Joe Biden 2024 presidential campaign

Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, announced his candidacy for re-election for a second presidential term on April 25, 2023, confirming that Vice President Kamala Harris would remain as his running mate. After winning the Democratic primaries, he faced off against the Republican Party ticket of 45th president Donald Trump and junior U.S. Senator for Ohio JD Vance. Biden ultimately withdrew from the race on July 21, 2024 due to concerns about his health and age, and low polling and approval numbers; he immediately endorsed Harris to replace him as the party's presidential nominee, who went on to lose the general election to Trump.

Biden made protecting American democracy a central focus of his campaign, along with restoring the federal right to abortion following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade. He also intended to increase funding for border patrol and security, and increase funding for law enforcement coupled with police reform. Biden promised to support, protect and expand LGBT rights and frequently touted his previous passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act's landmark investment to combat climate change.

Biden made strengthening U.S. alliances a key goal of his foreign policy and promised to continue supporting Ukraine following the Russian invasion of the country and Israel following their Gaza war, describing them as "vital" to U.S. national security interests. Biden promised to continue efforts to tackle gun violence and defend the Affordable Care Act following comments from Trump suggesting he would repeal the law. He proposed increasing taxes on the wealthy through a "billionaire minimum income tax" to reduce the deficit and fund social services for the poor. Biden's trade policy was described as rejecting traditional neoliberal economic policy and the Washington Consensus that resulted in the offshoring of manufacturing and populist backlash. It included targeted tariffs against strategic Chinese industries to protect manufacturing jobs and counter China's technological and military ambitions.

On March 12, 2024, Biden became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party after clinching enough delegates in Georgia, and easily defeating his primary challengers such as Representative Dean Phillips. The first presidential debate was held on June 27, 2024, between Biden and Trump. Biden's performance was widely criticized, with commentators saying that he frequently lost his train of thought and gave meandering answers. Several newspaper columnists declared Trump the winner of the debate, which was supported by polling results. After the debate, concerns about his health intensified, and Biden faced many calls to withdraw from the race, including from fellow Democrats and the editorial boards of several major news outlets.

Biden initially refused calls to drop out from the race and insisted that he would remain a candidate. However, on July 21, 2024, Biden ultimately ended his re-election campaign and immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him in his place as the presidential nominee. Harris quickly launched her own presidential campaign later that day. By the next day, Harris had secured the non-binding support of enough uncommitted delegates that were previously pledged to Biden to make her the party's presumptive nominee.