Biden ends campaign as party pressures mount and polls dim
Portal Politico reports that two factors persuaded Biden to withdraw from the presidential race. The latest internal poll was a crucial factor.
22 July 2024 11:03
Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he had decided to withdraw from the race. According to him, he reached this decision over the past 48 hours after analysing data and polls, which indicated that his victory was largely unattainable.
Politico reports that the latest internal Democratic poll was crucial for Biden. For the first time in two months, the party commissioned surveys in some key states - the so-called swing states, where neither the Democrats nor the Republicans can be sure of victory. The voting results in these states determine the final outcome in the presidential elections.
The data indicated that Biden "not only loses in all six critical 'swing states,' but his support is also decreasing in Virginia and New Mexico", where the Democrats expected to win and did not plan to spend a lot on the campaign. Politico's source claims that the current president "struggled with this decision, but once he decided, he started acting quickly".
Pelosi pressed Biden to resign
According to Politico sources, Biden's advisors were preparing for actions by Nancy Pelosi, who was working on convincing other party members to take decisive steps to persuade the president to end the campaign. She even had a plan to publicize the Democratic poll, which would show Biden's difficult political situation.
"Nancy made it clear that this could be done the easy way or not," says Politico's source - a Democrat familiar with the internal party discussions. Additionally, at least six Democrats planned to call on Biden to resign from the campaign on Monday or Tuesday.
Before announcing his decision on Sunday, Biden spoke many times with Vice President Kamala Harris. As Politico emphasizes, although Harris fares better in polls than other Democrats considered potential candidates, it is hard to say she has an advantage over Donald Trump.
One of the latest CBS News/YouGov polls shows that Trump leads Harris by three points (51 per cent to 48 per cent), while Biden was trailing by five points (52 per cent to 47 per cent).
