Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, announced his candidacy for re-election for a second presidential term on April 25, 2023, confirming that Vice President Kamala Harris would remain as his running mate. After winning the Democratic primaries, he faced off against the Republican Party ticket of 45th president Donald Trump and junior U.S. Senator for Ohio JD Vance. Biden ultimately withdrew from the race on July 21, 2024 due to concerns about his health and age, and low polling and approval numbers; he immediately endorsed Harris to replace him as the party's presidential nominee, who went on to lose the general election to Trump.
Biden made protecting American democracy a central focus of his campaign, along with restoring the federal right to abortion following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade. He also intended to increase funding for border patrol and security, and increase funding for law enforcement coupled with police reform. Biden promised to support, protect and expand LGBT rights and frequently touted his previous passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act's landmark investment to combat climate change.
Biden made strengthening U.S. alliances a key goal of his foreign policy and promised to continue supporting Ukraine following the Russian invasion of the country and Israel following their Gaza war, describing them as "vital" to U.S. national security interests. Biden promised to continue efforts to tackle gun violence and defend the Affordable Care Act following comments from Trump suggesting he would repeal the law. He proposed increasing taxes on the wealthy through a "billionaire minimum income tax" to reduce the deficit and fund social services for the poor. Biden's trade policy was described as rejecting traditional neoliberal economic policy and the Washington Consensus that resulted in the offshoring of manufacturing and populist backlash. It included targeted tariffs against strategic Chinese industries to protect manufacturing jobs and counter China's technological and military ambitions.
On March 12, 2024, Biden became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party after clinching enough delegates in Georgia, and easily defeating his primary challengers such as Representative Dean Phillips. The first presidential debate was held on June 27, 2024, between Biden and Trump. Biden's performance was widely criticized, with commentators saying that he frequently lost his train of thought and gave meandering answers. Several newspaper columnists declared Trump the winner of the debate, which was supported by polling results. After the debate, concerns about his health intensified, and Biden faced many calls to withdraw from the race, including from fellow Democrats and the editorial boards of several major news outlets.
Biden initially refused calls to drop out from the race and insisted that he would remain a candidate. However, on July 21, 2024, Biden ultimately ended his re-election campaign and immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him in his place as the presidential nominee. Harris quickly launched her own presidential campaign later that day. On the next day, Harris secured enough non-binding endorsements of the uncommitted delegates that had previously been pledged to Biden to make her the new presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Background This was Biden's fourth presidential campaign, and was his first as the incumbent. His first campaign was in the 1988 Democratic Party presidential primaries. While he was initially considered one of the strongest candidates in that race, a scandal broke soon thereafter when news reports uncovered plagiarism by Biden in law school records and in speeches. This revelation led to his withdrawal from the race in September 1987.
He made a second attempt during the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Like his first presidential bid, Biden failed to garner a sufficient level of endorsements and support. He withdrew from the race after his poor performance in the Iowa caucus on January 3, 2008. He was eventually chosen to be the running mate of the party's nominee Barack Obama. Following the Obama/Biden ticket's victory in the general election, Biden was sworn in as vice president of the United States on January 20, 2009. He ran again as Obama's running mate in 2012 and was re-elected vice president, being sworn in for second term on January 20, 2013, and serving until January 20, 2017.
Biden's third presidential bid came during the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries where he focused his plans as the candidate with the best chance of defeating then-president Donald Trump in the general election. Politico reported in 2018 that Biden had rejected a proposition to commit to serving only one term as president.
In May 2021, Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain indicated the Biden administration was "anticipating a bruising general election matchup" against Donald Trump, who had served as the 45th president of the United States and had been defeated by Biden in the 2020 presidential election, if the latter followed through on a bid to return to the presidency. In November 2021, against a backdrop of declining approval ratings, the Biden White House reiterated Biden's intent to run for reelection. In a March 2022 press conference, when asked about the possibility that Trump could be his opponent in 2024, Biden replied, "I'd be very fortunate if I had that same man running against me".
In a PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll released on April 25, 2023 – the day Biden announced his reelection campaign – his approval rating was just 41%, with a disapproval rating of 50%. Several polls both before and after Biden's campaign announcement showed that most Democrats wanted the party to nominate someone other than Biden for president in the 2024 election.
