As the year 2024 comes to a close, the deadline to vote in the national election approaches. One of the most unprecedented elements of the current election is President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. While it is not out of the ordinary for an incumbent president to choose not to seek reelection, dropping out while actively campaigning is an extremely rare decision for a sitting president to make. In fact, an incumbent president has never dropped out this close to an election.
The closest events the United States has ever experienced to this were when President Harry Truman withdrew before the 1952 election and when President Lyndon Johnson withdrew before the 1968 election. Both of these presidents had served a full term following the death of the previous president. However, they both dropped out of the race due to poor performance in the primaries.
President Biden’s dropping out of the presidential race has completely changed the landscape of this election, with his Vice President, Kamala Harris, being endorsed as the new Democratic presidential candidate. With President Biden announcing his withdrawal from the race on July 21, less than four months before the election, Vice President Harris has been given little time to adapt to her newfound reality of being a presidential candidate.
Since becoming the new presidential candidate, Vice President Harris has had one debate with the republican nominee, President Donald Trump. Polls about the debates between President Biden and President Trump showed that President Trump was winning, according to the vast majority of people. However, polls about the debate between Vice President Harris and President Trump show that the general populous believes that Vice President Harris did much better than President Trump in the debate.
While concerns were being raised about Vice President Harris having so little time to prepare for a presidential race against President Trump, polls indicate that she is doing a significantly better job than President Biden in the race. Despite her improved performance compared to President Biden, polls are split virtually down the middle in her comparison to President Trump.
A huge contributing factor to Vice President Harris’ polling success against President Trump is her appeal to young voters, which is categorized as voters between 18 and 29. Both President Biden and President Trump were seen as having no favor in the eyes of young voters. However, Vice President Harris has spent much of her campaign appealing to younger audiences, and she currently leads Trump by 32 points among this demographic.
President Biden’s dropping out of the presidential race has left Vice President Harris to scramble to garner support of her own. With the little time she was given before the election, she has created a robust audience of supporters. Despite her efforts, she does not have any significant lead on President Trump in the polls. With polls so close as the election quickly approaches, either candidate could become the sitting president come Jan. 20.