President Joe Biden leaves the White House on July 15 en route to a Las Vegas campaign speech. After weeks of pressure, Biden announced Sunday he is dropping his reelection bid. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, saying in a letter posted to social media that it is “in the best interest of my party and my country to stand down.”
He also said he planned on finishing his term and and continuing our “great progress as a Nation,” which he recited in a list of achievements that made up the bulk of the one-page letter that was posted shortly before 2 p.m.
The move creates an unprecedented vacancy atop the Democratic ticket one month before Biden was scheduled to officially accept his party’s nomination.
Maryland Democrats who did react Sunday – many have stood on the sidelines as the debate raged for weeks over whether Biden should stay or go – praised the president’s decision.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) called Biden “a friend, and … a passionate public servant throughout his lifetime, putting the needs of this nation first time and again,” before ticking off a list of Biden’s accomplishments in office.
“For all this and more, Joe Biden has earned the right to determine his own future and I respect his decision,” Cardin said. “I thank him for his incredible service with all my heart.”
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-5th) said in a prepared statement that Biden made “one of the greatest acts of patriotism in American history by choosing not to run for reelection.”
Rep. David Trone (D-6th), in a prepared statement, commended “President Biden’s decision to allow a new generation of leaders to take this country to new heights — leaders who will continue his legacy of unity and strength, of focusing on what brings us together, not what tears us apart.”
Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Balitmore City) called Biden’s decision “a testament to his character and love of country.”
“I am reminded of President Washington’s farewell address, delivered from the Maryland State House in Annapolis, in which his voluntary relinquishment of power set the precedent for democracies around the world,” Ferguson said in a prepared statement. “President Biden’s decision today echoes that selflessness.”
There was no immediate response from Gov. Wes Moore, who has been one of the strongest defenders of Biden in recent weeks and has insisted he should stay in the race.
The move throws an already-unusual presidential race into urther chaos, and it was not immediately clear Sunday how Democrats would choose a replacement for Biden in November’s election, though Vice President Kamala Harris would have a strong claim to lead the ticket.
Biden did not endorse a replacement in his letter, but praised Harris as “an extraordinary partner” in the administration’s accomplishments. Moments after the letter was posted, he added a social media post in which he offered “my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.”
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic nominee for Senate, expressed “immense gratitude” for Biden’s leadership of the last four years, but said a win by former President Donald Trump would pose a “grave threat to our freedoms and to the future of our country.”
Alsobrooks called on Democrats to unite behind the vice president as the party’s nominee going forward.
Others, like Cardin, stressed the need for Democrats to come together to ensure the defeat of Trump, who Cardin said “is not fit to hold elected office.”
Biden’s withdrawal came after a weeks-long pressure campaign from party insiders following a disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump, who officially became the GOP nominee at last week’s Republican National Convention.
Biden, 81, appeared frail and confused at several points throughout the debate, leading to worries among elected Democrats and the party’s voters that he was no longer up to the task of governing or contesting Trump’s bid to win back the White House.
Ten congressional Democrats went on the record Friday, calling on Biden to drop out, bringing the total to 31 members of Congress. And West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a former Democrat who became an independent, added his voice this weekend.
No leading Maryland Democrats had officially called for Biden to drop out before this weekend, and some had been among the president’s staunchest defenders, with Moore the most prominent.
As recently as Friday, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-4th) was on CNN saying that while donors and the media were focused on the issue of whether Biden should stay or go, the 14 million voters who cast ballots for Biden in the primaries were eager for him to get back on the campaign trail.
It was revealed last week that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th), who was a member of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, wrote a deeply personal letter to Biden just days after the disastrous debate. In it, he stopped short of explicitly calling on Biden to step down, but urged the president in a reconsider whether he should remain in the presidential race.
– Maryland Matters staff contributed to this report from Annapolis.
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