Campaign
Announcement On April 25, 2023, Biden announced he was running for re-election. It was also announced that Julie Chávez Rodriguez would serve as campaign manager and Quentin Fulks would be principal deputy campaign manager. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Jim Clyburn, Chris Coons, Tammy Duckworth, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Gretchen Whitmer were named national campaign co-chairs. Biden's campaign was launched four years to the day after the start of his 2020 presidential campaign. Politico reported that: "Biden is considering Michael Tyler (the longtime Democratic operative) for the role of communications director in his 2024 campaign".
Biden formally kicked off his reelection campaign on June 17, 2023, at a union rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Social media activity The Biden campaign created an account on Truth Social in October 2023. They announced on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that they had created the account on Truth Social because they found the idea "very funny". Numerous observers characterised this as an exercise by the Biden campaign in trolling Donald Trump.
In May 2024, the Biden campaign posted a listing for a full-time Content and Meme Pages Partner Manager. The job description stated, "In this role, you will initiate and manage day-to-day operations in engaging the internet's top content and meme pages". The Meme Manager will be a first for a presidential campaign.
National advisory board The Biden-Harris 2024 national advisory board consisted of:
Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, California Representative Joyce Beatty of Ohio Representative Ami Bera of California Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey Representative Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania Representative Shontel Brown of Ohio Representative Nikki Budzinski of Illinois Governor John Carney of Delaware Senator Tom Carper of Delaware Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina Representative Diana DeGette of Colorado Mayor Andre Dickens of Atlanta, Georgia Mayor Mike Duggan of Detroit, Michigan Representative Maxwell Frost of Florida Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix, Arizona Representative Sylvia Garcia of Texas Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts County Judge Lina Hidalgo of Texas Governor Kathy Hochul of New York Representative Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania State Senator Shevrin Jones of Florida Representative Ro Khanna of California Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota Governor Ned Lamont of Connecticut Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico Mayor Vi Lyles of Charlotte, North Carolina Representative Jennifer McClellan of Virginia Representative Grace Meng of New York Governor Wes Moore of Maryland Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey Representative Joe Neguse of Colorado Governor Gavin Newsom of California Senator Alex Padilla of California Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California Governor J. B. Pritzker of Illinois Mayor Aftab Pureval of Cincinnati, Ohio Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania County Supervisor Hilda Solis of California Mayor Levar Stoney of Richmond, Virginia Representative Lauren Underwood of Illinois Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
Platform Biden frequently stated his intention to "finish the job" as a campaign theme and political rallying cry. Biden was described as a political moderate and centrist, and during the campaign was seeking to attract moderate Republicans and independents for his 2024 reelection bid.
Abortion access
Biden was described as running on one of the most overtly abortion rights platform of any general election candidate in political history. Biden promised to restore Roe v. Wade if reelected, and criticized court rulings limiting abortion access or restricting the availability of abortion pills.
Democracy
Biden made defending American democracy the cornerstone of his presidential campaign, stating during a speech on January 5, 2024, "the defense, protection and preservation of American democracy will remain, as it has been, the central cause of my presidency." Biden frequently called attention to Trump's former attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election and its culmination in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, widely described as an attempted coup d'étatMultiple media sources:
or self-coup. Trump has claimed that Joe Biden is the "destroyer" and real threat to democracy, and has repeated false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from him, of which there has been no evidence.
Joe Biden framed the 2024 election as a battle for democracy and defending the "soul of America," which echoes Biden's framing of current geopolitics as "the battle between democracy and autocracy." Joe Biden previously cited democracy and "a battle for the soul of our nation" as a key message of his successful 2020 run, and repeatedly touched on the issue of democracy since announcing his candidacy for the 2020 presidential election.
Economy and trade
Biden dubbed his economic policy "Bidenomics" and promised to create middle-class jobs and reject trickle-down economics. For his 2024 reelection campaign, Biden pointed to his previous passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act; all of which are expected to invest $1 to $2 trillion in industrial policy over 10 years. Biden previously passed the American Rescue Plan Act to speed up the economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession.