Texas delegates will vote on new nominee after Joe Biden withdraws from presidential race

AUSTIN (Texas Tribune) — President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he will not seek reelection this year.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” the Democrat wrote in a letter addressed to the American people. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

Biden’s extraordinary move came after a jumbled debate performance late last month where the president failed to make coherent statements and often confused his points. The debate highlighted growing concerns about his advanced age.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin was the first Democrat in Congress to ask Biden to withdraw from the race. A slow drumbeat of similar calls echoed Doggett for the next two weeks, including a statement from fellow Texan Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth. Other Democrats, including Dallas congressman and Senate nominee Colin Allred, avoided taking a position.

Biden is the first president to withdraw since Lyndon Baines Johnson, who represented Texas for two decades in Congress, announced he would pull out of the 1968 election. President Johnson surprised the nation with his statement at the end of a speech one Sunday evening in March, just days before the Wisconsin primary.

The party will now likely select their next nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month. It will be the first contested convention since 1968, also held in Chicago, and 273 Texas delegates will vote for their pick for the nominee.

Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to be the next nominee.

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” he wrote on social media. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”

The president, losing in many national and battleground state polls, had hoped for a boost of energy during his debate last month, but it instead sent a shockwave of worry through his party. This came just months before Democrats planned to confirm him as the nominee at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Pressure continued to mount as the bloc of pro-withdrawal Democrats grew to more than 30 members of Congress, while congressional leaders more gently prodded the president in private discussions, according to numerous news reports. Still, Biden retained the support of a close circle of advisers and a larger group of steadfast supporters in Congress that included eight Texas Democrats.

The presidential race was thrown into yet more chaos when a gunman shot at former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The incident, being investigated as an attempted assassination, drew outrage from Texas Republicans and forced Biden to postpone a campaign stop to Austin. The horror of political violence gave rise to rallying cries of unity at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Biden’s polling, already under water in most battleground states, slipped further. Democrats fretted that the attempted assassination would lock in a Trump victory.

Harris has polled slightly better against Trump, though one poll in Texas found that Harris was slightly more unpopular than Biden in the state.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at www.texastribune.org. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans - and engages with them - about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.