President Joe Biden has decided to seek a second term, announcing his 2024 reelection campaign and ending months of speculation about his future.
Biden, 80, is already the oldest commander in chief after former President Ronald Reagan departed the White House in 1989 at the age of 77. He rolled out his bid with a prerecorded video on the anniversary of his 2020 launch before addressing union members in Washington, D.C.
Biden’s announcement coincides with his average 43%-54% approval-disapproval rating and polling that suggests voters, including Democrats, would prefer another nominee. An NBC News poll published last weekend, for example, found 26% of the public supported Biden running again, while 70% did not. A majority of Democrats similarly told pollsters the president should not be a candidate.
Biden’s second campaign will be managed by top White House aide Julie Chavez Rodriguez and headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, with wealthy donors gathering in Washington on Friday. The president was expected to announce after his State of the Union speech in February, but the April date provides him with the opportunity to raise more money before the next Federal Election Commission deadline.
Biden could have faced a primary challenge before Democrats outperformed expectations in the 2022 midterm cycle, holding onto their Senate majority and keeping the House Republican majority to four seats. The announcement, made amid South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s state visit, also creates a splitscreen with former President Donald Trump, whose civil damages trial against one-time Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll starts Tuesday.
Biden has repeatedly indicated it is his “intention” to seek a second term after he previously ran in 1987 and 2007, but had expressed his desire to discuss the prospect with his family last holidays.
“That’s been our intention, regardless of what the outcome of this election was,” he told reporters during a post-2022 White House press conference. “I’m a great respecter of fate. And this is, ultimately, a family decision. I think everybody wants me to run, but we’re going to have discussions about it. And I don’t feel any hurry one way or another to make that judgment today, tomorrow, whenever, no matter what my predecessor does.”
Biden added: “My guess is it would be early next year we make that judgment.”
Trump announced his own reelection campaign last November but has encountered a series of setbacks, such as the Trump Organization being found guilty of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records amid state and federal investigations into his handling of classified information to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump was additionally indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg last month for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up extramarital affairs before the last contest.
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