Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the US presidential race gives Democrats a rare opportunity to put a struggling campaign behind them, but opens the door to uncertain weeks that will determine whether they can take on Donald Trump.
Grassroots voters will likely expect a better response than they did during the original nomination race, when Democrats offered no worthy challenger to the 81-year-old presidential candidate despite concerns about his age.
“Joe Biden has shown great leadership and now it’s time for (Democrats) to show equal leadership with an open process to determine the best candidate to run against Trump Vance in November,” said Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur who ran against Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“The goal is simple: to win,” he wrote to X.
Biden’s endorsement puts Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, in the strongest position to succeed him and could solidify her support in the coming days, a coronation that would allow Democrats to turn their attacks on President Trump.
If that doesn’t happen, it increases the likelihood of a messy and potentially damaging battle for roughly 4,000 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago just four weeks away.
The party’s national chair, Jaime Harrison, has pledged a “transparent and orderly process” to replace Biden, who would be the first president since Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 not to seek a second term.
Prosecutor Kamala
His campaign began to unravel after a disastrous debate with Trump last month and concerns about his age and mental capacity.
Trump, who will be 82 at the end of his second term, appears stronger than he has been, but opposition from younger candidates will likely focus attention on his speeches and interviews, where he is often incoherent and prone to getting people’s names wrong.
Several younger Democratic candidates under the age of 60 have been mentioned as possible alternatives to Biden, including Governors Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom.
Whitmer appeared to immediately signal she would not run, and Newsom has previously said he would not challenge Harris, but neither has explicitly ruled out running.
A campaign led by Harris and backed by a moderate Midwestern running mate could be Democrats’ best chance at turning out more women, who historically vote in higher numbers than men and are a weakness for Trump.
Harris will also have an opportunity at the Democratic convention to reframe this race as a culture clash between a former prosecutor and a convicted felon.
“She’s been mostly in the shadows for the last four years, and it’s time for Kamala to return as prosecutor,” said Sarah Sadhwani, an assistant professor of political science at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
A new survey released Thursday by Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling found that with the right running mate, Harris could beat Trump and Vance in two of the three “blue wall” states crucial to the Democratic presidential race – Pennsylvania and Michigan.
A clean break up?
Ryan Waite, a political marketing expert at Brigham Young University-Idaho, told AFP that a contested nomination could benefit Democrats by taking the spotlight off Trump for several months.
“The new Democratic candidate will benefit from a short vetting period and greater media influence right before the election,” he told AFP. “The conversation now is about who the nominee will be, and that will be disruptive throughout the convention.”
A new nominee other than Harris would mark a stark break from much of the criticism of the Biden administration over high inflation, the border crisis and its disorganized withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But Harris will likely inherit all of the Biden campaign’s cash reserves — about $94 million as of July — while other candidates may have to share funds with lower-ranking candidates.
She will also need to make a renewed case for support from some of the Biden-Harris campaign’s most influential backers, such as the United Auto Workers union. Of course, Harris herself could face this problem.
Republicans have threatened to challenge the delayed substitution in court, but Marc Elias, the Democratic party’s top election lawyer, has asserted that the final candidate will appear on the ballot in all 50 states.
“Any legal challenges are without merit. Period,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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“In my best interest…” Joe Biden withdraws from US presidential election
