Joe Biden drops out of presidential race, endorses Kamala Harris

President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign Sunday and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him, upending the election less than four months before Americans cast their ballots and marking a stunning coda for the Scranton native whose career in politics spanned five decades.

Biden, 81, said in a letter released Sunday afternoon that he was ending his campaign but will serve until the end of his term in January.

“I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” he said.

Biden, whose decision completely changes the face of an already unprecedented presidential contest, said he plans to address the nation this week.

The president also announced his support for Harris, saying that selecting her as his vice president was “the best decision I’ve made.”

“Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), shortly after announcing that he would exit the race. “Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

His announcement came amid a revolt within his own party following a halting debate performance last month that left Democrats questioning his mental and physical fitness. Since then, a string of polls showed the president trailing former President Donald Trump in key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, and losing ground in states once considered safely blue. Privately, some party donors and prominent politicians had mounted a pressure campaign to get Biden to drop out.

Within Pennsylvania, Democrats were split between full-throated support for Biden as the nominee and some who voiced concerns but never publicly called for him to step down.

Several Republicans responded to Biden’s announcement by questioning whether he was still fit to serve as president if he was stepping away from the campaign. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R., S.C.) said she would call on Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Among Democrats on Sunday, praise for the president poured in from some of his closest political allies who heralded his accomplishments in just one term in office as historic and his decision to step down as selfless and courageous.

“Joe Biden has always put the American people first and he’s also one of the toughest fighters I’ve ever known,” Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) said. “Every time he’s been knocked down by life, and he’s been knocked down harder and more than anyone I know, he’s gotten back up. I think these last three weeks he was determined to keep pushing, keep campaigning, and keep fighting. I’m incredibly proud of him.”

Biden’s decision to withdraw makes him the first sitting president since Lyndon Johnson in 1968 to forgo his party’s nomination, but Biden’s decision comes far later in the election cycle with less than a month before the party’s convention in Chicago, the latest exit of a presidential incumbent in modern history.

While Harris has not been officially nominated, Biden’s endorsement makes it likely she will be supported by party leaders and embraced by the national committee, when its 4,700 delegates meet to select a nominee at the party convention in Chicago next month. Pennsylvania Democratic Party chairman Sharif Street said on Sunday he would separately convene a state party vote to endorse her in the next day or two.

The Harris for President campaign, which became official on Sunday, will likely inherit the president’s campaign infrastructure and significant war chest.

While speculation had mounted that Biden was considering dropping out, it came as a shock to many, including those who worked for him. “I kept rereading the statement thinking it was a fake,” a staffer in Philadelphia who was unauthorized to speak to the press, said Sunday.

The Biden campaign had already hired more than 200 people in Pennsylvania. In a call with staff across the country, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Biden staffers would have a job if they wanted one in Harris’ campaign, should she become the nominee.

Harris, a former prosecutor who served as a U.S. senator from California, ran for president in 2020 and lost to Biden in the Democratic primary. She is the nation’s first-ever Black, Asian American, and female vice president.

If she wins in November, Harris would be the first female president in American history and the first Asian American president.

Should Harris officially win the nomination, a handful of senators and governors would be in contention to be her running mate, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a moderate Democrat considered a rising star in the party.

Shapiro endorsed Harris on Sunday in a statement that said he’d spoken to both Biden and Harris.

“I’ve known Kamala Harris for nearly two decades — we’ve both been prosecutors, we’ve both stood up for the rule of law, we’ve both fought for the people and delivered results,” Shapiro said. He called Harris “a patriot worthy of our support.”

Several Pennsylvania Democrats were already pushing Shapiro as a strong running mate, given the importance of Pennsylvania in the presidential election. Other names top Democrats are considering as a vice presidential pick include North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The Democratic ticket would face a Republican Party that has united behind Trump, who earlier this year became the first former president to be convicted of a crime and this month survived an attempted assassination in Western Pennsylvania.

Trump responded to the news on Truth Social slamming Biden without mentioning Harris. “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve and never was,” Trump wrote.

Other Republicans blasted the move as “antidemocratic,” an attack sure to continue into November.

“Democrats like to self-style themselves as ‘defenders of democracy,’ yet party elites came together in the shadows to force Joe Biden to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris,” said Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a Republican who has campaigned with Trump.

During the Republican National Convention last week, the GOP’s enthusiasm stood in stark contrast to the Democratic Party’s malaise over Biden’s chances at winning reelection. In the weeks following the debate, the president insisted repeatedly that he “had a bad night” but would stay the course, lashing out at elected officials who suggested he should withdraw and urging them to coalesce behind him.

But pressure from Biden’s fellow Democrats mounted last week, culminating Wednesday when reports trickled out that leaders at the highest levels of the party — including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi — had each recently told Biden that members of Congress were worried about his chances. The Associated Press reported that Thursday former President Barack Obama expressed similar reservations to allies.

“Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader but he’s a truly amazing human being,” Schumer said in a statement Sunday. “His decision of course was not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first. Joe, today shows you are a true patriot and great American.”

Similar commendations poured in from Democrats in Pennsylvania, both those who had stood by him during calls for him to bow out and some who were more skeptical.

“President Joe Biden is a patriot,” U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat who represents Philadelphia, said. “He selflessly put personal ambition aside to do what he thinks is best for our country. Today and every day, both in dark passages and bright days, I am always proud to be one of Joe Biden’s biggest supporters.”

Biden’s departure from the race caps a career in politics that began in 1973 when, at age 29, he was elected to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate, becoming one of the youngest senators in the nation’s history. Through the following 36 years, Biden became an elder statesman of the Senate, leading the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committees. He maintained a close connection to his Scranton roots and was often called the third senator from Pennsylvania.

While campaigning, he was adept at connecting with everyday voters, often speaking of his blue-collar upbringing and his personal story marked by tragedy. Biden’s first wife and a daughter were killed in a 1972 car crash and, in 2015, his son Beau died of cancer.

After unsuccessfully seeking the presidency twice, Biden in 2009 became vice president, serving alongside Obama, the first Black president in the nation’s history.

In 2020, Biden tried for a third time, running for president against the incumbent Trump on a pledge to restore decency to the White House and to navigate the nation out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden’s victory was sealed days after the election when he won Pennsylvania, the state where he was born. In Philadelphia, where a batch of counted mail ballots put Biden over the top, his supporters danced in the streets.

As president, he oversaw the recovery from the pandemic and managed the country’s position as war broke out in eastern Europe and the Middle East. His legislative achievements include massive investments in improving America’s infrastructure and responding to climate change.

But post-pandemic inflation meant rising prices on groceries, gas, and homes over the last several years, leaving many Americans dissatisfied with the state of the economy. Biden’s approval rating cratered and nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of the president.

While some Democrats on Sunday were pivoting to celebrate the opportunity Biden’s decision could give a flailing party in a highly consequential election year, others said it was a sad day for a president they’d come to know personally.

Biden’s personal tragedies have made him an empathetic political ally.

In an at-times tearful interview Sunday afternoon, State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia), who campaigned with Biden across the country, called Biden fundamentally decent.

He said Biden called him personally after he lost an election to urge him to stay the course. They once had an extended conversation about personal loss and tragedy.

“For some politicians, their kindness is an act. It’s a political strategy. It’s a thing that they employ to advance their own personal ego,” Kenyatta said. “For Joe Biden, it is so real.”