Despite three weeks of op-eds in national news outlets and a small but growing number of Democrats in Congress calling on President Biden to quit the 2024 presidential race, it still came as a surprise when he did so on Sunday.
“I believe it is 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,” Biden said in a letter posted in a tweet early Sunday afternoon.
According to the New York Times, Biden only shared his decision with a small number of confidants, and most of his staff found out about it when the tweet appeared. Certainly no one in the Iowa Democratic Party knew the announcement was coming.
“It was just as much of a surprise to me today as it was to everyone else,” IDP Chair Rita Hart said during an online news conference a few hours after Biden’s tweet.
Hart started the news conference by praising Biden, saying the president “has served our country and Iowans well by lowering the cost of prescription drugs, like insulin, and passing the largest infrastructure package this country has ever seen.”
“I’m personally sad that President Biden has decided he is unable to continue the work that he has started by running for a second term,” she added. “But I recognize that this action means that Joe is telling us that it’s time for us to finish the job.”
Biden won the 2024 Iowa Caucus, which the IDP conducted using mail-in ballots for the first time in order to comply with Democratic National Committee rules. There were two candidates on the ballot in addition to Biden: Dean Phillips, a Minnesota congressman who did nothing to distinguish himself from Biden in terms of policies and based his campaign on Biden being too old for a second term, and bestselling self-help book author Marianne Williamson. Phillips and Williamson received 3 percent and 2.2 percent of the vote, respectively. Biden got 90.9 percent, winning all the state’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
Biden’s impressive showing was somewhat undercut by the fact that only 2.6 percent of eligible Iowa Democrats participated in the mail-in caucus. At the time, party officials attributed this exceptionally low turnout to a lack of a credible candidate challenging Biden and people’s unfamiliarity with the new method of voting.
Less than 30 minutes after tweeting his letter, Biden tweeted his endorsement of Kamala Harris to be the Democratic Party’s nominee, calling his selection of her as his vice president “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 Trump,” Biden said. “Let’s do this.”
Starting on Sunday afternoon, a wave of Democratic officials also endorsed Harris, and there was a spike in campaign contributions. ActBlue, the nonprofit fundraising platform used by Democrats, reported a massive increase in small-dollar contributions on Sunday.
As of 8 p.m. central time, “grassroots supporters have raised $46.7 million through ActBlue following Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign launch,” the platform said on Sunday night. “This has been the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle.”
Also on Sunday, the state Democratic parties of Florida, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee pledged all their available delegates to Harris.
During the news conference, Hart was asked about Harris’s candidacy. She said it was too soon for either herself or the IDP to take an official position on it.
“President Biden’s endorsement obviously means a great deal,” Hart said. She went on to say she is “sure that the delegates recognize that this is going to be their decision, their process, but I absolutely think that Iowa Democrats can rally around Kamala Harris as our nominee. But we’re very early in this process so we will see what happens as the hours and days go by.”
The question of what Iowa’s delegates will do at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was answered on Monday night.
“This evening, the Iowa Delegation to the 2024 Democratic National Convention met virtually to discuss the 2024 Presidential Nomination and decided to unanimously endorse Vice President Kamala Harris,” the IDP said in a news release.
“Iowans know what’s at stake this November. Our reproductive freedoms, our public schools, Social Security and Medicare, and our values are on the ballot,” Chair Hart said in the statement. “I’m proud to lead a united delegation in Chicago that will work relentlessly to elect more Democrats in Iowa and help get Kamala Harris elected as the next President of the United States.”
Bohannan and Corkery react
The two Democrats running for Congress in eastern Iowa called for Biden to quit the race more than a week before he announced his decision. On July 11, both Christina Bohannan, the Democratic candidate in the 1st Congressional District, and Sarah Corkery in the 2nd Congressional District, issued statements saying Biden needed to step aside in favor of a younger candidate.
“It is time for President Biden to withdraw from this campaign and pass the torch to a new generation of leadership,” Bohannan said, without naming anyone to whom Biden might pass the torch.
“It is time to pass the baton to Kamala Harris,” Corkery said. “She will be ready to fight and make sure we keep our democracy alive.”
After Biden’s announcement, Bohannan posted a statement on social media.
“Today, President Biden has proved himself to be a true patriot who puts his country before himself,” the statement began. “I respect his many years of dedicated public service and his steadfast commitment to our democracy.”
