Answers to your questions about Biden’s decision to suspend his re-election

CNN
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President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he will not run for re-election in 2024 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate.

But the 81-year-old’s decision – just 100 days before the election – raises numerous other questions about what will happen for the rest of his term in office and for the presidential election campaign.

Is Biden still president?

Yes. Biden’s announcement related only to his role as the Democratic nominee in the November presidential election. It has no bearing on his current role or term as president, which he has said he intends to complete. Biden will remain president until his successor is sworn in on January 20, 2025.

Announcing his decision, Biden wrote: “While it was my intention to run for re-election, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and the country that I step down and focus exclusively on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

Despite Biden’s statement, some Republicans are pushing for him to resign immediately. Notable lawmakers questioning Biden’s ability to serve as president and calling for his resignation include House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Republican Caucus Leader Elise Stefanik and the chairman of the Republican campaign arm in the Senate, Sen. Steve Daines of Montana.

But here too, as of Sunday evening, there was no indication that Biden intends to resign early.

Biden endorsed Harris. Does that make her the Democratic candidate?

No. After his announcement, Biden endorsed his Vice President Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate.

In her first public statement since Biden’s surprise announcement, Harris said she was “honored” by Biden’s endorsement and intends to “earn and win” the presidential nomination.

A number of prominent Democrats immediately endorsed Harris, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who ran for president in 2020; leading progressive House member Pramila Jayapal of Washington; and Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, co-chair of the Biden campaign. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro also endorsed Harris, as did the entire Tennessee delegation to the DNC.

But none of this automatically makes her a candidate.

How will the Democratic candidate be chosen and who will it be?

CNN’s Zachary Wolf and Ethan Cohen have outlined how the complex process of replacing Biden is likely to play out now that he is no longer the Democratic nominee.

Individual delegates will now choose the party’s nominee during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month — or possibly during a virtual roll call vote. But because Biden won nearly all of the delegates during the primary process, they were endorsed by the Biden campaign and committed to voting for the president. That means that while delegates can vote however they want, it will largely be Biden’s supporters who choose the nominee.

But that doesn’t mean a candidate not supported by Biden couldn’t try to win the nomination. Some Democrats are calling for an “open process” to replace Biden, with other candidates entering the race alongside Harris.

According to party rules, candidates must meet certain requirements to be nominated, including collecting hundreds of signatures from delegates from multiple states, being a “true Democrat” and having “demonstrated substantial support for their nomination as the Democratic candidate.”

While this decision must be made by the DNC’s national chairman, the party has not yet released any further details on how the process will work.

Who could be the new candidate if not Harris?

Although Harris received Biden’s endorsement, the names of numerous prominent Democratic lawmakers have been unofficially floated as alternatives who could run against her for the party’s nomination. However, most of those individuals have neither announced nor otherwise signaled that they intend to compete for the role.

On Sunday evening, however, sources close to Senator Joe Manchin, the independent from West Virginia, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Manchin was considering re-registering as a Democrat and throwing his hat in the ring. Manchin had urged Biden to drop out of the race on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning.

How is the new presidential candidate’s vice presidential candidate selected?

The Democratic Party chooses a vice presidential candidate in much the same way as it chooses the president, although there is usually no full ballot. In practice, whoever the presidential candidate chooses as his or her running mate is usually accepted by the delegates.

What happens to the money raised for Biden’s re-election?

Biden’s re-election efforts had raised a total of $240 million at the end of June. These funds are divided between the DNC, allied committees and Biden’s campaign committee itself. The latter alone had $95.9 million at the end of last month, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.

Many campaign finance experts believe that if Harris is nominated, any money remaining in the campaign’s bank accounts would go to her political activities since she is already on the ballot.

However, some Republican lawyers disagree, arguing that under some interpretations, Biden and Harris would first have to be officially nominated by their party before funds could be transferred.

“If President Biden wants to pass the baton to his vice president and support her campaign with the current Biden presidential campaign war chest, he must first become his party’s legal nominee,” veteran Republican election lawyer Charlie Spies wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.

If Harris is not nominated, the Biden-Harris campaign could transfer the entire pot to the Democratic National Committee, according to the FEC. The committee would then have the authority to financially support another prominent Democratic candidate and distribute the money to candidates further down the ballot and to their allied committees. If the DNC chooses this route, the FEC would impose restrictions on spending and donations.

Another option is for the campaign to transform itself into a political action committee and spend Biden’s funds on independent expenditures, such as advertising campaigns for a new presidential candidate. However, the committee would not be allowed to coordinate these spending activities with any of the candidates it supports.

Has this ever happened before?

While no U.S. president has ever been forced out of a re-election campaign due to questions about his mental health, it is not an isolated case of an incumbent president giving up his re-election campaign – but it is rare.

This is the first time in decades that a one-term U.S. president has dropped out of a re-election bid. It is reminiscent of the decisions of former Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry S. Truman not to run for a full second term in 1968 and 1952, respectively. Biden’s decision, notably, comes months closer to Election Day and is the most recent such decision in history.

At least five other former presidents have also rejected the possibility of a second full term.

CNN’s David Wright, Zachary B. Wolf, Ethan Cohen, Fredreka Schouten and Alex Leeds Matthews contributed to this report.