JANE AGIRTAN INDEPENDENT

After weeks of fighting for his political life – insisting he wasn’t going anywhere following a disastrous debate performance – the president did not come in an Oval Office address or a speech on the campaign trail. Instead, it came in letter posted to social media as he recovered from Covid-19 at his beach house in Delaware.

It was a low-key way to reveal one of the most historic decisions in modern American politics, but time was not on Biden’s side to reach a decision. Never before has a president left a reelection race this close to Election Day – and for 24 days it seemed as if he were stubbornly planning to ride out the storm that followed the June 27 CNN debate in Atlanta.

He spent the three weeks after the debate repeating that he was staying in the race against former President Donald Trump. The president dug in. His inner circle shrank to his closest aides and family. He was forced to retreat to Delaware, where he reached a decision in the last day and a half, finally conceding that a man loyal to the Democratic Party for more than half a century was seen as a drag on the ticket.

The Democratic online fundraising platform ActBlue says it raised $27.5 million in small-dollar donations in the five hours after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

CNN has previously reported that some donors – fearing a Republican rout in November should Biden remain atop the ticket – were withholding contributions or putting fundraising events on hold as the president faced pressure from some Democrats to exit the race.

Remember: With Biden dropping out of the race, the Democrats will need to choose a new nominee, without the typical series of primaries and caucuses.

That decision will ultimately be made by the roughly 4,700 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Either during a virtual roll call, which is tentatively planned for early August, or at the convention in Chicago beginning August 19, these delegates will select any eligible candidate to be the party’s nominee. 

Now that Biden is no longer a candidate, his delegates are free to vote for whomever they’d like. A major effort is already underway to consolidate support for Harris, who was endorsed today by Biden.

The US futures market edged up slightly Sunday after President Joe Biden announced he would step down as the Democratic nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 added 0.2%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq futures gained 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively.

“We expect a muted stock market reaction from President Biden’s resignation from the presidential race, as it was widely expected,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO at Infrastructure Capital Advisors, in a note Sunday evening.