Kamala Harris moves swiftly to lock up support after Joe Biden quits the race for the White House

Washington: Vice President Kamala Harris has moved swiftly to secure Democratic support behind her campaign for the White House after President Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the 2024 election amid concerns from within his own party that he would be unable to defeat Donald Trump.

In a move that rocked the political world and upended the campaign four months from election day, the 81-year-old Biden made his announcement on Sunday (Monday AEST) in a letter addressed to Americans via social media after weeks of pressure to stand down.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House in 2021.Credit: AP

He said in a statement on X he would remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025. He will address the nation later this week.

“It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as your president,” he wrote.

“And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”

By dropping his re-election bid, Biden clears the way for Harris to run at the top of the ticket, the first black woman to do so in the country’s history.

And, in a move to bypass weeks of drama and division from within party ranks, prominent Democrats quickly lined up to endorse the vice president in the hours after Biden announced his withdrawal.

It was unclear whether any other senior Democrats would challenge Harris for the party’s nomination, or whether the party would choose to open the field for nominations.

However, any move to bypass Harris would open up ugly divisions in party ranks, four months from election day and less than a month from the party’s national convention in Chicago. By Sunday night (Washington time), she was the only declared candidate and was working to quickly secure endorsements from a majority of Democrat delegates.

It’s only the first item on a staggering political to-do list for Harris after Biden’s decision, which she learned of on a Sunday morning call with the president. If she’s successful at locking up the nomination, she must also pick a running mate and pivot a massive political operation to boost her candidacy instead of Biden’s with just over 100 days until the election.

Biden has endorsed Harris for the Democrats’ nomination for the November presidential election.Credit: AP

In endorsing her run, Biden said: “My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my vice president. And it’s been 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.

“Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat [Republican candidate Donald] Trump. Let’s do this.”

Harris later put out a statement saying she was honoured to have the president’s endorsement while noting that “my intention is to earn and win this nomination”.

“Over the past year I have travelled across the country, talking with Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election. And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead,” Harris said, adding that she would do everything in her power to unite her party and the nation.

“We have 107 days until election day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”

Harris said Biden’s decision to pull out of the White House race was a “selfless and patriotic act”.

The timing of the announcement – coming at 1.46 on a Sunday afternoon in Washington (3.36am Monday AEST) – took the world by surprise, particularly as Biden had appeared determined to dig in and had said on Saturday that he would return to the campaign trail this week.

His defiance came despite almost 40 congressional Democrats calling for him to stand down since his disastrous debate with Trump, and stalwarts such as former House speaker Nancy Pelosi privately warning him that he could not only lose the White House but also control of the US Congress unless he withdrew.

Of particular concern was the fact that donations were starting to slow amid growing concerns about Biden’s mental acuity, which would have made it even harder for the party to campaign against Trump and his chosen running mate, J.D. Vance.

Biden’s campaign formally changed its name to Harris for President, reflecting that she is inheriting his political operation of more than 1000 staffers and a war chest that stood at nearly $US96 million ($144 million) at the end of June.

Small-dollar donors raised more than $US46.7 million on ActBlue in the first five hours of Harris’ presidential campaign, the fundraising platform said.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was!

“We will suffer greatly because of his presidency, but we will remedy the damage he has done very quickly. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Biden secured enough delegates in mid-March, clinching the Democratic nomination without any serious challengers, largely because he was the incumbent – and despite persistent concerns about his age.

At 81, Biden is already America’s oldest president and would have been 86 by the end of a second term. However, a nightmare performance in the first presidential debate in late June led to growing defections in his ranks, with the Democratic caucus splitting on whether he should step aside.

Trump, 78, has returned to the campaign trail this weekend with a party galvanised by his near-death experience and the Democrats in disarray over their leadership.

Biden embarked on a number of campaign rallies and conducted a prime-time television interview in which he fought off suggestions that he was too old for the job. But a rare, high-stakes, solo press conference at the conclusion of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., did little to convince his doubters he still had the mental and physical ability to win the election.

While it was not a repeat of the train wreck of a performance from his first debate, Biden gave a series of shaky answers. Among several gaffes, he referred to Harris as “Vice President Trump” during the press conference, which lasted more than an hour.

In a hypothetical head-to-head match-up, Harris and Trump were tied with 44 per cent support each in a July 15-16 Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted immediately after the assassination attempt against Trump.

Trump led Biden 43 per cent to 41 per cent in that same poll, though the 2 percentage point difference was within the poll’s 3 percentage point margin of error.

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