Corkery struck a more critical note when she spoke to the Gazette on Sunday about Biden’s decision.
“If you’re disappointed, be disappointed in a party that put somebody up when they knew President Biden wasn’t in his best form,” she said. “But regardless, I am really proud of President Biden for making this tough call. It was his call to make all along, nobody else could make it. And I think it’s going to show that Democrats can be nimble. Democrats can make a change, even when maybe, in the past, we have gone forward with a plan that didn’t seem like it was going to work.”
Corkery said Democrats should unite behind Harris, adding “it’s time for a woman to be in charge.”
Iowa Republicans react
As was to be expected, the elected Republican leaders condemned Biden’s decision, just as they had his candidacy and his presidency. None of them suggested Biden had acted on principle, or said anything positive about his more than half-a-century of public service. All of them said a new candidate wouldn’t stop Trump from winning.
Gov. Kim Reynolds echoed the claims of national Republican leaders who said Biden’s decision means his unfit to be president and should resign.
“It doesn’t matter who the Democrats nominate to replace Joe Biden on the ticket — they all represent the same failed policies of the last 4 years — especially Kamala Harris,” the governor posted. “Donald Trump will be our next President. Until then, if Joe Biden can’t run for reelection, it’s clear he isn’t capable of running the country.”
Sen. Joni Ernst also claimed Biden should exit the White House as well as the race, using blunter language than Reynolds: “Biden is unfit to run and unfit to serve.”
Rep. Ashley Hinson started her tweeted statement by suggesting “the media” had been in a conspiracy with Biden “to hide his decline & gaslight Americans.”
“If Biden is unfit to run, he’s unfit to serve as President,” Hinson wrote. “He should resign. I am confident President Trump will beat Kamala Harris or any other left wing radical they run against him.”
Predictably, the Iowa Republican leader with the most aggressive response to Biden’s announcement was Attorney General Brenna Bird. In addition to her habit of using intemperate language, Bird has emerged as Trump’s top Iowa surrogate during this election cycle. Bird was the highest-profile Iowa Republican to endorse Trump ahead of the Iowa Caucus. Bird made her endorsement on the same day the federal judge overseeing Trump’s trial on his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, culminating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, issued a gag order preventing Trump from making statements attacking potential witnesses and court personnel.
In May, Bird traveled to New York to serve as one of Trump’s surrogates during his trial on falsifying business records in an attempt to illegally influence the 2016 election, standing outside the courthouse to make the sort of statements Trump couldn’t because of a gag order in that case. Trump repeatedly ignored that gag order, until the judge threatened to jail him for future violations. Trump then had a series of Republicans, including Bird, act as his mouthpiece to denounce the trial and the witnesses. Trump was convicted of all 34 felonies he was charged with in that case.
Bird was rewarded for her loyalty to Trump with a prime speaking slot at last week’s Republican National Convention. Bird denounced Democrats for wanting to “defund the police,” despite the Biden’s administration increasing funding for local law enforcement. She praised Trump as a sturdy ally of law enforcement, even though he has promised to gut the FBI and talked about eliminating the independence of the Justice Department.
“Republicans get justice for victims and put criminals in jail where they belong,” Bird told convention delegates in her speech. “That’s why we need to elect President Donald J. Trump.”
The attorney general did not mention Trump’s 34 felony convictions or his other pending criminal indictments.
“Democrats have destroyed this country over the last 4 years,” Bird said at the beginning of her tweeted statement about Biden’s decision, before moving onto complain about “mass illegal immigration, soaring inflation, and a woke green scam.”
“And now, they’ve single-handedly dismantled our primary system,” Bird continued.
“Regardless of what their next political ploy is, Americans see the truth. And President @realDonaldTrump will win in November!”
Perhaps the most temperate response from an Iowa Republican leader came from Chuck Grassley, who served alongside Biden in the Senate for 28 years, although the soon-to-be 91 year-old didn’t show any sympathy or respect for the younger Biden.
“The American ppl are sick & tired of the Biden-Harris open border policies + high cost of living crushing family budgets. A change in candidate doesn’t fool anyone Changing horses midstream isn’t going to stop the bad policies +reckless agenda at the top of the Democrat ticket.”
In a written statement on Sunday, Vice President Harris called President Biden’s decision to step aside “selfless and patriotic.”
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination,” Harris said. “Over the past year, I have traveled 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. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation — to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
