls from Democrats to end his reelection bid. Biden said he will finish his term and will address the nation later this week.

A possible historic nominee: Harris said she’s “honored” to receive Biden’s endorsement and vowed to “earn and win” the nomination. Harris could be the first Black woman and first Asian American to lead the ticket of a major political party. Several notable Democrats, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and some leading progressives, announced their support for Harris, while praising Biden’s leadership.
What happens next: Despite Biden’s backing, it remains unclear whether Harris will become the nominee, or what process the party will take to select an alternative. Either during a virtual roll call, which is tentatively planned for early August, or at the convention in Chicago beginning August 19, delegates will select a new candidate to be the party’s nominee. Read more about the process here.
Trump reacts: In a phone call with CNN after Biden announced his exit, Trump described Biden as “the worst president by far in the history of our country.” The former president issued a fundraising appeal in a message to supporters.

President Joe Biden will end his bed for reelection and has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

Despite Biden’s backing, it remains unclear whether Harris will become the nominee, or what process the party will take to select an alternative.

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions:

Does Harris just become the nominee? No. While Biden has already endorsed his vice president for the nomination, there’s no succession protocol for the presidential ticket in the way there is for the office. Harris will have to win a majority of the convention just like anyone else.

What’s the “virtual roll call”? Democrats are in the process of setting up a system to conduct their presidential nomination vote remotely before the party’s convention next month.

Under a plan presented Friday, delegates would get 24 hours’ notice before voting begins, and voting would take place via digital ballots emailed to delegates.

However, the party did not take any steps to approve the plan at Friday’s meeting. It’s not yet clear whether the party will stick with the remote vote plan or scrap it and allow the formal vote to happen on the convention floor.

How would other candidates get into the race? Under party rules, candidates must meet certain requirements to have their names placed into nomination to be the party’s presidential candidate.

They must gather hundreds of signatures from delegates (at least 300, but not more than 600) from several states.

Candidates also must meet a series of requirements laid out in party rules, including that they are a “bona fide Democrat” and that they have “established substantial support for their nomination as the Democratic candidate” for president. While this determination is to be made by the DNC chair, the party has not yet released more details on how eligible candidates would be determined.

What are delegates? There are two separate sets of delegates.

There are 3,949 pledged delegates. These are delegates who were selected through various state-level processes. About 99% of them were pledged to vote for Biden, based on his performance in primaries and caucuses around the country. The individuals who were pledged to vote for Biden were also approved by his campaign.

Roughly 750 (747 as of the last word from the DNC – this number can change) are automatic delegates. Also known as “superdelegates,” these are individuals who serve as delegates by virtue of another position they hold or held. These delegates are free to vote for the candidate of their choice, but under normal circumstances, they can’t vote on the first ballot if their votes could impact the results of the nomination (it’s not exactly clear whether they’ll be able to participate on this first ballot in this case.

Are Democratic delegates required to vote for the candidate who won them? No. Under Democratic party rules, pledged delegates “shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.” However, the candidates’ right of review means that delegates can be expected to be loyal to the candidate to whom they’re pledged.

But now that Biden is no longer a candidate, his delegates are free to vote for whomever they’d like. He doesn’t need to formally “release” his delegates.

Passing “the first gun safety law in 30 years”: Biden signed a bipartisan gun safety bill into law in June 2022, in the wake of the mass shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket. The compromise legislation includes money for school safety, mental health, state crisis intervention programs and incentives for states to include juvenile records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which would provide a more comprehensive background check for those between the ages of 18 and 21 who want to buy guns. However, it failed to ban any weapons and fell short of what Biden and Democratic lawmakers have advocated for.
Appointing “the first African American woman to the Supreme Court”: Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court in February 2022. A former Washington DC appellate court judge, Jackson became the first Black woman to sit on the highest court in the nation, allowing Biden to deliver on one of his top 2020 campaign promises.
Passing the “most significant climate legislation in the history of the world”: The nearly $370 billion clean energy and climate package contained in the Inflation Reduction Act is the largest climate investment in American history. It’s also the biggest victory for the environmental movement since the landmark Clean Air Act. It aims to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 and contains many tax incentives meant to bring down the cost of electricity with more renewables and spur more American consumers to switch to electricity to power their homes and vehicles.

The Biden campaign leadership, including manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, have voiced support for Vice President Kamala Harris on an all-staff call.

The call was with the Biden campaign team and Democratic National Committee staff. The leaders told the staff they had a job to do.

Another source added that Biden’s campaign staff were told everyone still had a job on the campaign.

“The team is the team,” they were told.

Notably, staff have not offered any concrete logistical information, details many members of Biden’s Wilmington team are anxiously awaiting. The president is in Rehoboth Beach isolating after he tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

The Biden-Harris campaign has formally amended filings with the Federal Election Commission to rename its principal committee, hours after President Joe Biden made his announcement that he would withdraw from the race.

On Sunday, the campaign committee filed paperwork with the FEC, which noted that the “committee name is different than previously reported,” re-designating the committee as “Harris for President.”

The committee also filed a letter with the commission stating: “Vice President Harris is now a candidate for United States President in the 2024 election and will henceforth be conducting campaign activities only in pursuit of that office.”

Remember: Control of the campaign war chest, however — totaling $95.9 million at the end of June — depends on whether Harris remains on the Democrats’ 2024 ticket.

According to a statement from the Campaign Legal Center, those funds would be directly available to the Democrats’ presidential ticket for use in the general election only if Harris is the party’s nominee or vice presidential nominee.

If Harris does not end up on Democrats’ 2024 ticket, the funds could not be directly transferred to a new candidate. The existing campaign account could be converted into a political action committee and use its funds indirectly.

Making “historic investments” in rebuilding our nation: Biden signed the bipartisan $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law in November 2021. It contains $550 billion of new federal investments in America’s infrastructure over five years, touching everything from bridges, roads and rails to the nation’s broadband, water and energy systems. However, it left out Biden’s proposal to spend $400 billion to bolster caregiving for aging and disabled Americans and several other measures he supported.
Lowering drug prices for seniors: The sweeping $750 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed into law in August 2022, contained multiple measures aimed at reducing prescription drug costs for Medicare enrollees. They include allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for certain drugs for the first time, capping insulin costs at $35 a month, restricting the growth in drug prices to inflation and limiting Medicare Part D out-of-pocket drug costs. Biden often spoke about these provisions on the campaign trail.
Expanding health care to “a record number of Americans”: Those buying health insurance policies on the Affordable Care Act exchanges are temporarily eligible for more generous federal premium subsidies thanks to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which Biden signed into law in March 2021. This beefed-up assistance helped prompt a record 21.3 million people to sign up for 2024 coverage on the Obamacare exchanges. However, the next president and Congress will have to decide whether to continue the subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of 2025.
Providing care to veteran exposed to toxic substances: The Honoring our PACT Act, which Biden signed into law in August 2022, adds conditions related to burn pit and toxic exposure, including hypertension, to the Department of Veterans Affairs list of illnesses that have been incurred or exacerbated during military service. It removes the burden for veterans to prove that their toxic exposure resulted in these conditions. Biden has said he believes there may have been a connection between the brain cancer that killed his 46-year-old son, Beau, and the burn pits Beau was exposed to during his military service.