Vice President Kamala Harris would be first in line to inherit Joe Biden’s $240 million dollar campaign war chest after he offered his “full support and endorsement” for her as the Democratic nominee, although polls show she would be in a tight race against Donald Trump.
Mr Biden’s decision to drop out comes after weeks of speculation over the 81-year-old leader’s future as he came under increasing pressure from top Democrats to step down amid concerns over his age and mental fitness.
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Mr Biden wrote in a letter posted on Sunday.
“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 Trump. Let’s do this.”
Ms Harris said she was “honored to have the President’s endorsement”. She also launched a fundraising bid, saying: “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. If you’re with me, add a donation right now.”
Bill and Hillary Clinton also said they were honoured to “join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and will do whatever we can to support her.”
Former President Barack Obama thanked Joe Biden but stopped short of endorsing Ms Harris, saying: “Joe has never backed down from a fight. For him to look at the political landscape and decide that he should pass the torch to a new nominee is surely one of the toughest in his life. But I know he wouldn’t make this decision unless he believed it was right for America.”
The scenario of what would happen to campaign funds should Mr Biden drop out has been previously discussed between campaign aids and donors.
Mr Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in early July that Ms Harris would then control most of the money in their campaign account, which amounted to $91.2 million as of May 31. Funds from other Democratic campaign committees take the total funds at his disposal to more than $240 million, The Associated Press reports.
Campaign finance law states that a campaign committee designated by a presidential candidate can be used by the party’s vice presidential candidate. However if Democrats nominate someone other than Ms Harris, party accounts would still benefit the nominee but the Biden-Harris funds would be restricted.
“This has this unique twist to it with Harris still being a part of the campaign and being considered part of the campaign from the get-go,” Kenneth Gross, a senior political law counsel at Akin Gump and former associate general counsel for the Federal Election Commission told NBC News.
“Both candidates are on the account,” Mr Gross told NBC. “And I would think that she would be able to use the money if she is running for president. She would be the only one that could do that.”
Ms Harris has remained loyal to Mr Biden in public, however has been increasingly spoken about publicly and privately as having a better chance of beating Republican nominee Donald Trump in the November election.
Behind the scenes, her allies have been privately gaming out what her presidential candidacy would look like, with state governors Roy Cooper, Andy Beshear and Josh Shapiro under discussion as potential vice president picks, The New York Times reported. Allies have also worked to flesh out her political biography to include domestic and foreign policy issues, covered in a series of talking points, Politico reported.
A week ago Ms Harris’ supporter told US media they had already created the United for Harris campaign, make up of activists including some who previously backed Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
“We just want to put it out there that there are folks who are wanting to rally around the vice president, should Joe Biden step aside,” said Matt Ortega last week. The Democratic digital strategist said: “The idea is to give some people out there who want Harris to be at the top of the ticket a focal point.”
Yet polls show she would be in a tight race with Donald Trump, with a recent poll for NPR showing she narrowly led Trump 50 per cent to 49 per cent in a head-to-head match up for the presidency.
A separate poll this week from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Democrats believe Kamala Harris would make a good President. Around two in 10 Democrats didn’t believe she would while another 2 in 10 said they don’t know enough to say.
Black voters in the US – a key contingent of Democratic support – are more likely to believe Ms Harris would do well, the poll showed. But Americans overall are more sceptical of how she would perform, with around 3 in 10 people saying Ms Harris would do well as President. About half say Ms Harris would not do a good job in the role, and 2 in 10 say they don’t know enough to say.
Oakley Graham, a Democrat in Greenwood, Missouri, said while he is “pretty happy” with Mr Biden’s accomplishments in office, he would be more excited to support Ms Harris as it was “about time” a woman becomes president.
“I know he’s got unfinished business,” Mr Graham, 30, said of Biden. “But it would be nice to see a person of color, a woman, somebody younger to step up and to lead that charge. I would hope that that would inspire a younger generation to be more engaged.”
Shannon Bailey, a Democrat who lives in Tampa, praised Mr Biden’s accomplishments but thought Ms Harris was more “capable of handling the taxing nature of the job.”
“It’s not just the physical stamina part, but also the cognitive reasoning part right now,” said Ms Bailey, 34. “It’s important to be able to concisely and persuasively get the message across that is the Democratic platform right now.”
“I think she would be a very strong advocate for abortion, has been and would continue to be,” said Thomas Mattman, a Democrat from Chico, California. “The Republicans have gone with white men as their ticket, and both of them have said some pretty specific things about being opposed to abortion so I think that would be a very strong argument.”
Mr Mattman, 59, said he believes Mr Biden will not be able to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump – a prospect that leaves him “very distraught.” Ms Harris would be a much more effective candidate because Mr Biden is unable to “put pressure” on his opponent and exploit his weaknesses, Mr Mattman said.
Who is Kamala Harris?
Ms Harris is a former California Attorney General and the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants to the US. She is the first woman and first woman of colour to serve in the Vice President role, and would make history again as the Democratic nominee for the presidential race.
Her legal experience and record of campaigning on reproductive rights following the Supreme Court Decision on Roe vs Wade is seen as an asset by Democrats. She is also one of a handful of potential Democratic candidates with a national profile and would be first in line to inherit Joe Biden’s campaign war-chest. At 59, she is younger than Mr Biden and Trump, though Trump has partially offset concerns about his age with the choice of 39-year-old JD Vance as his running mate for Vice President.
Critics of Ms Harris say she is not necessarily the best pick to beat President Trump, pointing to her handling of the crisis on the US southern border. She is also associated by some with the left wing of the Democratic party and has been described as “tough” to raise money for by Democratic fundraisers.
Yet others believe her poll numbers could improve with greater exposure, including national level debate. One Democratic campaign volunteer told i: “If she got out there and smashed some debates, did some press, I think people would see she’s strong, she’s charismatic, she’s engaging and she can of course run with a record. She can say she has worked with Biden and say ‘it’s broken my heart that we have to do this’.”
Democrats will hope the decision to appoint her will stop the drip of negative press that the campaigner feared was a “political deathbed” for their party that was proving impossible to turn around.
Meanwhile on social media, a “KHive” of fans has been sharing quotes and clips Ms Harris with a reference to coconuts or saying they have been “coconut-pilled”. Pilled is internet slang describing an awakening or subscribing to an idea. Coconut is a reference to a May 2023 speech Ms Harris gave at the White House when she said her mother used to say to her: “I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
US political experts previously told i keeping Mr Biden was an increasingly “risky” proposition that could have seen Democrats punished at the ballot box.
Right-wing media in the US have already stepped up attacks on the Vice President, with Fox Business Network’s Charles Gasparino referring to her as a “DEI” candidate – in reference to diversity, equity and inclusion – which he claimed had a “stranglehold” on the Democratic Party. Trump also attacked her performance before the assassination attempt against him, sarcastically implying her status as VP was Mr Biden’s “one brilliant decision”.
“It was an insurance policy, maybe the best insurance policy I’ve ever seen,” Trump said. “If Joe had picked someone even halfway competent, they would have bounced him from office years ago.”