Kamala Harris has three major obstacles to overcome to be president

Washington: It was not the ending he wanted, nor was it the ending he deserved.

But four years after running for office in the hope of healing a fiercely fractured nation, US President Joe Biden has withdrawn his bid for a second term – in the hope of uniting his divided party to beat Donald Trump once again.

Kamala Harris is the frontrunner to go up against Donald Trump.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

In a decision that has upended an already extraordinary election year, America’s oldest president succumbed to internal pressure on Sunday (Monday AEST) and announced he would drop out of the race, publicly endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination.

“While it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down,” the 81-year-old said in a statement posted on X at 1.46pm in Washington.

Biden’s decision puts the 59-year-old Harris in a powerful position – albeit not guaranteed – to become the new generational face of the Democratic Party, which has spent the past few weeks in disarray ever since the president’s shocking debate performance.

Harris was the first black woman to serve as California’s attorney-general, the first American of south Asian descent elected to the US Senate and the first woman to become vice president. Now, she could make history again if she secures the party’s nomination and ends up defeating Trump for the White House.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris after the Independence Day fireworks in Washington.Credit: AP

Time, however, is running out. With only four months until election day, no sitting American president has dropped out of a race so late in the cycle.

About 4000 Democratic delegates are also heading to Chicago for the party’s national convention on August 19-22, when most of them were originally planning to formally nominate Biden as their chosen candidate after he won most of the votes at this year’s presidential primaries.

However, after his abrupt announcement, they are not bound by party rules to back anyone – even the person he has endorsed.

Amid uncertainty over whether any other Democrats would seek to challenge her for the candidacy, Harris moved swiftly on Sunday (Monday AEST) to solidify her position as the obvious frontrunner.

She thanked the president for his endorsement, paid tribute to his “legacy of accomplishment”, and declared her “intention is to earn and win this nomination”.

Other influential Democrats soon lined up behind her, from Bill and Hillary Clinton to others who are often mentioned as presidential contenders, such as California Governor Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

But should she become the nominee, Harris, and whoever she picks as a running mate, faces several challenges.

First, she would have only a few months to unite the party (some of whom do not support her or believe she can beat Trump) and boost her approval ratings (which have been on par with, and sometimes worse than, Biden’s).

Second, she faces a barrage of Republican attacks, with Trump’s campaign and their allies already portraying her as Biden’s “enabler in chief”, claiming she had lied about his cognitive decline to the American people. They will also tie her to the administration’s perceived failures, particularly her previous role as its chosen person to tackle the border crisis.

Migrants from Central America wait for food in a pen erected by US Customs officers in El Paso, Texas in 2019.Credit: AP

Third, there’s the unavoidable issue of racism and sexism in politics. In more than two centuries, American voters have elected only one black president – Barack Obama – and never a woman, which has left some in the black community wondering if Harris can buck the trend.

“Will her race and gender be an issue?” said LaTosha Brown, a political strategist and co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund. “Absolutely.”

Whether Democrats – and voters more broadly – rally behind Harris is yet to be seen. But Biden, who previously insisted that only “the Almighty” could convince him to drop out of the race, ultimately did the right thing for his party and his country.

He was left with little choice. By the time his statement was released, almost 40 Congressional Democrats had publicly called for him to step aside.

Democrat stalwarts such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Obama were privately warning that the party could lose not only the White House to Republicans but also control of US Congress.

Then there was the spectre of Trump himself: a man who had been impeached twice, indicted four times, criminally convicted for falsifying business records, found liable for sexual assault and civil fraud, and whose refusal to transfer power at the last election led to a deadly attempted coup at the US Capitol.

Yet Trump had emerged from last week’s Republican National Convention more emboldened than ever after his near-death experience, polls showing him surging ahead in the three key states that will ultimately decide this election: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Biden, by comparison, had a legacy of achievement: overseeing the post-pandemic recovery, expanding affordable healthcare, record infrastructure investment, gun safety reform and climate change investment.

But he couldn’t stem the bleeding within his ranks or convince enough Americans he had the mental and physical ability to be their president.

In the end, a man who has devoted his life to public service did something Trump has yet to do: place the national interest above his own personal ambition.

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