Joe Biden’s disastrous defeat in last month’s debate with Donald Trump was a low point for the US president, signalling the beginning of the end of his bid for reelection. Trump was officially nominated as the Republican candidate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week, meaning Biden is now out of the race.
So who are the top Democratic candidates now to challenge Trump?
Biden won the Democratic primary earlier this year but cannot officially become the party’s presidential nominee until he is endorsed at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Chicago from Aug. 19 to 22. And then, a month before that, it all fell apart.
There is no formal mechanism for Biden to replace him as the presumptive nominee, the first time such a move has been made by a U.S. political party in modern times. Biden will ultimately step down of his own volition and will want to ensure a smooth process for choosing his successor. But that won’t be easy, and the path forward is uncertain.
Following his announcement on Sunday afternoon that he would remain in the White House as president but step aside from the re-election campaign, Biden said he would now endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination.
She is the first female vice president of the United States, and if she is officially nominated at the party convention in November and defeats Trump, she will become the first female president of the United States. Following Biden, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton also recommended Harris for vice president, issuing a “Statement by President Clinton and Secretary of State Clinton.”
Hillary Clinton nearly broke what she called the “highest and most solid glass ceiling” and became the first woman president of the United States, and the first woman ever to be nominated by both major parties. But she failed to win for Democrats and women in the 2016 presidential election, and the Republicans won a shock victory over Trump.
Biden’s endorsement of Harris will have influence among delegates at the convention, but is not binding.
The Chicago convention was meant to be a tightly choreographed, formal event for the Biden-Harris campaign, but now things are up in the air.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement that the party would “conduct a transparent and orderly process” to select “a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump in November.”
So who is the most likely Democratic candidate to run for the White House in November?
Kamala Harris
Biden’s vice president was always the most logical choice, as the person already serving as acting commander in chief. But Harris is the clear front-runner for the nomination. But she has been widely criticized for not making her role in a Biden administration clearer, she is polling poorly and will likely struggle to take on Donald Trump in the heat of the election. The 59-year-old Harris endorsed Biden after the debate. His support has since faded, and now the spotlight is on Harris.
Top Democrats — House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — reportedly privately agreed with dozens of lawmakers who had publicly called on Biden to drop out of the race. That number grew over the weekend, until Biden finally complied. But few were clear on Sunday about who Biden would replace.
Harris was selected as Biden’s running mate when she was a senator from California, and served as the state’s attorney general and a district attorney based in San Francisco. She failed to advance to the primaries in the 2020 presidential nomination election. As vice president, she was tasked with difficult issues, including immigration issues, but she has firmly established a foothold in the defense of reproductive rights following the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
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JB Pritzker
The 59-year-old Illinois governor would be one of the richest candidates and could tout her record of passing abortion rights and declaring Illinois a “sanctuary state” for women seeking abortions. She’s also a strong advocate of gun control and has legalized recreational marijuana.
Gretchen Whitmer
The 52-year-old Michigan governor was a finalist for Biden’s running mate in 2020 and has credited her performance as governor to the Democratic Party’s strong performance in the midterm elections. She has supported stricter gun control, an end to abortion bans and universal preschool education.
Josh Shapiro
Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor had been an up-and-coming politician in the key battleground state for years, but rose to national prominence in the fall of 2022 when he won the gubernatorial election, defeating a radical pro-Trump Republican as state attorney general. His name has been in the headlines recently, and since Biden left office, Shapiro has been seen as a leading contender to be her running mate if Harris wins the nomination, said Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University in south-central Pennsylvania. He told USA Today Media Network Shapiro is attracting attention because he is savvy, tech-savvy and a proven winner in the battleground states with the most electoral votes.
Joe Manchin
Center-right West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has been considering running for the Democratic nomination for years. He has served in the Senate since 2010 and is also chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He has worked hard to build up his base in West Virginia but has also been an outspoken critic of the Democratic Party. Facing a tough reelection race, Manchin announced last year that he would not seek another term in the U.S. Senate, and in May he left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent. Reports surfaced Sunday that he is considering re-registering as a Democrat and challenging Harris.
