Joe Biden’s historic decision: What it means for Democrats, Republicans

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Whatever the process is for choosing a new Democratic presidential candidate will have to happen quickly in the wake of President Joe Biden’s stunning Sunday announcement he is ending his reelection bid.

“The Democratic National Convention is right around the corner,” said Dr. Ben Taylor, professor of political science at Kennesaw State University. “We had the (Democratic) primaries to pledge delegates. Now those delegates will be released.”

“In the coming days, the party will undertake a transparent and orderly process to move forward,” Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jaime Harrison said Monday. “This process will be governed by established rules and procedures of the party. Our delegates are prepared to take seriously their responsibility in swiftly delivering a candidate to the American people.”

The comment reflected the reality that while Vice President Kamala Harris is emerging as the prohibitive favorite to become the party’s nominee — backed already by Biden and many Democrats — it’s not so simple. And, for now, the party isn’t offering many details on what happens next.

Some DNC members, according to the Associated Press, had already begun privately discussing contingency plans for the possibility that Biden would step aside prior to his decision to formally do so on Sunday, and a committee setting the party’s rules for the Democratic National Convention, which opens Aug. 19 in Chicago, will gather virtually on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the next steps.

Taylor said the possibility of an open Democratic National Convention would allow the party’s process to be opened up, thus giving the delegates the ability “to vote their conscience.”

Even though Harris ran with Biden, the delegates don’t belong to her; she has to earn them, which she has pledged to do. But what does belong to her is the massive, multi-million-dollar war chest amassed by the former Biden-Harris campaign. That gives her an obvious advantage over other potential nominees because the DNC wouldn’t have to start from scratch in terms of fundraising.

But many Georgia delegates seem poised to throw their support behind Harris.

“Oh absolutely, we are all the way in behind our vice president,” said Georgia delegate Seth Taylor. “We are in the process of pledging all our delegates and I don’t think we should have any dissent here.”

Delegates from around the U.S. will get their chance to pledge their support at August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago — possibly before with a virtual roll call.

For many of them, Harris is the natural successor to their support with Biden exiting the race.

“The fact that he picked her as his vice president in the first place, I mean, that established her as somebody ready to step into the job if needed,” said Amin Ghoneim, another Georgia delegate. “As very much a Biden loyalist for several years now, I think it’s the right decision to support who the voters of Georgia supported for the nomination. He should get a say in how I vote since I was pledged to him.”

For Republicans, Biden’s withdrawal and a looming Harris presidential candidacy means Donald Trump’s campaign “will have to go back to the drawing board,” Taylor said.

“Many of the critiques of President Biden do not work on Vice President Harris,” he said. “They can’t hammer the issue of age anymore.”

Biden’s withdrawal didn’t surprise Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon, who nonetheless said “millions of voters, in my view, were essentially conned during the Democratic primary process.

“Regardless of who the new candidate is, they’re going to own this record on inflation and the economy,” McKoon said. “They’re going to own the record of allowing fentanyl to stream into this country. President Trump enjoys such strong advantages in polling on who leads best on those issues.”

McKoon, like many other Republicans, are calling on Biden to resign as well.

“If he’s not fit to run this race to serve four more years, he’s not fit to serve another single day,” he said.

>> WATCH ANF+: Here’s what’s next for the 2024 presidential race after Biden ends campaign

Full coverage of President Joe Biden's exit from 2024 race

McKoon’s Democratic counterpart, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Georgia), said, “Our work has not changed, and our goal has not changed and we have been clear about that since way before the debate even happened; that this election is not about one person, it’s about the issues. It’s about delivering for Georgians.”

Williams, who chairs Georgia’s Democrat Party and who endorsed Harris on Sunday, said “elected officials are coming out overwhelmingly in support of our very able and very qualified Vice President Harris as our Democratic nominee.

“Voters in Georgia choose a ticket,” Harris said. “They voted for Joe Biden and they voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and they knew that Vice President Harris was on the ticket with our president.”

Williams said Georgia will continue to be a battleground state in the election, and “Harris has been to our state more times than I can count on both hands since she’s been elected. She’s no stranger to the voters in Georgia; she’s been before our voters, she has been doing the work as a part of the Biden-Harris administration so, she’s not having to introduce herself to our delegates, she’s not having to tell us what she stands for and where she is on these issues.”

Biden ended his reelection bid despite a recent letter from several state Democratic party chairs, including Williams, urging him to stay in the race.

Despite repeated public statements he intended to stay in the race after his disastrous Atlanta debate performance — at least, for Democrats — Biden eventually bowed to a cascading series of calls for him to end his reelection bid.

During the Atlanta debate, Biden often appeared confused and disoriented and had trouble completing thoughts and sentences.

The following weeks saw Biden hold a major news conference; conduct two national network interviews and several others; make a national TV appearance after an attempted assassination against Trump and go into self-isolation after a COVID-19 diagnosis.

2024 presidential election even more historic than it already was

Biden is the first sitting president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 to end his reelection bid, and the first in U.S. history to end his reelection campaign after winning virtually all of his party’s primaries.

Had Biden stayed in the race, he and Trump would have been the first two presidential candidates to have faced each other in consecutive elections since 1956, when GOP President Dwight D. Eisenhower again defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson in a repeat of the 1952 election.

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