Newsletter Extra: Biden rips the Band-Aid
President Biden exits the race, Vice President Kamala Harris files to run and Team Trump practices its attack lines. Here's your breaking campaign news on a busy Sunday.
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President Biden ends his candidacy:
Today, President Joe Biden made history.
After enduring weeks of pressure to pass the torch, he surprised the political world by announcing his intention to exit the presidential race. He posted a letter to X at 1:46 PM EST. In it, he says, “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest 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.”
In the letter he praised Vice President Harris without endorsing her. This left Democrats madly messaging one another, unsure what exactly would happen next. Within 30 minutes Biden put some of that confusion to rest, posting a follow-up message endorsing his VP. He wrote, “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 Trump. Let’s do this.”
The party has not entirely come together behind Harris, but it sure looks like it’s headed there. More this below.
In a statement shortly after Biden’s news, Harris declared that she plans to “earn and win this nomination” and quickly filed paperwork with the FEC. The Biden Harris campaign separately file paperwork to change its name to Harris for President. Her team started holding virtual events with top Democrats, reaching out to delegates and supporters and raising money in historic amounts – demonstrating they are in full throttle campaign mode. It is designed to make her nomination inevitable.
Here I’ll cover what this means for Democrats, Trump’s response, the divisions (which are fading) inside the Democratic Party about the way forward, and a note on history.
Relief, enthusiasm and some anxiety:
Already Democratic party donors have shown their enthusiasm by flooding the campaign with contributions. The Democratic fundraising site ActBlue announced they’ve taken in $46.7 million in small dollar donations in the few hours since Biden announced he’s exiting the race.
Party insiders who have been advocating for a change argue that Biden’s exit injects fresh energy into the campaign. They believe that this dramatic campaign shakeup will capture the attention of traditional media and social media creators, giving the campaign more coverage. They believe (or hope) that this will give Harris an opportunity to sell her message to voters who haven’t been paying much attention and to win over those who’ve been paying attention but felt demoralized.
Harris’s allies say her candidacy will hold a stronger appeal to young voters, voters of color, swing women voters (including suburban moderate Republicans who dislike Trump), voters energized by the fight for abortion rights — which Harris has made a signature issue – and those energized by LGBTQ+ and racial equity issues. They also insist she has political skills she hasn’t been able to put on full display to date.
Mixed news for team Trump:
It’s no secret that the Trump campaign wanted to run against President Biden. With Biden out, they’re trying a new strategy.
The Trump campaign released this attack ad – accusing Harris of covering up issues around President Biden’s acuity and blaming her for policy failures of the Biden years. Biden charged Harris with working on the Southern border and this gives Trump/Vance an opening to tie her to the biggest immigration problems of the Biden years — an issue already central to their campaign.
Sen JD Vance doubled down on that strategy releasing a statement saying, “she co-signed Biden’s open border and green-scam policies that drove up the cost of housing and groceries. She owns all of these failures and she lied for nearly four years about Biden’s mental-capacity – saddling the nation with a president who can’t do the job.”
I have no doubt that they’ll come up with a ferocious and effective message against Harris – Trump is uniquely skilled at negatively framing his opponents – but it’s not without challenges.
And a small thing but you’ll be hearing about it: Trump donated $6000 to Harris’ campaign when she was California Attorney General. Ivanka also gave her $2000 in 2014.
First Black and South Asian woman:
Many of you asked if Harris’ gender and race would be front and center in her campaign. Obviously her identity isn’t something she can or would want to hide and it will be a topic for both campaigns. But from Harris’ perspective, she’ll have to be careful about making that a centerpiece of the campaign; voters want to know what the candidate will do for them, not what winning will mean for her and for history. From the perspective of the Trump campaign, they’ll have to be careful about racist or sexist dog whistles. I have no doubt that trolls on the internet will traffic in those messages — X is full of them already. But when it comes to the campaign itself, those kinds of attacks could easily backfire by alienating swing women and young Black men who could vote for either candidate and could decide the election.
Harris’ nomination to lose:
Meantime over on the Democrat’s side – there is a divide about whether Harris is the inevitable nominee. VP Harris won quick endorsements from Democratic party heavyweights, but some important leaders are holding out.
Those who have endorsed Harris include:
President Biden
Former President Clinton and Secretary State Hillary Clinton who wrote, "Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we've got to elect her.”
Senate Democrats such as Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Patty Murray (D., Wash.), Mark Warner (D., Va.), Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.) and Tina Smith (D., Minn.), Amy Klobuchar (D. Mn)
Influential House progressives and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
Party heavyweight Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)
Prominent donors including Alex and George Soros
Key fundraising groups Priorities USA and Emily’s List
Gov Josh Shapiro (PA), a possible VP contender
Gov. Gavin Newsom (CA), this means he will not compete for the nomination
Gov Gretchen Whitmer (MI) – CNN and Politico report that she threw her support behind Harris in a Harris for President conference call
This is a partial list. It keeps growing.
Other party elders released statements praising Biden while remaining silent on Harris. This list includes:
Former President Obama
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffires
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
They seem to be holding back, waiting to see how quickly and effectively Harris locks up the support of the party — or whether someone else credible jumps in.
